Anglo-American Bitter

[Barley Water]

I bet I brewed for 15 years without ever using a dry yeast until I was in a hurry and tried US05. I personally can't tell the difference between that and the liquid offerings by Wyeast and White Labs so if I am doing an American Ale I now use the dry stuff, cheaper and you don't need to prepare a starter. By the way Yeast Whisperer, interesting choice of bittering hop, I don't think I've messed with Cluster since I brewed a Ballentines XXX clone a few years ago (and really I should do it again).

[YeastWhisperer]

Ok, so I won't worry too much about using 1056 over US05, but would US05 harvested from a slurry be preferable to a new packet of US05 or is there no discernable difference?

The advantage gained by repitching a yeast strain is that it becomes acclimated to one's brewery. Most strains need to be repitched a couple of times before they perform at their best. The downside to repitching is that it tests one's brewery hygiene. If one does not keep a spotless home, there's a good chance that one does not maintain good brewery hygiene (which places a upper bound on the quality of beer one can produce). The number one factor that limits the number of times that a yeast culture can be repitched is wild microflora (bacteria, wild yeast, mold/mould) pick up.

One can also alter a culture's performance via repitching. For example, a progressively more flocculent version of a strain can be developed by continuously racking before terminal gravity has been hit and repitching the slurry from primary fermentation vessel. Conversely, a progressively less flocculent strain can be developed by continuously racking to a secondary fermentation vessel before the beer has cleared and repitching yeast cropped from the secondary.

One thing that one must keep in mind is that yeast cells mutate over time (the only way to prevent mutation is via cryostorage at temperatures of -80C and below). If one has ever wondered what the 70 in W-34/70, it is the 70th isolate of strain number 34. Isolates are created by streaking a plate and selecting colonies. The plate shown below was streaked from a 40ml starter that I propagated from a Brewlab F-40 slant (slope). I did not use the entire slant. I just used the amount of yeast that can fit on a 4mm nichrome loop to inoculate the starter.



Each of the well-separated white dots of the plate shown above is a yeast colony that was produced by one yeast cell. These colonies are known as isolates. Isolates are by definition pure cultures.

[YeastWhisperer]

By the way Yeast Whisperer, interesting choice of bittering hop, I don't think I've messed with Cluster since I brewed a Ballentines XXX clone a few years ago (and really I should do it again).

Cluster is one of my favorite bittering hops. I used to stock two bittering hops in the nineties, Cluster and Galena. I used Galena when I needed more IBUs per ounce because I only use whole hops, and whole hops soak up a lot of wort. Galena is the cleanest tasting of the high alpha varieties. It provides firm bitterness while allowing the finishing hops to shine through (it's a great base hop to use with expensive finishing hops). Like Cluster, Galena acreage is starting to decline. Galena is susceptible to powdery mildew, which has forced growers in the Yakima Valley and Idaho to seek more disease resistant cultivars.

This recipe is a definite keeper. The green beer tasted very good straight out of the primary. One can tell that it was finished with Cascade, but it does not leave one feeling like one is sucking on citrus rind. The base bitterness combined with the hop flavor meld very well with the malt and yeast flavors. I expect the lace on this beer to be very good after it has been conditioned.

[Barley Water]

Bet you have fairly soft water there on the east coast right Yeastwhisperer? Mostly because I'm too damn lazy and cheap I just use tap water (charcoal filtered of course) and my stuff is moderately hard. Because of that I have to be really careful which bittering hops I use; generally I'll use Warrior or Magnum if I'm gonna go with a high alpha hop. For many years I would stay away from highly hopped beers and although my tastes have changed I don't go for brews which have a really big "bite". Many would say that Clusters are very "catty" but frankly I have not used it enough to know personally. My understanding is that it was very popular at one time and so gets use in throwback beers like Ballentines for instance. I wish I had time to try all the various beers I'm interested in but sadly life is just too short.

[6470zzy]

Dry yeast is propagated respiratively (aerobically) in a bioreactor where the medium (which is not wort) .

Could you tell me what the medium is comprised of? Thank you for your informative post, I read it with much interest.

Cheers

The carbon source is molasses, which I believe is called treacle in the UK. All sugars are carbon-based molecules. The simple sugars (monosaccharides) that are encountered in brewing are multiples of CH20, which is carbon bound to water. Molasses is primarily sucrose, which is a disaccharide composed of the monosaccharides glucose and fructose (both of which carry the chemical formula C6H12O6, but have different linear forms). However, unlike pure white sucrose, molasses contains vitamins, minerals and trace elements. The chemical formula for sucrose is C12H22O11 (We lose an H20 molecule every time a simple sugar binds with another simple sugar).

Thanks for that, Cheers