Hobgoblin Recipe

[iowalad]

The Orfy recipe is tried and true around here.
That Salvador looks lighter than 21 SRM to me, my system seems to brew dark (maybe excessive evaporation?). I would shoot for 21 SRM (consistent with ruby red from company web site). 20% crystal sounds like a lot that being said my result was more chocolatey and not toffe enough for my taste.
30 IBUs seems more right to me but I have nothing to supprt that.

The Wyeast Ringwood description seems to be fit the bill for what you are looking for in a yeast.

Based on the website you have the ingredients down:

Hobgoblin is strong in roasted malt with a moderate hoppy bitterness and slight fruity character that lasts through to the end. The ruby red coloured Hobgoblin is full-bodied and has a delicious chocolate toffee malt flavour balanced with a rounded moderate bitterness and an overall fruity character.

ABV: 5.2% in bottle, 5.0% in cask
Bottle: 500ml
Cask: yes
Hops: Fuggles and Styrians
Malts: Pale, Crystal and Chocolate

Good luck with it.

[Graham]

I missed this one originally Mash Weasel, probably because you posted at 5.28 gmt, great post.

Your recipe looks to be one of the most plausable ones i've seen. It's a shame I can't stand HG as i'd give i'd give it a try if I did.

I've often heard it claimed that Ringwood yeast produces lots of diaceytl but it's not something I notice in Ringwood beers (although i'm, not great at tasting beers). I think the problem stems from the fact that Ringwood yeast likes to sit on it's backside at the bottom of the fermenter and needs regular rousing to work properly, iirc Moorsd who worked there for a day said they have pumps in their fermenters for this purpose. If it's kept roused it has more of a chance to clean up the diaceytl after fermentation.

The pumps in Ringwood ferneters are indeed for rousing. They simulate the Yorkshire Square fermentation system., because the yeast is (maybe was these days?) a Northern yeast strain lifted from Hull Brewery by Peter Austin. Northern yeasts are highly flocculant and need frequent rousing and aeration.

[Graham]

The yeast is still reputably an old northern strain so I expect it is the same stuff.
Strange but is now widely know as the 'Ringwood strain' rather than the Hull 'Brewery Strain', goes to show how successful the Ringwood Brewery has been I guess.
fwiw, they do use square fermenters, when I asked them why the response was 'ale should be brewed in square fermenters'.

Read into that, that it is cheaper to get a square vessel fabricated in stainless than a round one, and they stack together nicer in the limited space in a brewery than round ones - less space wasted. Square isn't too hot with C.I.P. though.

As for the "Ringwood" strain, I would imagine that Sam Smith's, John Smith's, Theakstons and the like use the same stuff. I doubt if it is unique. Even Black Sheep has its pumps and fishtail sprays for the same reason.

It is what I refer to as a "Northern" yeast.

This is why I am rather cynical about some of the descriptions banded about for some of those packaged yeasts, their performance and their origins - not least by the suppliers themselves. I think "No Way!"

[Graham]

I was reading earlier today (in the Brewers Contact) that the Wolf brewery said that square fermenters have a significant impact on yeast behaviour and increases the tendency for the yeast head to collapse back into the fermenter.

Not heard that before and I can't think why it should be so. The biggest impact on fermentation performance is vessel depth. Our vessels are far too shallow and we really need something like a 6-foot high drainpipe of suitable diameter as a fermentation vessel to achieve true-to-type yeast performance. The optimum vessel depth from victorian times onwards has been regarded as six feet and ever since almost all traditional breweries have vessels a little over six feet (to allow some headroom).

Even the Brewing Research Institute and The National Collection of Yeast Cultures do small scale yeast trials in what I think are called "Long-tube fermenters", which are six-foot long test tubes that look like yard-of-ale glasses, only two yards long of course.

Some old-time traditional breweries swear by "rounds"; others by "squares" as fermentation vessels. The old Everards brewery in Burton used rounds, as did one of the now defunct Oxford breweries.

Small breweries used rounds because you could use traditional cooperage techniques to make your vessels, or have them made by local coopers.

I suspect that one reason Yorkshire used squares was because it has got to be ruddy difficult to make rounds out of slate, although I am sure that someone has done it.

[EDIT] Sorry they're called "Tall Tubes" not "Long Tubes", which makes sense really.[/EDIT].

[Andy]

Anyway, so about this Hobgoblin.....

[Graham]

Anyway, so about this Hobgoblin.....

I don't know whether it's a reflection on our local Hobgoblin, the brewery, or just me, but I don't really like the stuff anymore. So the thread was cunningly diverted.

[Graham]

Can't stand the stuff, much prefer Ringwood fermented in square vessels

I am pretty sure that when I first had "contact" with Ringwood B, they actually had round fermenters, but I can't really remember for sure. In the three-and-a-half years or so that I lived in the area, 1989-1993-ish, Ringwood expanded their brewery twice, but I really cannot remember that far back.

I've just thought of a wonderful wheeze though; some people might go for it.

How about a different range of yeasts for round fermentors and another for square ones.

Does my cynicism show?

[Graham]

Sorry, a double post. Is there something slow or intermittent about Jim's B.C. or is there something wrong with my connection? Very often I hit a button and end up with a blank screen, and therefore hit the button again; other times I end up with a "Firefox" timeout. I do suspect my BT business broadband connection,; it is supposed to be 8 megabit, but it seems worse than a dial-up.

[oblivious]

what you see is what you get, and at the time as long as you phone to find out when they were skimming you can collect some yeast for them.

Wow! That’s something to have near you

I wounder would Diageo (Guinness) let me have some yeast when they are skimming?

[RabMaxwell]

Hello just been looking at Daabs pictures of the square fermenters they look very like second hand dairy tanks to me. Most micro breweries i have visited have these square tanks what most told me was they were buying them when the dairy farmers were on there knees. I think it's more to do about buying them cheap than them being square.

[anomalous_result]

Was flicking through '300 beers to try before you die' in W'stones and thought you might be interested as it gives a skeleton recipe as:

90% Marris Otter
7% Crystal
3% Torrefied Wheat

40 'colour units' and Fuggles and Styrians to 28 IBUs

Obviously that may be the commercial brew and so brewing that with your own equipment may leave you with a beer tasting nothing like it.

[Orfy]

Some of the older recipes state progress hops.

Wychwood changed their recipe in 2004 and replaced the progress with fuggles and stated that they used a small amount of specialty malt to add chocolate undertones.

I use fuggles, Styrian Golding, maris otter, crystal, chocolate and a bit of carapils.

[retourrbx]

I saw this in the primary today at Marston's - smelled nice, but not as nice as the Fiddler's elbow...

[retourrbx]

I was wanting to steal some yeast but alas ni luck

[flytact]

Hey Mashweasel, is that your recipe in BYO? And did "we" help out in your article?