Kits w/Nottingham

I have a packet that I bought as a backup for my last batch. I was looking at kits that have Nottingham as a recommended dry yeast for a future brew. Anyone brew a kit with Nottingham lately?

Notty is a very clean and versatile yeast. You can use it for just about any English or American style recipe with great results. Otherwise just keep it on hand as a backup, just in case another yeast doesn’t do a good job. It will keep for a couple of years in your refrigerator.

I used it in my bourbon barrel porter and thought it gave it a nice flavor. The final gravity didn’t go as low as I expected but the beer came out well. I’m fermenting two porters now one with Notty and one with S-04 to compare. I’ll let you know in a couple weeks.

It wasn’t recently, but I brewed NB kits for Irish red, and the White House honey porter with Notty. Both extract and both pretty early in my brewing life, before temp control. The porter was my first brew that was sampled by someone outside my house. It was very well received.

I recently did a baltic porter with Notty - it didn’t finish quite as low as expected but still tasted great (suspect it was due to underpitch on my part though).

I’ve also got an english barleywine on deck that I’m planning on using Notty in as well.

Just an update. I brewed two porters side by side . After two weeks the knotty seems to be about finished at 71% attenuation so far. The s-04 doesn’t seem to be done yet at 68% so it may get there also. I’ll check again at three weeks. The take away is I expect similar results from these two yeast so you would be fine using knotty in any kits that called for S-04. I only used the 04 once before in a brown ale and I seem to remember it took its time as well.

By the way obviously you will get better attenuation from these yeasts if you mash at a lower temp than you do for a porter.

As a bit of a follow up, I brewed the baltic porter with Notty and it was at 1.022 when I transferred it into my whiskey barrel. Four weeks later and it dropped to 1.012 (81% apparent attenuation). Although it may have chewed on residual sugars in the barrel to keep working, it seems like a little extra time on the yeast helps beers with Notty attenuate.

As a bit of a follow up, I brewed the baltic porter with Notty and it was at 1.022 when I transferred it into my whiskey barrel. Four weeks later and it dropped to 1.012 (81% apparent attenuation). Although it may have chewed on residual sugars in the barrel to keep working, it seems like a little extra time on the yeast helps beers with Notty attenuate.[/quote]

What was your mash temp? I fermented a porter for over a month and only got .018. I bottled it and it ended a little over carved. I thought I added to much bottling sugar. Now you have me wondering.

Sorry for not mentioning this sooner, this was an extract 10 gallon batch

  • OG = 1.066 (split the batch into two carboys and pitched one packet of notty rehydrated into each)
  • After four weeks, gravity at 1.022 and transferred into my whiskey barrel (~61% attenuation at this point)
  • Another four weeks later and FG = 1.012
  • Bottled and primed this batch to 2.1 volume carbonation which is a little low for the style (only bottled a week ago so probably won’t sample for 2 to 3 more weeks)

I don’t recall the vols I calculated but it was on the higher end which was my mistake. I was thinking to go low on the next batch. I like my porters with low carbonation also so I don’t no why I went high. Gun shy I guess.