Barnsley Bitter?

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YeastWhisperer

Barnsley Bitter?

Post by YeastWhisperer » Sun Sep 07, 2014 11:05 pm

I believe that I may have identified John Smith's or Barnsley's yeast culture in the NCYC. For those who are old enough to remember Barnsley Bitter before Courage shut down the Oakwell Brewery, did the Barnsley Brewery Company ever distribute Barnsley Bitter as a bottled pale ale?
Last edited by YeastWhisperer on Mon Oct 13, 2014 3:47 am, edited 1 time in total.

robbarwell
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Re: Barnsley Bitter?

Post by robbarwell » Mon Oct 06, 2014 7:50 am

Not that I am aware of...however a few little known facts for you.
Oakwell Brewery had the Barnsley Bitter strain of yeast. This brewery closed a couple of years ago due to financial performance. The thoughts were at the time that the yeast would be lost forever.

Good news is that the head brewer has set up a new brewery called Stancil in Sheffield and that the old kit from Oakwell is being used along with the much fabled "Barnsley Bitter" strain of yeast. I also note that this yeast is also used at another sucessful brewery in Sheffield

oakwell

Re: Barnsley Bitter?

Post by oakwell » Wed Oct 08, 2014 3:13 pm

my father worked at the brewery during university holidays in the late 40's and early 50's. his father worked at the brewery following his return from active service in WW1 until the early 1950's. as a student my father worked in the bottling area of the brewery and doesn't think they were bottling Barnsley Bitter during the time that he was there. after university he lived in the Barnsley area until the early 60's and doesn't think that bottles of Barnsley Bitter were available in the local pubs. obviously it was a long time ago but certainly no evidence to suggest they did bottle Barnsley Bitter.

Mr. Dripping

Re: Barnsley Bitter?

Post by Mr. Dripping » Wed Oct 08, 2014 3:23 pm

My parents had a free house in the Barnsley area from the mid 80's until around 1997/98.
If my memory serves me right, they were approached in the late 80's / early 90's by Wentworth Brewery, who at that time had only just started out and had revived the old Barnsley Bitter brand/recipe and claimed to have the original yeast strain.
It was a regular guest beer for a couple or three years and sold quite well from what I remember.
The old Oakwell brewery I think was closed at the time ........re-opened 1993 ??

edit - replace Wentworth Brewery with Elsecar Brewery......then renamed Acorn.
A little bit of thought brings clarity :D

robbarwell
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Re: Barnsley Bitter?

Post by robbarwell » Sat Oct 11, 2014 10:39 pm

So the breweries that claim to use Barnsley Bitter strain of yeast

Acorn Brewery
Stancil Brewery
Bradfield Brewery

The head Brewer from the recently lost Oakwell Brewery, donated the yeast to Bradfield Brewery, he may have given it to Acorn when they set up too...The idea for giving the yeast to these breweries was that if he lost his due to infection or similar he could get a skim from these other breweries..

I have been offered a sample of this yeast, apparently it ferments @ 16-18 degrees and chews through fermentable sugars like a wotsit

oakwell

Re: Barnsley Bitter?

Post by oakwell » Sun Oct 12, 2014 9:08 pm

if you get the yeast then why not brew BB. there's a recipe in Dave Line's BBLTYB

YeastWhisperer

Re: Barnsley Bitter?

Post by YeastWhisperer » Mon Oct 13, 2014 3:47 am

robbarwell wrote:So the breweries that claim to use Barnsley Bitter strain of yeast

Acorn Brewery
Stancil Brewery
Bradfield Brewery

The head Brewer from the recently lost Oakwell Brewery, donated the yeast to Bradfield Brewery, he may have given it to Acorn when they set up too...The idea for giving the yeast to these breweries was that if he lost his due to infection or similar he could get a skim from these other breweries..

I have been offered a sample of this yeast, apparently it ferments @ 16-18 degrees and chews through fermentable sugars like a wotsit
That's great to hear. The brewing community needs to keep these old heirloom strains alive. Do you know if it is a multi-strain culture?

robbarwell
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Re: Barnsley Bitter?

Post by robbarwell » Mon Oct 13, 2014 9:37 am

oakwell wrote:if you get the yeast then why not brew BB. there's a recipe in Dave Line's BBLTYB
Ive got loads of yeasts on the go...I will get some and shove it in the freezer with glycerine

DarkHorse
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Re: Barnsley Bitter?

Post by DarkHorse » Fri Aug 24, 2018 8:38 pm

just some info the oakwell yeast is not the yeast that bradfield or acorn have.

oakwell lost there yeast and had to borrow some from bradfield that was a very problematic yeast would take over 8 days to get to fg and still would take an age of cooling to drop clear also bradfield lost there yeast and had to borrow some from stancill brewery of recent

the old oakwell brewery yeast was stored in a viles ther was 3x total viles in storage but due to no payments 2 of the viles were destroyed

but one still remained the remaining vile was finally paid for around 11 months ago and that strain i think is now in production at the new brewery

i think its the head brewer that has paid for all of this and the yeast will remain his and not the brewery's


from info i have gathered this yeast is a machine it will finish the beers in 3 and a half days and ready to rack on the 5th bright from the tank

robbarwell
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Re: Barnsley Bitter?

Post by robbarwell » Sat Aug 25, 2018 8:39 am

good to know...
Jonny Stancil has left Stancil a few years ago and has turned up at Pheasantry...Wonder what yeast they use??

BarnsleyBrewer
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Re: Barnsley Bitter?

Post by BarnsleyBrewer » Mon Oct 22, 2018 5:50 pm

Anyone got a sample of this yeast at the moment?
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MTW
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Re: Barnsley Bitter?

Post by MTW » Mon Oct 22, 2018 7:16 pm

robbarwell wrote:
Sat Aug 25, 2018 8:39 am
good to know...
Jonny Stancil has left Stancil a few years ago and has turned up at Pheasantry...Wonder what yeast they use??
I toured round Pheasantry 3 years ago, before he was taken on. At that point, despite considerable investment, the grandeur of a gas management board in the fermenting room and closed conicals, I'm pretty sure the (relatively inexperienced) brewer and owner was pitching dry stuff. Whether that's still the case, I don't know. There's a walk round tour that you can do online here on Google, which I think is November 2016. It looked perfect for someone like him to come in.
Busy in the Summer House Brewery

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