English Ales - What's your favorite recipe?

[Shenanigans]

I think that I have read that more than 10% glycerine in the final solution is actually detrimental.

Now I remember why I have a 10 year old bottle of glycerin in the cupboard.
I was all up for doing this when I got back into brewing and ordered it but there was so much conflicting information I just gave up on the idea.
Now after more brewing experience I'm more relaxed.
Like a lot of home brew processes, perfection is not required to get acceptable results. It probably doesn't give the best results possible but as long as it works to store the yeast for extended periods and can be propagated enough to brew a batch within a week of defrosting then that's fine.
Now on a commercial scale perfecting the process can be much more critical of course.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

final solution

 

[Brewskey]

uh-oh

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

But on a serious note, I think the glycerine in the bottle already contains some water, so if I mix it 50/50 the resulting mix is probably more like 70/30 water/glycerine.
This is then mixed 50/50 with slurry so in theory it should be about 85/15, probably less since the slurry also contains some water.

 

[Miraculix]

...took me a while...

 

[Miraculix]

But on a serious note, I think the glycerine in the bottle already contains some water, so if I mix it 50/50 the resulting mix is probably more like 70/30 water/glycerine.
This is then mixed 50/50 with slurry so in theory it should be about 85/15, probably less since the slurry also contains some water.

My Glycerine is about 99% pure, at least that is what the label says.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

Just checked, mine is 85% glycerine.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

Checked gravity on the stout since the krausen and yeast dropped a few days ago and it looked like nothing was happening.
1.094-1.026, it might drop 1 point or 2 in the coming days but likely not more than that.
I am gonna brew an identical beer but scaled down to 1.070 for a "normal" stout, and now I know with this grist and mashing regimen I can expect an attenuation in the low 70's, ie right where I want it.
Probably gonna rack to secondary with some oak, hops and a shot of Brett'd old ale next weekend.

 

[kmarkstevens]

But in all seriousness, given this one particular callout, and given the BYO article suggesting "Wyeast 1469 (West Yorkshire Ale) or White Labs WLP037 (Yorkshire Square Ale) or Lallemand Windsor Ale yeast", what yeast would you use?

West Yorkshire and Yorkshire Square have nothing in common except the word "Yorkshire" in the title. This is an ancient BYO article, so to be forgiven for giving recommendations appropriate to that time.

West Yorkshire is really a nice yeast for a bitter. The WLP equivalent is Essex Ale. Both are easy to brew with.

Yorkshire Square is POF+ and can easily turn into a Saison type result. I did about 10 batches with it, all were very random, none were great, and it was far too much a yeast for my modest skills. And after all those batches, I wasn't even sure if there would ever be a good result.

For my palate, Windsor is not a good yeast. Far too fruity although it has been at least a decade since I last used it.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

Has anyone done any mix testing with Windsor?
Being rather fruity and low attenuating I suspect it was once part of some brewery multi-strain, and might perform better when co-pitched with a more neautral, attenuative and flocculating yeast.

 

[Miraculix]

Has anyone done any mix testing with Windsor?
Being rather fruity and low attenuating I suspect it was once part of some brewery multi-strain, and might perform better when co-pitched with a more neautral, attenuative and flocculating yeast.

That's correct. Notti and Windsor in the mix are kind of the old school gold standard for English dry yeast.

 

[Miraculix]

I'm currently trying to revive a frozen Whitbread slurry which I added a dash of glycerine to before freezing. Added it to the starter wort yesterday evening and no signs of life this morning. If this shouldn't work out, I'll be pitching half a pack Windsor and Notti each and brew a basic bitter. Maybe chevallier based. Probably 5% invert and 5% crystal, a dash of black malt, let's see.

Well, if anybody wants to know, after four or five days no signs of life. Down the drain it went, the freezing experiment didn't work out. Won't try this again.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

As I undestand it the most important part is getting the slurry and glycerine solution mixed well, so the glycerine sort of emulsifies in the slurry.

 

[Miraculix]

As I undestand it the most important part is getting the slurry and glycerine solution mixed well, so the glycerine sort of emulsifies in the slurry.

That was probably not the case here. Tried to mix it by hand in a freezer bag.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

I am gonna try just giving it a good stir in the jars with a sanitised tea-spoon before putting the lid on...

 

[DuncB]

You can’t beat a pint of Good Old Timothy Taylors landlord

Even Madonna agrees with you.

 

[bellhp]

it's sad that her face is now as fake as her accent was in that video.

 

[Brewskey]

it's sad that her face is now as fake as her accent was in that video.

She's pretty gross....

 

[bwible]

Well, if anybody wants to know, after four or five days no signs of life. Down the drain it went, the freezing experiment didn't work out. Won't try this again.

I tried freezing some Wyeast 2035 last year when I finally got some. Thats been one of their limited edition strains and one I had planned on trying to keep and use a few times. I followed the instructions mixing glycerine and I bought little plastic centrifuge tubes that I took great care to sanitize, along with everything else. When I took out one of the frozen tubes and made a starter it was obviously infected. I made 10 tubes and made infected starters out of 4 of them before I threw them all away. This is the first time I tried freezing yeast with glycerine and I’m not sure where I went wrong. Shame because I was hoping to be able to save off some of these limited availability yeasts. I guess yeast ranchin’ ain’t for me.

 

[bellhp]

I just brewed my last batch of stout with refrigerated slurry from a scottish ale thats been in my fridge for a month or so . 24 hours after pitching krauzen blew out my ferm lock it's wl0028 Edinburgh ale ...wanted to give it another try but I'm pretty much done buying liquid yeast so I saved it in a jar in fridge . I know this is old hat with most of ya'll but it's the first time I bothered to save yeast ... usually goes down the sink.

 

[mac_1103]

I tried freezing some Wyeast 2035 last year when I finally got some. Thats been one of their limited edition strains and one I had planned on trying to keep and use a few times. I followed the instructions mixing glycerine and I bought little plastic centrifuge tubes that I took great care to sanitize, along with everything else. When I took out one of the frozen tubes and made a starter it was obviously infected. I made 10 tubes and made infected starters out of 4 of them before I threw them all away. This is the first time I tried freezing yeast with glycerine and I’m not sure where I went wrong. Shame because I was hoping to be able to save off some of these limited availability yeasts. I guess yeast ranchin’ ain’t for me.

Where did you get the glycerine? Was it pure or diluted? If diluted, what percentage?

What I'm getting at is that the glycerine itself might be the source of your infection.

 

[KiwiBruce]

A PDQ note on saving yeast...bottle it. Take a teaspoon of the yeast you want to save and put it into a sterilized bottle and top-off with beer, any beer is OK, add corn sugar to prime and cap. This will keep for up to two years and is easily reactivated and doesn't use fridge space.

 

[bwible]

Where did you get the glycerine? Was it pure or diluted? If diluted, what percentage?

What I'm getting at is that the glycerine itself might be the source of your infection.

Walmart in the health/beauty section. I forget the % but everybody said this was ok to use. Boiled the glycerine water mix

 

[mac_1103]

Walmart in the health/beauty section.

The 99+% food or pharmaceutical grade stuff should be OK, but... nothing can grow in it because it's too viscous, but it can still get contaminated (with spores, e.g., that can then grow once it's been diluted). I've never frozen yeast as a homebrewer, but I always autoclaved the glycerol back in my lab days.

 

[Witherby]

Finally added a sparkler to my rocket pump beer engine. Really balances my Yorkshire bitter.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

As a hillbilly I truly appreciate the ghetto-enginering and make-it-work approach to that beer engine.

 

[Miraculix]

View attachment 812584View attachment 812585Finally added a sparkler to my rocket pump beer engine. Really balances my Yorkshire bitter.

Great work!

From an English perspective: that's way too much foam! There should be beer instead!

From a German perspective: really nice head! Richtig schöne Blume. 1a gezapft.

 

[Witherby]

As a hillbilly I truly appreciate the ghetto-enginering and make-it-work approach to that beer engine.

I wish I could claim any credit or ingenuity but this is pure HBT genius going back to 2006 (but I do have an upgrade coming that takes it to the next level!)
Fellow homebrewers, meet my new beer engine . . .

 

[kmarkstevens]

@Witherby Do you have part number for the Propane Low Pressure Regulator that you used? I slapped together one of these but stuck on finding the right propane regulator. What I have has a wierd reverse thread and can't figure out how to connect it to the CO2 regulator. I tried a couple on Amazon and returned them since I couldn't figure those out either. Any hints, tips or tricks would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Witherby]

@Witherby Do you have part number for the Propane Low Pressure Regulator that you used? I slapped together one of these but stuck on finding the right propane regulator. What I have has a wierd reverse thread and can't figure out how to connect it to the CO2 regulator. I tried a couple on Amazon and returned them since I couldn't figure those out either. Any hints, tips or tricks would be greatly appreciated!

I have this one that matches the description on the Zymurgy article specs: Precimex 3001 Single Stage Regultor

 

[Pennine]

View attachment 812584View attachment 812585Finally added a sparkler to my rocket pump beer engine. Really balances my Yorkshire bitter.

I have been looking at doing this. Do you feel like it serves better than just keeping low volumes of CO2 in a keg?

 

[Witherby]

I have been looking at doing this. Do you feel like it serves better than just keeping low volumes of CO2 in a keg?

I have had the pump working for a few years and I’m not sure it was worth it without the sparkler but with the sparkler it has a great thick foamy head and knocks the carbonation out of the beer and rounds it out. So the design of the beer plays a role. But even the English disagree and ultimately it goes down to what you like.

 

[shoreman]

Packaging - just wanted to pass on a tip (possibly).

I’ve been brewing for a pretty long time and started bottle conditioning, went to kegging and even cask beer with an engine. I’m now back to bottle conditioning and will probably be staying there.

I brew 80% British style and 15% Belgian styles - and have always preferred bottle conditioned beers, but the time spent bottling got to be too much.

I’ve finally streamlined it with brewing 2.5 gallons at a time, 22oz bottles, carbonation drops, primary fermentor with spout (I use an SS Brewbucket)

So 2.5 gallons will give me an exact twelve 22oz bottles which is plenty.

Primary for 1.5-2 weeks, sanitize bottles + add 1 carb drop, hook up bottle wand direct to fermenter, bottle then cap. Let sit 2 weeks, right into fridge and drinking.

1 carb drop gives you a really nice low carbonation for British styles. I use 1 in 33cl bottles for my Belgian beers.

I can now bottle in maybe 30 mins and it’s not so much of a chore.

Hope someone might pick up a few tips.

 

[Miraculix]

Packaging - just wanted to pass on a tip (possibly).

I’ve been brewing for a pretty long time and started bottle conditioning, went to kegging and even cask beer with an engine. I’m now back to bottle conditioning and will probably be staying there.

I brew 80% British style and 15% Belgian styles - and have always preferred bottle conditioned beers, but the time spent bottling got to be too much.

I’ve finally streamlined it with brewing 2.5 gallons at a time, 22oz bottles, carbonation drops, primary fermentor with spout (I use an SS Brewbucket)

So 2.5 gallons will give me an exact twelve 22oz bottles which is plenty.

Primary for 1.5-2 weeks, sanitize bottles + add 1 carb drop, hook up bottle wand direct to fermenter, bottle then cap. Let sit 2 weeks, right into fridge and drinking.

1 carb drop gives you a really nice low carbonation for British styles. I use 1 in 33cl bottles for my Belgian beers.

I can now bottle in maybe 30 mins and it’s not so much of a chore.

Hope someone might pick up a few tips.

I do half a litre bottles and I have a small plastic spoon that fits the correct amount of priming sugar plus a little funnel. I fill each bottle individually with granulated sugar, takes me just a tad bit more time per bottle than throwing in a carbonation drop. That way I bottle my 18l batches in less than 45 minutes.

 

[Miraculix]

Brewday!

Chevallier, 5% medium invert, a dash of carafa spezial 2 for colour.

Windsor/Notty mix.

 

[Witherby]

Brewday!

Chevallier, 5% medium invert, a dash of carafa spezial 2 for colour.

Windsor/Notty mix.

I am brewing something very similar but with Maris Otter this weekend.

 

[Brewskey]

Brewday!

Chevallier, 5% medium invert, a dash of carafa spezial 2 for colour.

Windsor/Notty mix.

I haven't tried the Windosr/Notty mix yet. How do you like it? I'm brewing something similar soon with the Whitbread strains 1098/1099.

 

[eshea3]

Brewday!

Chevallier, 5% medium invert, a dash of carafa spezial 2 for colour.

Windsor/Notty mix.

Full pack of each yeast?

 

[bellhp]

Bottling my " Dobby the house bitter today" It's nothing special ... Marris Otter ,crystal 40 , fuggles and muntons yeast. It's part of my experimental 1 gallon brews ( will be taste testing my " Beer Hunter" Deer camp brown" tonight with some friends) . I will change 1 variable each batch just to see what works , next variable for this one will be invert ... should I make it myself or buy some Lyle's golden syrup or similar?

 

[Brewskey]

next variable for this one will be invert ... should I make it myself or buy some Lyle's golden syrup or similar?

Cheaper to do it yourself and it isn't that difficult.