Sulphury bitter

[Invalid Stout]

I'm going for one of these hard-water, hoppy bitters. I've added a stupid amount of gypsum to my mash water and have cultured the yeast up from a bottle of White Shield (well, I hope I have).

Brew length 10-12L

1800g pale malt
200g dark crystal malt
30g Challenger 5.1% -- 90 minutes

I mashed for three hours because that's what they used to do in the eighteenth century. Oh, all right, I mashed for three hours because I went back to bed and fell asleep again.

Will Challenger be OK in this? I've never used them before.

[mysterio]

Challenger are great hops

No late hopping ?

[Invalid Stout]

It's more about the bittering hops and the crystal malt in this one. I could be wrong but they didn't really do aroma hopping in the old days, did they? I might chuck in a few more anyway. I have some Styrians but I'll probably just keep it all Challenger so I can get a taste for what they're like.

[Invalid Stout]

Terrific head in the fermentation bin. I tried a bit from the hydrometer jar and it's tasting pretty good already. This White Shield yeast is pretty damn good.

[Invalid Stout]

Just bottled this. Not enough hops. Meh. Nice enough though. Currently cooling is the mint beer which is going onto the yeast cake

[Hogarth]

Shame about the hops ... but did you get the sulphur?

[Invalid Stout]

It tastes minerally out of the FV, but no sulphur, also very green. I'll wait and see how it is after bottle conditioning.

[Invalid Stout]

I've just tasted the first bottle of this and it's still green, but the mineral-water taste and the colour are right. I'm not too keen on the flavour, I'm getting nuts and sharp forest fruit. No discernible sulphur and it's sweeter than I thought it would be too.

Now that I remember how warm it was when this was fermenting, maybe it's hot alcohol that I can taste.

[mysterio]

I never made that connection between Gypsum and a sulphurous nose, did you read this somewhere or are you just making the link because Burton water is gypseous? Certainly when ever I've used large amounts of gypsum, I don't get any sulphury off-flavour. I have had it once when I left a keg with a large slug of yeast at the bottom and some beer, the last few pints were a bit sulphury so it might be yeast autolysis. I think certain bacteria can cause it too. Also if lager yeast produce it, it's not inconceivable that there are certain ale yeasts that are capable of it.

Now that I remember how warm it was when this was fermenting, maybe it's hot alcohol that I can taste.

How warm did it get ?

[OldSpeckledBadger]

The breweries in Burton traditionally used water from their own wells. These days the likes of Coors pump out chav juice instead of beer. I doubt they use artesian water for that in case they accidentally introduce some flavour. I regard Marston's as the biggest proper brewery there these days. I don't know if they still use well water. I doubt that smaller operations like the Burton Bridge Brewery have a well. The tap water here in South Staffordshire is a mix of artesian and reservoir water and is hardened by sulphates so it's not a bad base for brewing once the chlorine has been knocked out.

[Invalid Stout]

I never made that connection between Gypsum and a sulphurous nose, did you read this somewhere or are you just making the link because Burton water is gypseous?

It's been in most everything I've ever read about Burton beer, I think, so I sort of accepted it as received wisdom.

Marston's themselves say this:

As well as producing a clearer, brighter bitter, natural filtration through the gypsum beds also adds the distinctive sulphurous aroma that has affectionately become known as the 'Burton snatch'.

So it looks as if they (or at least their marketing people) believe it's the water rather than the yeast.

How warm did it get ?

Thermometer said 23ºC but it felt a fair bit warmer than that in my flat. The active stage of primary fermentation was over quite quickly so I don't know what the internal temperature of the beer might have been during that time.

[Invalid Stout]

If anyone is interested, I spoke to a chap from Marston's at the GBBF the other day and asked him specifically whether it came from the water or from the yeast. He said the water, but also made the very good point that the yeast can only generate sulphury flavours/aromas if there is enough sulphate in the water to begin with. He also mentioned that the well water is so hard that it would have to be mixed with town supply water to be legally sold as mineral water.

[mysterio]

Interesting, so it's a little of both. People talk about the Burton Ale yeast from white labs reeking of sulphur but i've never picked that up (maybe because of my soft water). On the other hand the Belgian wit ale yeast reeks of sulphur. You could throw all the gypsum you want at say, US-05 and it's not going to produce any sulphur.

[WishboneBrewery]

Does Sulphur add to the yeasty and fruity aroma??