Somerset Golden Ale

[Goulders]

They say 300ml for a starter, but in a trial a number of us did for Brewlab they recommended 1l starter for a 23l brew. It may be that our slants had less yeast. I've used 300ml starters for slants without issue before though.

[Clibit]

Thanks. Thats really helpful. I rarely make 23 litres but I got the sense that the 300ml starter would have romped through 23 litres. Just a hunch.

[Clibit]

Just bottled this, and looking forward to it cos it tastes pretty good already. I've recovered some slurry for future use.

[Clibit]

First taster. Very cloudy, as is the brew I just kegged with the same yeast, Brewlab Somerset 1. It tastes lovely though, fruity English esters, the bitterness is just right, I like everything about this except the appearance.

Any suggestions as to how to handle this yeast to get a less cloudy finish?

Edit: For Seymour's benefit, the yeast traits stood up very well, The hops are not dominant, the yeast is, if anything, but it is pretty balanced all round between hops, malt and yeast. The yeast has a strong presence though, probably the defining feature. It reminds me of the brews I did last year with Wyeast 1469. Similar, but not the same.

[Clibit]

Just drinking a bottle of this and it's really lovely. All English ingredients and very hard to beat. It's s great hop combination, and there's a great balance between hops, malts and yeast. This yeast is really tasty, I hope I can work out how to get a clear pint from it.

[seymour]

Sounds like a fantastic pint, nice work! Clarity is overrated. If you got it as clear as you want, you'll have stripped away that yummy yeasty essence.

[Clibit]

Sounds like a fantastic pint, nice work! Clarity is overrated. If you got it as clear as you want, you'll have stripped away that yummy yeasty essence.

That's true, and I'm not really fussy about clarity. It's just pretty turbid. The yeast flavour is really good though, shut your eyes and it's great beer!

[orlando]

Any suggestions as to how to handle this yeast to get a less cloudy finish?

Plenty, but would need to know more about what you did to suggest what else you could do. e.g did you use kettle finings and did you use finings after fermentation?

[Clibit]

Used kettle finings but not finings after fermentation.

[alexlark]

I used gelatin in my last brew. Close to star bright in a week. I've had other brews like this with no gelatine but only after 4-5 weeks in the keg and the last few pints before the keg is empty.

[orlando]

Used kettle finings but not finings after fermentation.

If you only do the latter you will be impressed, see post above from Alex.

[orlando]

I used gelatin in my last brew. Close to star bright in a week. I've had other brews like this with no gelatine but only after 4-5 weeks in the keg and the last few pints before the keg is empty.

Can you discern any taste difference between cloudy beer and bright?

[alexlark]

This was my Abbot Ale clone, before and after fining with gelatine were the same taste wise. I've got a Heineken clone and a Keo clone which are still conditioning and bought the gelatine for those as the last sample I had of them was a little hazy.

Be interesting to see how bright gelatine will get something like a Punk IPA clone.

[Clibit]

I'm loving this brew, the yeast is so tasty, I love this hop combination too. The haze no longer matters, it is so lovely to drink, I've even decided it's a good thing, and am calling this Hazy Days of Summer. I wish I'd made 100 litres. Must make more, and get some pretzels in.