jim williams wrote:That makes sense. In the podcast, they mention not even adding finishing hops in the copper, but using a hopback exclusively. I forgot about that part. Any clue on the yeast used? Of course, I wouldn't be able to replicate the squares and the rousing involved, but...
The hop back is their standard hop back, their hop filter in a separate vessel, not the sort of thing that some home brewers call a hop back which should properly be called a hop percolator, although it will do the same job. Adding the hops to the boiler after it is turned off will do the same thing, although I favour a five or ten minute boil because it seems more effective to me. Black Sheep only boil for an hour, which indicates to me that they have two or three pounds pressure on their copper. Interlocks probably prevent them from opening their copper hatchway at will, so they put their aroma hops in the hop back instead.
The yeast should really be a "northern" yeast; a Yorkshire yeast. Ringwood brewery in England use a Yorkshire yeast, even though they are way down south. That same yeast is used by dozens of American microbreweries. I assume that the Wyeast "Ringwood" is derived from one of those American breweries, even though it does not seem to have the vigour of the real stuff from the brewery. That would be a good choice in the absence of anything more specific.
If you brew in a carboy or something, rousing might be an issue. A true Yorkshire yeast will probably need rousing, so a type of fermenter that you can get into would be preferable. Rousing is not such an issue with our smaller volumes. You only need to rouse if fermentation slows or stops, perhaps once in the morning and once at night if the yeast is being stubborn. Not many breweries still use traditional Yorkshire squares. The majority of Black Sheep fermenters are just stainless steel tanks. They have a recirculation pump and a fish-tail spray to rouse and aerate the yeast, which comes on for just five minutes every three hours or so.
