SEYMOUR FESTIVAL MILD

[Eric]

Thanks for the update. Yes, there has to be some trick of the trade using that yeast. The brewer said it took 48 hours to eat its way through a 1040 wort, but like yours, mine just climbed out and sat on top. I've another yeast in use at present with similar properties but giving sweeter and more malty flavours.

My first brew with this yeast took its time to ferment and now has been in the cask more than 10 weeks and is still producing CO2. It has got progressively drier but still maintains a decent body. The second brew was casked after a week with a lot of yeast and it is still developing after 9 weeks in the cask. Cheers.

[seymour]

Thanks for the update. Yes, there has to be some trick of the trade using that yeast. The brewer said it took 48 hours to eat its way through a 1040 wort, but like yours, mine just climbed out and sat on top...

I've heard from multiple sources those historic Northern English top-cropper yeasts love aeration. No, strike that. They love frequent stirring...no, constant agitation. No...still not a strong enough action verb. Apparently the Peter Austin/Alan Pugsley brewhouse systems (modelled about Mr. Austin's career at Hull and Ringwood breweries) are supplied with a submersible electric pump which you drop into the open top primary fermentor to create a blast of wort, spraying way up into the air and splashing back down like a fountain for the first few days. Can you imagine? Sounds like an oxidation and diacetyl nightmare, but no. The resulting beers are delicious. I freely admit my stationary, sealed glass carboy is about the opposite end of the spectrum from that kind of activity. Even so, those are some hardy little beasties with serious endurance and will-to-live, even after a transatlantic voyage and in an utterly new environment.

I saved the dregs. Hopefully next time I use it, I'll be brave enough and patient enough to grow it up with successive top-crop treatments the way it was evolved to behave.