Hog's Back T.E.A. Clone - Beginner's Questions

[McMullan]

It gets a bad rep due to historical bias, claims of denial by home brewers who were more accustomed to using dried yeast. They couldn’t cope with making a starter either. It’s a fantastic strain for the home brewer, ironically. Far from the claimed ‘high maintenance’ in reality.

[Trefoyl]

Kegging a Ringwood beer this moment actually, pitched Sunday and 4 days later tastes amazing. It is still fermenting so it will finish in the keg. I get much better tasting results this way then letting finish and adding sugar.
TBH I didn’t do anything special that I wouldn’t do with any liquid yeast, oxygenated starter - I didn’t even use a stir plate this time - finished after 24 hours and let settle another 24 hours and decanted into oxygenated wort.
I’ve never had T.E.A. but interestingly it is very similar to my current bitter recipe I’m kegging: 91.5% pale, 8.5% 60 lovibond crystal, 35 IBU with Goldings last 15 minutes.

[orlando]

Kegging a Ringwood beer this moment actually, pitched Sunday and 4 days later tastes amazing. It is still fermenting so it will finish in the keg. I get much better tasting results this way then letting finish and adding sugar.
TBH I didn’t do anything special that I wouldn’t do with any liquid yeast, oxygenated starter - I didn’t even use a stir plate this time - finished after 24 hours and let settle another 24 hours and decanted into oxygenated wort.
I’ve never had T.E.A. but interestingly it is very similar to my current bitter recipe I’m kegging: 91.5% pale, 8.5% 60 lovibond crystal, 35 IBU with Goldings last 15 minutes.

Sounds right up my alley. I've never used it so it's now on the list. I'm sick of bland yeasts that are lauded for their "clean" fermentation. I want to get down and dirty.

[Fr_Marc]

Okay, so I will add Ringwood yeast to the recipe, make sure to make a nice healthy starter, aerate the wort before pitching and see how it all turns out.

Thank you for your encouragement. Reading a lot in American forums can build up some anxiety in a newby brewer. Maybe I should stop consulting them altogether...

[orlando]

Reading a lot in American forums can build up some anxiety in a newby brewer. Maybe I should stop consulting them altogether...

[Madbrewer]

Reading a lot in American forums can build up some anxiety in a newby brewer. Maybe I should stop consulting them altogether...

Bless 'em...

Nice bunch but some spend too much on their toys. (OK maybe I'm just jealous.) Everyone makes a big thing of temperature control these days. If brewing ales and you can keep ferments between 17 and 21c (not too much of a problem in UK) you will make great beer. I'm not saying control is not important; but start simple and build up and learn while you are building up is best. I am an advocate for starting simple. You can still make good beer (great beer even) without getting scared of the complexity or the cost. It's easy to get drawn in - they all seem want to use Kveik, Pressure-ferment, and go to a lot of hassle to not get any oxygen in (a little's ok when you transfer generally). And as much as I like NEIPA's; I prefer hoppy English ales more.

Wow that sure rattled my cage... nuff said - I'm having a beer

[f00b4r]

Okay, so I will add Ringwood yeast to the recipe, make sure to make a nice healthy starter, aerate the wort before pitching and see how it all turns out.

Thank you for your encouragement. Reading a lot in American forums can build up some anxiety in a newby brewer. Maybe I should stop consulting them altogether...

There are a lot of good brewers around the world but bear in mind that people in the US buying bottles of British “cask beer” are not really getting the real thing, apart from it possibly being staled it might bear little resemblance to the actual British cask beer that the label purports to be; those that have had the real thing are basing it on memory and probably not able to do a side by side. Bottled beer, even in the UK, often bears only a passing resemblance to its cask version. I would love to see a blind taste test of brewers/judges try to match up the cask and bottled equivalents, if there were similar beers to not make it too obvious.
Ironically you are in a similar situation but hopefully you get to brew something that hits the right notes and that it won’t be too long before you can get over again to try the real thing.

It’s a two way street too, getting really fresh cold chain US hoppy beers is often a problem too.

[Fr_Marc]

You have spoken very wisely. I did not intend to offend American homebrewers in any way. I just wanted to express my gratitude for the very grounded and helpful input I get from the British brewers at this forum, who are blessed to know real ale not only by name and title.