Slumlord Pale Ale

[YeastWhisperer]

Slumlord Pale Ale

Batch Size: 19L
O.G.: 1.056
F.G.: 1.012
ABV: 5.8%

Grist: 4kg Thomas Fawcett Pearl Malt

Mash: 90 minutes at 68C

Hops:

60g UK Fuggle 5.4% AA (60 minute boil)
20g UK Fuggle 5.4% AA (15 minute boil)
40g Willamette 4.2% AA (20 minute steep at knockout)

Yeast: Brewlab Somerset

My first experience with Brewlab's Somerset strain left me underwhelmed; however, this beer turned out amazing. It is a very British tasting pale ale. Willamette is an American triploid hop that is derived from Fuggle. Like most American hops, it has a slight citrus character that is missing in Fuggle. However, unlink American "C" hops, it does not make one feel like one is sucking on citrus rind.

Note: The extraction rate on this beer was 31.2 points per pound per gallon (261 points per kilogram per liter), which is roughly an efficiency of 84%. While not a super high extraction rate, it is higher than the average amateur brewer achieves. Most brewers will have to scale the grist mass up by 84 divided by their extraction efficiency.

[micmacmoc]

I'll bet that has a great aroma too with all those late willamettes?
Which brewery would you say is the somerset yeast originally from?
That's obviously a nod in the general direction of Tim Taylor, did something similar only with 100% Flyer hop and dry hopped with 20g too for a week prior to bottling....its only been in the bottle three days but I must try one!

[YeastWhisperer]

While I have been brewing for a long time, I have never tried a hop stand before this beer. I usually start my chiller immediately after adding my knockout addition. The result was amazing. However, I am not sure if it was because the stars aligned, or if hop stands are better than just throwing in the knockout addition and starting my chiller.

With that said, I made the mistake of pitching Somerset into a high-gravity American-style ale first time that I used it. It threw all kinds of metabolic trash. Somerset is not a neutral strain, nor is it a forgiving strain. However, it is a spectacular yeast strain in the right beer.

With respect to Somerset's origin, well, if one finds a beer that is brewed in Somerset that has a distinct grape-like ester, one will have found the source of the yeast strain. Somerset has thrown the ester both times that I have used it. With that being said, if I had to guess Somerset’s origin, my SWAG (scientific wild-arsed guess) would be Exmoor Ales.

[DeGarre]

I've started doing a hop stand too and I find it gives a little bit of bitterness + then some nice flavour.
At flame-off I bung in some hops, wait for 15 minutes, then throw in more hops for another 15 minutes, ie 30 minute hop stand. Temperature after 30 mins is around 85-88.

I have a Bramling cross single hop just bottled and for that I used 50% of hops at 60 minutes, then 25% and 25% for the hop stand. No 15 min, 5min etc additions at all. A bit of an experiment.

[YeastWhisperer]

I reduced kettle temperature to 71C (actually 160F) before adding my hopstand addition in the batch that I brewed yesterday (a different recipe). Seventy-one degrees Celsius is hot enough for Pasteurization to occur, but low enough that the addition should have added very little in the way of iso-alpha bitterness.