Trouble with Cone to Cone Transfers with London III

[DorchesterQC]

Hi there,
We reuse all of our yeast via cone to cone transfers. We've had success for years this way. We were largely using Chico yeast.

More recently we've been brewing more and more with London III and those transfers are not going well. It seems like as soon as you get a consistent flow of yeast it turns to beer.

We are generally harvesting about 1 week after pitching.

Any ideas why this strain specifically is giving is trouble?

[dick murton]

Looking at the Beer Maverick website, it reckons this is Boddingtons yeast. I don't think Bods ever used it as it is virtually non flocculant - hence your cropping problems. They produced clear beer with use of finings for final clarity, but had good top crops. The best way would be to use a centrifuge for re-pitching, which is why I doubt if Bods ever used it - they didn't have a centrifuge. You may have better results if you try top cropping, which of course is a problem with many, probably most conicals.

If I am wrong, and it was the yeast they used, then I do know it required high levels of oxygen as they used to aerate on wort transfer and then rouse the open FVs. The level of wort oxygenation will affect the flocculation characteristics. Low calcium levels or high cropping temperatures may also be adversely affecting the flocculation. You could try cropping after crash cooling to plus 1 deg C (34 F) to maximise flocculation. However, I think the main reason is simply it being a non, or virtually non flocculant yeast.