St Austell's Tribute

[phatboytall]

Sounds like a great recipe, looks fantastic to me.

This is very high up my brew list, will be very keen to hear how the different yeasts handle. I've been toying between reculturing from Admirals and using S04.

[oktorockto]

Another great beer by St Austell was Wreckers. I believe they have stopped brewing it now which is a real crime as it wasfantastic stuff - anyone else come across this one? When I get past my failing kit stage and progress through to all grain (mmm, maybe in 5 years time?) I'd love to get a recipe for it.

[chrisr]

I believe it turns up from time to time as a seasonal special. I've just checked the last few year's beer festival listings and it's not in those. So I've never had it myself.

[Tattie bogle]

Well, I'm half way through the brew using S-04 and although this is a nice brew I think the one with US-05 was closer to Tribute (and a nicer brew imo).

[fego]

Resurrecting this old thread...

I was lucky enough to get a litre of live yeast from the St. Austell brewery a couple of weeks ago so it would be rude to not try this again. Of my previous attempts, my first one was closest so I'm going to base this attempt on that. Here's the recipe I'm going for:

Pale Malt - 3940 grams (82.5%)
Munich Malt - 835 grams (17.5%)
(a pinch of Black to darken the colour)

Fuggle - 60 mins boil 67 grams
Willamette - steeped for 60 mins @ 80C - 40 grams
Styrian Goldings - steeped for 60 mins @ 80C - 40 grams
100ml Live St. Austell's yeast



## quick edit - I just noticed that the exact recipe of my first attempt is on the Hop and Grain recipe database. How funny.

[chrisr]

Any update on this yet?

I'm doing pretty much the same except I use some melanoidin to darken it and I've been adding the Willamette at 15mins. It's a nice drink, but it's not Tribute!

So you think the Willamette is steeped, too?

[fego]

It turned out that it got an infection. I think i over relied on Star San and paid the price. I didnt have any Styrian Goldings when i went to brew it so it wouldn't have been right anyway but gutted to have lost a full brew, especially as I went to the trouble of bottling half of it.

Won't be able to try again for a few weeks now but will post the result here. And yes, based on discussions and tours I've had at the brewery, I do believe the Willamette to be steeped.

[chrisr]

Went on the St A brewery tour last week (down there for the beer fest).

The guide wasn't very knowledgeable about details, and there wasn't anyone else about to ask, as they'd virtually shutdown for the beer fest but he did tell us:

1/ The usual mash temp is 65C. Both the guide and a video confirmed that. Mash is normally completed in 60 mins.

2/ The two most commonly used malts are pale & Cornish Gold (we could have guessed that!). They hold about 38 tonnes of each on site in silos and going flat out, that would last about a couple of weeks. He also said, in reference to Tribute, that malts other than those two might be added. If that really is true, that's the first I've heard it said. TBH, I don't really believe it. But I suppose you might possibly have to add small fine tunings of other malts to compensate for variations in the main two. Comments, anyone?

3/ The guide claimed the Cornish Gold is genetically modified or specially bred barley. But I don't believe that. It might not be MO, but I believed the main difference between that & pale was in the malting.

4/ The other malts store (sacks) didn't have any great quantities of anything: I saw crystal, cara, brown and special B, I think.

5/ The hops store seemed to feature many new world ones, including ones I didn't even know they used in their beers! I didn't see much of the 'english'.

6/ The hop store also had water treatment salts in it. Lots of Calcium Chloride, a bit of Gypsum, nothing else.

7/ Referring to boiling the guide said they may boil at two different temperatures, which I found hard to understand. I questioned him on this and he reasserted it. How can it be boiled at two different temps?! He said 99.5 & 104.5, if memory serves. The brewery is probably no more than a few 100 feet above sea level. How do you get it to go up to 104.5? Pressurise it?

8/ There's now only two stainless vessels for the boiling, replacing the lovely old copper and wood ones. If I understood him right, one is for the boil proper, the other is used for the post-boil hopping that features in many of RR's beers.

9/ Normally fermentation is done in less than a week (he was referring to Tribute).

10/ Tribute OG is currently 1043.

11/ Although we didn't see it (not on the tour yet: H&S issues), there's a phenomenal new kegging plant. A barrel in 7 seconds, I think. I think he said it triples the capacity of the old plant.

A very nice tasting session afterwards: a bit of everything available, really. Very interesting comparing beers you'd rarely find on together. The visitor centre does some nice food and good prices.

[chrisr]

Completed another try at Tribute today as follows:

Water: 300 chloride, 200 suphate, 200 calcium
Grist: MO pale 82%, Munich 17% (all I had!), Melanoidin 1%
Mash 2.5L/Kg, 65C, ph 5.31 at start, mash completed in 50 mins, left it a further 10 mins to be sure. Got 27L at 1035 into boiler.
Boil: 26IBU Fuggles 75 mins, 5g Irish Moss 15 mins
Let it cool to 80C then added 15g Willamette (6.3%) and 12g Styrians (6.1%). Left soaking for 60 mins, with lid on, as it cooled further
Then crash cooled to 20C-ish
Ended up with 22L at 1044
Yeast: St Austell, as recovered from draft Tribute

It smells and tastes really hoppy; I hope it tones down a bit!

[weiht]

Interesting that u used that little flame out hops compared to the gms/gallon ratio that was given by Roger.

It seems u always turn up in this thread whenever they have their little beer fest down there lol. What tee shirt did u put on this yr?

[chrisr]

Well, it's because I go down to Cornwall and spend several days drinking fantastic beers and when I get back I think, 'I've just have to have another go at making something like that'.

Unfortunately finances were a bit tight this year, so no new shirt (it costs over £100 to get done). I reused the first one. And spilt beer all over it. Still, got to say hello to the MD of St Austell, who remembered me. Also, purely by chance, met Roger Ryman in the St Austell visitor centre, who shook hands and said 'hello', so he probably remembered me, too.

Two days into fermentation it still smells very hoppy. I am wondering if the stray reference to soaking at 50C much earlier in the thread is true IE a lot of hops, but not much bitterness actually taken up. If this one ends up too hoppy, I think I'll try it. Someone (fego?) said he'd asked RR the secret and he'd just said 'patience.' Does this mean waiting a long time for it to cool?

[chrisr]

Just racked it into a barrel and tasted it. Very hoppy, sharp, citrusy, acidic almost. Styrians, me thinks. I hope it mellows. But it's got a long way to go!

How come I use less hops in the soak than everyone else and I think it always ends up too hoppy?! What am I doing different? I seem to get too much bittering effect from the soak.

Next time I'm trying more hops, but at a lower temperature.

[chrisr]

No, last brew has gone awry It's still far too bitter and has some nasty sour tones to it. I must have got it infected with something. I think this one is making an early exit.

[bigrichlock]

Hello all.

I was lucky enough to spend a day at the brewery with Roger and his team and from a bittering point of view they only really do 4 additions for their main beers, start of boil, 15min from end, cast out and in their big shinny Hopback, no real surprise there, they don't do any steeping at 80 or 50 degC, however, once the cast out hops go in the fancy boiler the whole lot gets pumped into a whirlpool for 30min, then into the hopback, then plate chiller and into fermenters.

So as always with great beers, no big secret or surprise just a good process, the keys being 60min boil with additions as above, whirlpool then let stand for 30min, then through a Hopback, chill rapidly, add about 200Kg of yeast slurry into 160 barrels of beer, oxygenate, start the fermentation cold and then allow yeast to bring the temp up to the desired figure, and then control the fermentation temp at the desired level.

Fermentation normally takes 7 days, i believe its then chilled to drop the yeast, its then pumped up the hill to the new kegging plant (which is impressive) into cylindrical tanks, auxillary finnings are added then kegged with issinglass.

hope the above helps and like i said not big surprise just a really good process, Tribute is on my clone list next year and think i can get pretty close but first i need to rebrew Proper Job to see if i can get closer then maybe Adrimals Ale.

Rich

[chrisr]

bigrichlock, you are talking about Tribute? So Tribute has some hops at 15 mins? And more at flame out? The schedule you describe sounds more like like Proper Job.

No, we know they don't steep, they use a giant hopback-type-vessel, but for most home brewers a steep is the closest we can get. I don't have a hopback, and they seem rather pricey. I wish I had the kit St A has, but that's not going to happen!

So, it cools for 30 mins before the final hops in the hopback?

BTW, how did you get to brew with them? Are you the guy who won the PJ competition?