Nottingham Yeast for a Speckled Hen Clone??

[WhiteRhyno]

Hi all,

I am planning to do a Speckled Hen clone shortly, and the recipe I found calls for Dry Danstar Nottingham Yeast by Lallemand.

My question is - Should I go for this dry yeast or use a live yeast instead like WLP002? (Only have White Labs where I am from, and cant source WLP039) I have stir plates etc, and dont mind the added cost of these yeasts if it will make a difference.

4.78 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC) Grain 6 79.6 % 3.11 L
0.58 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (236.4 EBC) Grain 7 9.6 % 0.38 L
0.20 kg Gladfield Wheat Malt (4.2 EBC) Grain 8 3.3 % 0.13 L
34.31 g Northern Brewer [8.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 9 35.0 IBUs -
0.50 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 10 - -
16.69 g Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 11 4.2 IBUs -
0.44 kg Lyle's Golden Syrup [Boil] [Boil for 5 min](0.0 EBC) Extract 12 7.4 % 0.31 L
12.98 g Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min

Cheers

 

[IslandLizard]

You can use either, and they will taste differently, of course.

Not sure how close dry Nottingham or WLP039 are to the original yeast strain for OSH, or even to each other. WLP002 is definitely different.

I like using WLP002/WY1968 for Bitters, but I think it's sweeter than WLP039/Nottingham. WLP002 still gives a slight, but nice estery fruitiness at 68F. At 65F it's more subdued, but you need to raise the temps gradually to 68F when it's around 60-70% done, or it may floc out prematurely and stall.

 

[EnglishAndy]

For OSH as it used to be when it was good you'll need a characterful estery English strain. If you can get hold of a bottle of Hen's Tooth over there then you can culture up the yeast from that. It might give you a Greene King flavour though which I personally do not like.

Otherwise I'd pick one of the liquid yeasts that gives off fruity esters and ferment towards the top of the temperature range to bring out the character. Maybe WLP023 or WY1469.

 

[brewbama]

Imperial Pub gives the marmalade flavor — or so I’ve heard. My batch is still in the queue.

 

[thehaze]

Notti should work fine. Old Speckled is not an estery beer and feels somewhat dry on the palate.

 

[WhiteRhyno]

Cheers all.
Might give Notti a try, although it feels like I am going backwards using a dry yeast after moving to liquids

 

[kh54s10]

Cheers all.
Might give Notti a try, although it feels like I am going backwards using a dry yeast after moving to liquids

No reason to feel like you are going backward. Both are great options, I use both liquid and dry. Strains are different so there will be flavor differences but both make great beer - everything else equal.

 

[Alex4mula]

Maybe this should be separate thread, but does dry yeast have any detrimental effect like on taste? Like if there is any difference in pitching dry or prepare a started for taste? I love the convenience of just pitching the dry yeast and never had a problem on my brews (+/- 5% ABV).

 

[EnglishAndy]

Notti should work fine. Old Speckled is not an estery beer and feels somewhat dry on the palate.

It was estery, flavoursome and rather unique until Greene King bought Moreland, fired the staff, closed the brewery, moved production to their own site and messed with the recipe over the years so marketing could fit it comfortably into the rest of their bland lineup.

 

[thehaze]

I don't doubt it was better, but unfortunately what I've tasted in the last years, didn't really knowck my boots off. An OK pint, but estery it is not, although I like the " dryness " and enjoy the fact that it is not sweet.

 

[RM-MN]

It was estery, flavoursome and rather unique until Greene King bought Moreland, fired the staff, closed the brewery, moved production to their own site and messed with the recipe over the years so marketing could fit it comfortably into the rest of their bland lineup.

Maybe it was changed to fit the palate of the majority of the brewery's customers so it was a profitable beer instead of just one that a few would choose.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

I am planning to do a Speckled Hen clone shortly, and the recipe I found calls for Dry Danstar Nottingham Yeast by Lallemand.

My question is - Should I go for this dry yeast or use a live yeast instead like WLP002? (Only have White Labs where I am from,

Bear in mind that Nottingham is pretty much the default yeast for British homebrewers so many recipes use it regardless of its appropriateness.

Supposedly OSH is fermented at 24° (75°F) - even allowing for the different performance of yeast in large fermenters, you definitely want to be fermenting at 20°C+.

Esters are definitely part of the house style, although they may not be so evident in exported clear-glass bottles - Notty on its own is too clean. See Michael Jackson's comments from 1993 :

Because it was created for a 50th birthday, it was made to an original gravity of 1050. This figure is a measure of the density of malt sugars in the brew, but the last two numbers give a clue to the final alcohol. A beer of 1050 will usually have about 5 per cent; Old Speckled Hen actually has 5.2 per cent. The head brewer, Bill Mellor, says he simply aimed to create a beer of that gravity, with an appropriately full colour and flavour but with the dryness and easy drinkability that is Morland's house style.

It is my view that this characteristic dryness owes a great deal to Morland's two-strain yeast, which the brewery has used for an extraordinarily long time. These strains have been at Morland's since 1896 and are believed to have come from Charrington's now-defunct brewery in Mile End, east London.

Yeast produces different flavours according to the density of sugars with which it is required to work. At this gravity it creates a beer with a complexity of gently pear-like fruitiness and dryish, nutty maltiness. The hop bitterness in the finish is relatively restrained.

5.2% ABV from an OG of 1.050 implies an FG of around 1.012 and an apparent attenuation of around 77%. Something like WLP041 is a nice English yeast for bitter, although it may struggle to hit the attenuation, should be OK with a bit of sugar and not mashing too high.

It seems unlikely that a British brewery would be using Northern Brewer at that time, more likely something like Challenger.

 

[WhiteRhyno]

Thanks for your advice all, will give Notti a try for the first batch, then next time will give a liquid a go to see the difference