Anonymous Blackpool Brewers Anonymous Beer

[Aleman]

:lol:
Those of you that were aware of my problems reviewing these two bottles of beer might like to have a little update. Remember I was given two bottles of beer that had been made by splitting the wort into two FV's and pitching each FV with a different yeast, and that was all the information I was provided

I can't believe its been so long since you dropped these off. However I have finally got around to trying this beer. First off I have to say that I hate this sort of test mainly because I don't get the opportunity to do this in a supervised manner . . . although at the Northern CBA meetings we do get some tutoring from a National Judge.

Firstly the gold cap

Low head formation, although there was a good rising bead, the yeast sediment was firm and stable on pouring. The beer did not form a good head, although on standing it did show some evidence of trying to. A very nice red brown colour with just a hint of haze. Aroma on pouring was slightly yeasty, and the initial taste revealed a soft malt profile with a slight dryness, and perhaps a metallic after taste. There is no hop flavour or aroma, but I detected a slight citrus taste . . . Bitterness was low and somewhat short lived.

Now the Red Cap.

Significantly more carbonation, forming a large coarse head which decreased to 1C over 5 minutes. Good rising bead which lead to a good head retention. . . Fruity aroma on pouring, and no visible haze. Initial taste was of a sweet malt profile, with a slight dryness, and a citrus/orange taste. Bitterness was clean with a longer finish than the Gold cap.

I used a pocket beer engine to knock out the carbonation, and both beers exhibited a malty profile with very little bitterness, perhaps more of the fruity hop flavours were exhibited by the red capped beer. . . . and there was a faint liquorice after taste.

Neither bottle exhibited any faults, and I would be happy to pay for a pint or either in the pub, but my personal preference was for the red cap beer.

Now to the difficult part, there were two different beers, but not as different as expected, based on the fact that the red cap beer was more fruity I was thinking along the lines of Windsor or SO4, The Gold cap beer was dryer and more minerally, So I was thinking along the lines of Nottingham or Munton's . . . although something like Wyeast London Ale I is another option.

Go on put me out of my misery, tell me I'm way out of left field :)

And the reply

Hi, firstly thanks for taking the time to do this for me - at the time I was unsure if I had improving my brewing methods but I am feeling much more confident now!

The gold cap,as suggested was indeed Nottingham and I think this yeast caused a blandness to be apparent in the beer which was not there in the red capped S04. The hopping rate and type (Fuggles) were obviously the same and I was amazed myself at the difference the yeast seemed to have on two otherwise identical beers. Obviously there is the possibility of an infection of some kind in the gold capped Nottingham or maybe the fermentation temp was better suited to S04 but everyone who compared the two preffered the S04!

Both beers seemed to suffer chill haze which I now have under control through faster cooling (a hozelock 'stop-end' was causing a restriction in my hosepipe setup going to the IC) and using polyclar in conjunction with my new temp controlled fridge (got the TC-10 for this, works like a dream) to lower temps before kegging/bottling.

I am still unsure why the head should be less than ideal, both bottles had 1 carbonation drop in them but the S04 'finished' at a higher gravity so perhaps there was sugar left in the finished beer which added to the carbonation drop to enable a bit of extra fizz?

I also noticed a lack of bitterness; beersmith reported my bitterness ratio (IBU/SG) to be 0.598 and I have upped this considerably for my subsequent brews, My recent IPA was 0.920 - much better but still not as bitter as I expected!


My notes after brewing this beer were

mashed at 68C
did 2 batch sparges and took far too long
Boil took 90 mins from 57C to 100C
No discernable hot break - need to go propane! (have done now)
Cooling took 35 mins - hozelock stop end was causing restriction in waterflow through IC
Split between 2 FV, one Nottingham yeast (FG1.006) 5.3% (bottled) the other S-04 (FG1.014) 4.3% (kegged)
S-04 much faster ferment and cleared v quick.Nicer Taste
Nottingham cleared slowly, fermented dryer - lost some body, too neutral - tastes bland
Increased bitterness would be better. Not much hop flavour
Suffers chill haze

Go on put me out of my misery, tell me I'm way out of left field

Pretty much spot on really!
Its a bit of a steep learning curve starting AG with only the internet for help but I'm improving with every brew - since this beer I have made a dry Irish stout with Nottingham yeast which actually worked very well with this beer, a special bitter using Aurora and East Kent Goldings - my 1st dry hopped beer which used the Brewlabs Yorkshire 2 slant(excellent) and the latest a double batch (40L) IPA using First gold and EKG.

Can't wait for the IPA - will be taking both kegs camping with some mates soon - that'll be the REAL test!

Sorry for the long post if you get this far, don't have anyone to talk to about brewing so its all come out in one!

Which has surprised me no end, I thought my taste buds were shot, but obviously I'm managing to pick a few flavours up here and there

 

[jamesb]

I used a pocket beer engine to knock out the carbonation, and both beers exhibited a malty profile with very little

I'm sure I've seen you talking about this before.... come on, spill the beans.

 

[Muddydisco]

Nice one Aleman, I was there in the chat room when yodid this. I wish my taste buds were that precise, too many raw chillies have wounded a few too many taste buds for me to tell what yeast was used! I know of somewhere a few sample's might head once I'm brewing!

 

[Aleman]

I used a pocket beer engine to knock out the carbonation, and both beers exhibited a malty profile with very little

I'm sure I've seen you talking about this before.... come on, spill the beans.

It's nothing that special, but when encountering a beer with too much carbonation, take a 5ml plastic syringe, suck up about 2.5ml of beer into it, then squirt it back into the beer forcibly . . . The beer will foam up releasing the carbonation.

WARNING Make sure you have enough headroom in the glass, a mate did this and the beer foamed up and threatened to overflow the glass, he lunged forward to suck up the foam . . . . . and Knocked his crown off on the heavy lip of the mug . . . Expensive Beer :shock:

 

[BarnsleyBrewer]

I split my brews regularly, the difference in taste is unreal :ugeek: , the only yeast I'm not impressed with is Windsor!

John

 

[highwayman]

I agree with BB..about Windsor. I have only use it once..and whilst it fermented fast...It took ages to clear Is this normal?

 

[Aleman]

I've fermented Most of my last bales with Windsor and had no problem with it clearing . . . From pitching to keg in 14 days . . . Of course I do crash cool at the end of fermentation