It is only the 2nd time I have brewed with it, so I have by no means mastered it. If anybody else has had experience of it then please add to the thread.
WLP800 is a Pilsner Urquell strain of lager yeast see here for the White Labs web page.
My first encounter with it was quite volatile. I was perparing the "starter" process, came to uncap it and half of the contents erupted all over the worktop. Not best pleased
. I am trying to increase the population and half of them decide to be lemmings and jump off the cliff!Nevermind, I will probably just need to do an extra step in the starter process to get a good enough pitchable quantity.
The good news is that brew went on to complete without any huge problems.
I washed and stored the yeast for further use as I always tend do.
Approximately 3 months later I decide to try another brew with this strain. As the washed yeast has been stored for a long time I decided to use a starter again to check viability.
So approx 200 ml of almost solid slurry goes into 1L 1.040 DME in a 2L conical flask on the stir plate. I cannot temp control this (unfortunately) so it is "breeding" at room temp.
When I came back home from visitng family (approx. 5 or so hours later) half of this population had become lemmings too. Yep, It had erupted out of the flask all over the worktop again, never mind I thought, I am used to doing extra steps in the starter process!
For this brew I pitched the starter & wort at approx 5-6C, placed in the fridge and set the temp for 8C. OG was 1.044 and after 2 weeks it had come down to 1.030. Moving along nicely. I then decided to raise the temp to 11C as it was between 1/3rd and half way complete. I checked the gravity again after 1 more week and it had come down to 1.014. This is great I thought, everything is going as planned. Time for a Diacetyl rest maybe? Probably doesnt need one but it is nearly finished what the hell, so I set the temp to 13.5 C (I don't want to go too high I am not that much of a rebel), anyway I checked the fermenter after just one day at 13.5C and this is what I saw...
I have no idea what the FG will be and it is said to attenuate low (72-77%), but I didnt expect that much more activity! It had blown the lid off the fermenter even with that much headspace
If anybody is thinking of using this yeast it is quite a weird strain. If you look at the pic you would think it was an ale yeast, however, it is a top fermenting lager yeast.
It should come with a warning like the Gremlins did, do not feed it whilst warm, at midnight etc!
