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English Ales - What's your favorite recipe?

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I know this recipe!!! :D
This is on my ‘short list’ of To Brew, likely next week. I have Verdant and Notty on hand, but was planning to use A09 “Pub” exclusively. What do you think of a Pub/Verdant co- pitch? I’d probably pitch Verdant initially, then Pub after a day or two of active fermentation.
 
For that reason I always used Imperial A09. In a side by side with the Fuller's from the bottle I could taste no difference. I find the Fullers yeast gives a blend of orange marmelade and some honey, while WLP007 (Whitbread Dry) gives only orange.
Good to know. We should have a wiki to map these. There are old ones that are guesstimates but better to have more up to date info.
 
NB
Just to add some random German phrases that do not make any sense in English but are actually a thing in German:

I think my pig whistles!

He doesn't have all cups in the cupboard.

Now we have the salad.

Such a juice shop.

Nobody can hand us the water.

And last but not least:

That's not my beer. (Meaning, this doesn't concern me.)

The beauty of the German language.

It puts the crown on the whole thing.

If you don't get it, you're looking stupidly out of the laundry!

But maybe you just do have nothing at your hat with it in general.
“The morning has gold in its mouth.”
 
Made a house "beast yeast" with all the English yeasties in my library. Really just a dog's breakfast of what was in the fridge with varying viability, strengths & generations:
S04
Notty
Whitbread
Fullers from the bottle
Shepard Meene (from the bottle)
WLP013
WLP026
Burton Ale
Adnan
WLP85
Essex Ale
WLP006
Manchester
W Yorkie
Pub

and I might have missed one or two. Just dumped them all in the stir plate. Cold crashing right now, and plan to make a bitter as well as store for posterity.
 
This is on my ‘short list’ of To Brew, likely next week. I have Verdant and Notty on hand, but was planning to use A09 “Pub” exclusively. What do you think of a Pub/Verdant co- pitch? I’d probably pitch Verdant initially, then Pub after a day or two of active fermentation.
Nooooo! Don't you ruin the finest of them all with something as overexpressive as verdant!

Pub is the best, no need to try to enhance the best. It only can get worse.
 
I have mixed pub with us05 in the past to increase attenuation in a big beer. That worked pretty well. But flavour wise, I wouldn't want to change a thing, pub is just really nice as it is.
 
If you wish to co-pitch, the closer to hisrorical practice method would be to pitch both simultaneously, as Brittish breweries had running multi-strains, some still do btw.

As an aside, I not too long ago cleaned a keg that hat condained a bitter fermented with Verdant, after rinsing out yeast with water before sponge-scrubbing, the keg still smelled of tropical fruit candy...
 
If you wish to co-pitch, the closer to hisrorical practice method would be to pitch both simultaneously, as Brittish breweries had running multi-strains, some still do btw.

As an aside, I not too long ago cleaned a keg that hat condained a bitter fermented with Verdant, after rinsing out yeast with water before sponge-scrubbing, the keg still smelled of tropical fruit candy...
Verdant can be way too much way too easily... In American hoppy styles no problem at all. In other styles or unfortunately is.
 
@Brooothru If you want the flavour of Verdant, but a second strain for more flocculation, simply adding a bit of Notthingham will probably be easiest. Pub would only make sense if you fear the attenuation of the Notthingham will be too high.
I’ve only used Pub twice before. Both times it reminded me a lot of Nottingham: fast fermenter, dropped clear quickly, and strong attenuator, though not as strong as Notty. On the other hand it seemed less ‘neutral’ in flavor/aroma (ie., marmalade & apricot present with Pub). Thanks for “talking me down” from a dual yeast pitch. My original inclination to use Pub ‘solo’ appears to be the correct choice.
 
I brewed a best bitter last Monday using a half pack of Windsor and a half pack of Nottingham.

7.5 lbs Maris Otter (Crisp floor malted) [80.%]
1 lb Wheat malt [10.7%]
4 oz Crystal 77 (Crisp) [vorlauf] [2.7%]
1.5 oz Carafa Special 1 [vorlauf] [1.1%]
.5 lb Invert #2 [boil] [5.3%]

EKG at 60 min for 28 IBU
Styrian Celeia at 10 min for 4 IBU
27g whole cone Styrian Celeia dry hop in the fermenter after 4 days of fermentation

I mashed at 152F (no sparge in my Anvil Foundry). I need to adjust my efficiency numbers in Beersmith because I was aiming for 1.044 but ended up with 1.048 OG.

It took off like crazy and went from 1.048 to 1.018 in 2 days, which is 67%, so that was the Windsor doing its thing, from what I have read.

But it is still dropping a little more each day since then and is now a week later at 1.012. I want to bottle condition this beer so I want it to finish before bottling. What is your experience with bottling a Windsor/Notty mix? I will be bottling this weekend but could cold crash before then if that makes sense. The sample I took was still very cloudy. I'm hoping it flocculates more by the end of the week.

Since we are discussing yeast blends I thought I’d give an update on the bitter I brewed in February with Windsor and Notty. I ended up keg conditioning rather than bottling. I had a regular dip tube in and I kept hoping that the next pint would finally be a clear pint. It never happened. So, two weeks ago I cold crashed the keg (it had been at cellar temp), prepped a pack of gelatin and sanitized a floating dip tube, depressurized the keg, popped off the lid, poured in the gelatin, swapped out the dip tubes, sealed it back up and put it in my beer fridge. A week later it was crystal clear and is definitely one of the best bitters I have brewed. I’m going to rebrew the recipe with Wyeast 1469 to see what I prefer. I love the convenience of the dry yeast, but would like to find a solution that drops clear on its own without fining.
 
Since we are discussing yeast blends I thought I’d give an update on the bitter I brewed in February with Windsor and Notty. I ended up keg conditioning rather than bottling. I had a regular dip tube in and I kept hoping that the next pint would finally be a clear pint. It never happened. So, two weeks ago I cold crashed the keg (it had been at cellar temp), prepped a pack of gelatin and sanitized a floating dip tube, depressurized the keg, popped off the lid, poured in the gelatin, swapped out the dip tubes, sealed it back up and put it in my beer fridge. A week later it was crystal clear and is definitely one of the best bitters I have brewed. I’m going to rebrew the recipe with Wyeast 1469 to see what I prefer. I love the convenience of the dry yeast, but would like to find a solution that drops clear on its own without fining.
I've brewed a beer with 1/1 Windsor/notti, and it took four or five weeks in the bottle to clear but it was crystal clear after that. The character is ok, not the best I've had but pretty good for dry yeast only. I also might have a small oxidation issue here so probably not the best batch to judge the taste.
 
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@Brooothru I always experienced A09 and the original Fuller's as average attenuators in the 75% range. Sometimes they give rather sweet beers compared to some other yeasts like Wyeast 1469 and Nottingham.
Same for me but I mainly used it in combination with a hochkurz mash and usually also with 5-10% simple sugars.
 
Since we are discussing yeast blends I thought I’d give an update on the bitter I brewed in February with Windsor and Notty. I ended up keg conditioning rather than bottling. I had a regular dip tube in and I kept hoping that the next pint would finally be a clear pint. It never happened.
It's worth remembering that Windsor drops clear quite quickly - the problem is that it doesn't flocculate so any disturbance kicks up a cloud of yeast. So it's perfectly clear if you pour it carefully from a bottle, it's a question of finding ways to serve from a keg that doesn't disturb it (or serve it brite).

Also makes sure you're using a British level of calcium in your water rather than the strange ideas that certain USians have on the matter...
 
It's worth remembering that Windsor drops clear quite quickly - the problem is that it doesn't flocculate so any disturbance kicks up a cloud of yeast. So it's perfectly clear if you pour it carefully from a bottle, it's a question of finding ways to serve from a keg that doesn't disturb it (or serve it brite).

Also makes sure you're using a British level of calcium in your water rather than the strange ideas that certain USians have on the matter...

What calcium level would you target?

I do have very soft water, which is a great starting point for almost anything. Given my additions of gypsum and calcium chloride my calcium was around 50, so not super high, but not ridiculously low either. I usually aim for a more sulfate profile, but for this batch I was boosting the chloride and I liked that balance. I could easily keep the same ratio but boost both and in so doing bring up the calcium.
 
Yes, that’s exactly the rhyme I remembered. And it still doesn’t make sense.


"Morgenstern hat gold im Mund"
["The Morningstar has Gold in its Mouth"]

And while we're on the off-topic and I'm reminiscing my horrific butchering of the German language, I recall years ago being in a university chorus performing Beethoven's 9th Symphony (natürlich auf deutsch), and this couplet from the Third Movement (the "Ode to Joy") came to mind:

"Freude trinken alle Wesen
An den Brusten der Natur:
Alle Guten, alle Bosen,
Folgen ihrer Rosenspur."


In my perverse sense of humor I couldn't resist substituting the first word with "schadenfreude", given the recent news of the day. I'll leave it to others to translate, and to figure out the not so hidden relevance. Now I can't get the damn lyric out of my mind.

Chuck Berry as well as Beethoven are surely rolling over in their graves.
 
"Morgenstern hat gold im Mund"
["The Morningstar has Gold in its Mouth"]

And while we're on the off-topic and I'm reminiscing my horrific butchering of the German language, I recall years ago being in a university chorus performing Beethoven's 9th Symphony (natürlich auf deutsch), and this couplet from the Third Movement (the "Ode to Joy") came to mind:

"Freude trinken alle Wesen
An den Brusten der Natur:
Alle Guten, alle Bosen,
Folgen ihrer Rosenspur."


In my perverse sense of humor I couldn't resist substituting the first word with "schadenfreude", given the recent news of the day. I'll leave it to others to translate, and to figure out the not so hidden relevance. Now I can't get the damn lyric out of my mind.

Chuck Berry as well as Beethoven are surely rolling over in their graves.
MorgenSTUND' hat Gold im Mund.

MorningHOUR, Not star, but the meaning stays the same.
 
@Brooothru I always experienced A09 and the original Fuller's as average attenuators in the 75% range. Sometimes they give rather sweet beers compared to some other yeasts like Wyeast 1469 and Nottingham.
Agree. I'm almost thinking that I might want to cut down on the amount of Lyle's syrup I add at knock out. I'm looking for the 'marmalade' but want to avoid too much sweet. I do like the way Pub ferments with regards to speed and clarity, but I 'm also concerned with under-attenuation leading to residual sweetness.
 
Agree. I'm almost thinking that I might want to cut down on the amount of Lyle's syrup I add at knock out. I'm looking for the 'marmalade' but want to avoid too much sweet. I do like the way Pub ferments with regards to speed and clarity, but I 'm also concerned with under-attenuation leading to residual sweetness.
Lyle's attenuates fully, it's simple sugars. No residual sweetness from this one. Want more attenuation? Up the percentage of Lyle's in your brew!
 
Lyle's attenuates fully, it's simple sugars. No residual sweetness from this one. Want more attenuation? Up the percentage of Lyle's in your brew!
Excellent point, quite right.

Out of curiosity, what amount of Lyle's do you use? My untested recipe worked out to 1# of Lyle's for a 6.2 gal/23.5l batch volume into fermenter, which seemed quite a lot. I'm hoping my calculations and conversions between metric and Imperial are all correct, or at least "ball park."
 
Somewhere between 5-10% is usually nice.
My recipe shows it at 9.8% of the total fermentables, based in my equipment profile and observed efficiencies over close to 200 brew sessions over the years. A little on the high side, but should be OK, especially if it helps to dry out the fermentation.
 

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