Re: Gales Best Bitter revival
Posted: Wed Sep 04, 2013 8:20 pm
So, Otters, how's this drinking?
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https://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=61364
I forgot to mention:Hi Seymour,
it's not quite ready but showing promise.
I think the unseasonal hot weather received on the South Coast of Blighty has made conditioning the beer hard work in the bottle. Some faint apple and the yeast is finding it hard to clear down properly> think I need a change from Safale s-04!
Never the less it's clearing slowly and I'm tasting a wonderful balance of hop bitterness and orange marmalade from the malt - all together a smooth drink a bit of a jeckle and hyde between a Yorkshire vs south counties pint.
Aha! Thanks for sharing, that makes perfect sense.Eadweard wrote:Fullers do still use Gales yeast for the Gales beers, but they have adapted it to bottom fermenting in their cyclindro-conical fermenters.
Really great information! I love that kind of stuff: real-world, boots on the ground recon. Thanks for sharing, and welcome to Jim's.athanisunset wrote:Great to see that it is not just myself who misses Gales beers. I worked in the sales team for two years before the closure of the brewery and can confirm that the Gales Bitter being drunk around 2005 was a re-branded GB and very different to Butser Best Bitter. You may remember that the original GB was brewed to be served through a sparkler but being a beer of the south, few publicans in the free-trade opted for this. When the beer changed to just 'Gales' the brewery took the step to finish with the sparkler in the pubs and changed the recipe too. I recall that more residual sugar was in the beer to give a fuller mouth feel and the abv was dropped from 4.0% to 3.8% - what a great beer! The yeast type may have been a Whitbread strain but I'm not too sure about that. You would do well by speaking with Malcom Irving at Irving and Co brewery, he was the 2nd brewer at Gales at the time. Also it's a shame that Fullers havn't really kept the original recipes either. Seafarers Ale is different (it was origianly a re-badged Crowning Glory seasonal) Winter Brew was delicious as it was made with Prize Old and then blended with Butser. And as for the likes of Summer Breeze and Spring Sprinter, these were never made at Horndean and are a Fullers creation!
As Seymour says this sort of inside info is really good to have, thanks for sharing. I'm particularly intrigued by that snippet of information as I am currently drinking my version of this having used the Whitbread strain and it finished a little higher than I was expecting and has given the residual sweetness you describe. Here is the recipe for comment. Excuse the tasting notes blather, usually not for mass consumption but thought it might be of interest too.athanisunset wrote: I recall that more residual sugar was in the beer to give a fuller mouth feel and the abv was dropped from 4.0% to 3.8% - what a great beer! The yeast type may have been a Whitbread strain but I'm not too sure about that.