Brewday 20th April - Old Ale, Burton Style

[Seveneer]

The answer to the calamity question is revealed

Judging by the pictures of wall to wall yeast I'd say you've converted enough, Steve

I pitched the yeast taken out from the bottom of a Bass clone. Nowhere near as dramatic as that stuff you're using. Is that Hogs Back "special" yeast?

/Phil.

[Andy]

The Hogs Back* yeast strikes again

And my secret poison ingredient is out of the bag


* Ok, Hook Norton

[SteveD]

The answer to the calamity question is revealed

Judging by the pictures of wall to wall yeast I'd say you've converted enough, Steve

I pitched the yeast taken out from the bottom of a Bass clone. Nowhere near as dramatic as that stuff you're using. Is that Hogs Back "special" yeast?

/Phil.

Yep, it's the Hook Norton yeast, obtained from the Hog's Back brewery. It's brilliant stuff and I wouldn't want to go back to dried yeast now. Seeing how it works makes you appreciate what a proper top working strain is. Thick yeast slurry on the top, and lots of it, after the initial rocky head has collapsed, and not bath bubbles with all the yeast settling on the bottom which is how most dried yeasts seem to work with me.

The head got to 4-5 inches thick at its height, and is evenly 3 inches thick now that it's settled into anaerobic fermentation. I'd give it a go for yourself.

And my secret poison ingredient is out of the bag

Part of your evil plot of beer subversion? Buy a sugar company?

[oblivious]

Love the pictures, that insane levels of hops, all that resin/oils will give a wonderful texture to the beer.

Does the brewers caramel add any flavor or is it just for colour?

[eskimobob]

Great pics steve

[SteveD]

Love the pictures, that insane levels of hops, all that resin/oils will give a wonderful texture to the beer.

Does the brewers caramel add any flavor or is it just for colour?

It's added here for colour adjustment though it can add an astringent bitterness if used in larger ammounts. A lot of commercial brewers cheat by adding caramel to their standard bitters and then calling them 'Old Ale' Or 'Winter Ale'. The added colour and bitterness convinces the unwary that it's a stronger altogether different beer when it's not.

I wouldn't personally use it and would rather add dark malts to get the colour I want, but here I was following a given recipe.

[Seveneer]

How's this one looking Steve?

I transferred 4 gallons of mine to a keg just now. FG 1.018 giving apparent attenuation of 75% as expected from Safale. Tasty but quite a bit of residual sweetness. Should improve with aging and conditioning.

I'm going to leave the other 6 gallons in the primary until I get myself another carboy on Tuesday then I'll secondary it for a couple of months.

/Phil.

[SteveD]

I hoofed mine into a secondary after a week - too many fruit flies buzzing around. Bastards! It was at 27 then, and it's been in there 10 days. Dunno what the gravity is now, it's still going, but I'm planning to keg/bottle it tomorrow and it can finish off in there.

[Seveneer]

What about the taste test?

Just PM'd you by the way.

/Phil.

[Frothy]

Stonking krausen... did you aerate? How much did you pitch?

Frothy

[SteveD]

Stonking krausen... did you aerate? How much did you pitch?

Frothy

Hi Frothy

Aerated after cooling by dropping from one FV to another with plenty of spraying and sloshing. Foam was beaten into wort with a paddle. Excess foam (a FV's worth) kept covered until it collapsed, then the wort added back to the main bulk.

Yeast was Hog's Back brewery yeast, about 200g of thick slurry.

[Vossy1]

Gr8 pics SD

To answer your old question my 1070 was Ollossons Old Rambler
which is presently in secondary

Thats yeats rocks

I've got some of the brewers caramel also just haven't used it yet...must get round to it

[SteveD]

To answer your old question my 1070 was Ollossons Old Rambler
which is presently in secondary

I've got some of the brewers caramel also just haven't used it yet...must get round to it

Hi Vossy, I gathered that from the Old Rambler post, once it appeared

Caramel... hmm. I used it because I was following a particular recipe, but ordinarily I wouldn't - I'd just use a small percentage of roast malt for colour.
Caramel is a much abused colourant in the brewing industry, often in the following fashion :-Ordinary Bitter + Caramel = Winter Old Ale, at a premium price. The Real Ale Almanac states that Timothy Taylor Ram Tam is Landlord with added caramel. Naughty boys.