People do occasionally drink Kings Ale (brewed by Bass in 1902 in commemoration of a visit by Edward VII) and apparently live to tell the tale !
Gales 1977 Silver Jublilee (Yeast)
- Thread starter MyQul
- Start date
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Be rude not to try it
Just to check for infections as much as anything else.
I'm gonna go with the Burton beer - its amazing to think I was 2 years old when it was bottled
It's amazingly very good.
Kept a bit of carbonation. Light fruity plum aroma. Sweet rich malty flavour.
Slightly vinous from oxidation I guess, but I'll probably finish it - wish I knew how strong it is.
The sediment was well compacted and I left just this dribble in the bottom.
Will get the wort in as soon as it cools down and the bottle warms a bit
Kept a bit of carbonation. Light fruity plum aroma. Sweet rich malty flavour.
Slightly vinous from oxidation I guess, but I'll probably finish it - wish I knew how strong it is.
The sediment was well compacted and I left just this dribble in the bottom.
Will get the wort in as soon as it cools down and the bottle warms a bit
Wow, that looks in superb condition for its age.
So, before and after photos.
Two cleaned and sanitised bottles, and on the right a sanitised jar with some 1020° wort. Opened the first bottle - no noise, and poured as flat as a witches tit.
Taste? No off flavours, but Christmas cake, sherry and alcohol. Obviously, oxidised, but it was actually quite nice. Bottle number 2, this gave a slight pffft. Poured with a tiny amount of condition, but it was minimal.
You can't see on the piccy but there was a ring of bubbles round the edge. Same pleasant taste, sherry, Christmas cake, booze. I drank this one. Lol. Dregs of both swilled in the bottle a lot ( both frothed up a bit) and the mouths of the bottles sanitised. Contents of both dumped into the starter jar. Now we just wait. Thanks again @terrym
Two cleaned and sanitised bottles, and on the right a sanitised jar with some 1020° wort. Opened the first bottle - no noise, and poured as flat as a witches tit.
Taste? No off flavours, but Christmas cake, sherry and alcohol. Obviously, oxidised, but it was actually quite nice. Bottle number 2, this gave a slight pffft. Poured with a tiny amount of condition, but it was minimal.
You can't see on the piccy but there was a ring of bubbles round the edge. Same pleasant taste, sherry, Christmas cake, booze. I drank this one. Lol. Dregs of both swilled in the bottle a lot ( both frothed up a bit) and the mouths of the bottles sanitised. Contents of both dumped into the starter jar. Now we just wait. Thanks again @terrym
I might be getting ahead of myself slightly, but have noticed I've got the ingredients to make something akin to the very simple Bass recipe from the Graham Wheeler book - which would seem fitting for the 40 year old Bass yeast.
95% pale
5% crystal
26 IBUs Challenger @ 60 mins
95% pale
5% crystal
26 IBUs Challenger @ 60 mins
Well, the cling film over the top of the jar has positive pressure this morning, suggesting something is happening. Could just be an infection of course, lol.
That's a positive start. Mine seems a bit more foamy than it should be without any activity, but it's hard to tell with such a small amount in a brown bottle.
I've been regularly swirling my little starter for 3 days and it's not easy to tell if there is any activity, but it's been foamy and cloudy:
So I thought I'd step up adding 100ml of 1.020 wort and transferring to a new clean bottle:
But dissappointing to see a lot of sediment still stuck like glue to the bottom of the original bottle afterwards:
It'll hopefully be easier to see any definite signs of life in the bigger starter - fingers crossed
So I thought I'd step up adding 100ml of 1.020 wort and transferring to a new clean bottle:
But dissappointing to see a lot of sediment still stuck like glue to the bottom of the original bottle afterwards:
It'll hopefully be easier to see any definite signs of life in the bigger starter - fingers crossed
Same here - it will be interesting to see if it's a wild yeast infection or actually a 1970s yeast back from the dead! 
I can see lumps floating around that I'm sure must be flocs of yeast.Same here - it will be interesting to see if it's a wild yeast infection or actually a 1970s yeast back from the dead!
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I'll be pleased to get it into a clear container in a few days
After 5 days my 100ml starter looked like it was slowing down so I've added the whole lot to 500ml wort @ 1.028 for the next stage, while it is still a bit active.
Think I'll chill and decant off the spent wort before the next step.
Think I'll chill and decant off the spent wort before the next step.
Although my starter is doing well, the yeast does look a bit dark and is very powdery and easily disturbed when I pick up the bottle.
So to try to find out a bit more about the yeast, and to try to check if a 2ndry bottling strain may have been used, I sent an email to Charlie Bamforth as I know he worked at Bass for many years. He was kind enough to refer me to a very helpful associate professor at Nottingham Uni who is the 'The fount of all relevant knowledge on Bass yeasts', who over a couple of emails has advised:-
'As these were essentially commemorative beers I would be surprised if they went to the expense and trouble of adding a secondary strain.'
'Yeast is pretty robust – recovery of yeast from weird and ancient places (amber, pottery from Egyptian tombs, ship wrecks etc) is a popular activity.
I didn’t join Bass until 1982 so I’ve no first hand knowledge of the beer you are recovering the yeast from. I would be surprised if it wasn’t Draught Bass yeast which comprised of two very closely related ale yeasts differing in their flocculence. The strains G1 and G2 were named after the flocculence test described by RB Gilliland from Guinness, Dublin. G2 was more flocculent than G1 and accordingly was often lost when Bass was brewed in conical fermenters. Marstons who brew Bass for ABInBev these days are fermenting it in ‘squares’ and it is pretty good. I understand they are still using G1/G2 so you could recover the yeast from Draught Bass (once the pubs are back open!)'
So looking at my starter this makes sense if I am culturing up the less flocculant G1 strain.
It's pleasing to know that I'm probably not culturing a 2ndry bottling strain, as the starter smells good, and it will be interesting to see how a Bass clone comes out..........
but...........old English yeast strain......low flocculence......I can't help wonder how it might perform in a NEIPA
So to try to find out a bit more about the yeast, and to try to check if a 2ndry bottling strain may have been used, I sent an email to Charlie Bamforth as I know he worked at Bass for many years. He was kind enough to refer me to a very helpful associate professor at Nottingham Uni who is the 'The fount of all relevant knowledge on Bass yeasts', who over a couple of emails has advised:-
'As these were essentially commemorative beers I would be surprised if they went to the expense and trouble of adding a secondary strain.'
'Yeast is pretty robust – recovery of yeast from weird and ancient places (amber, pottery from Egyptian tombs, ship wrecks etc) is a popular activity.
I didn’t join Bass until 1982 so I’ve no first hand knowledge of the beer you are recovering the yeast from. I would be surprised if it wasn’t Draught Bass yeast which comprised of two very closely related ale yeasts differing in their flocculence. The strains G1 and G2 were named after the flocculence test described by RB Gilliland from Guinness, Dublin. G2 was more flocculent than G1 and accordingly was often lost when Bass was brewed in conical fermenters. Marstons who brew Bass for ABInBev these days are fermenting it in ‘squares’ and it is pretty good. I understand they are still using G1/G2 so you could recover the yeast from Draught Bass (once the pubs are back open!)'
So looking at my starter this makes sense if I am culturing up the less flocculant G1 strain.
It's pleasing to know that I'm probably not culturing a 2ndry bottling strain, as the starter smells good, and it will be interesting to see how a Bass clone comes out..........
but...........old English yeast strain......low flocculence......I can't help wonder how it might perform in a NEIPA
Might be bad news.
After settling in the fridge for a couple of days I had this thin layer at the bottom so made up 1L @ 1.032.
The yeast was so powdery that I only managed to decant off this much before some of the yeast would have been poured out.
The spent wort had a mild vinegar aroma and tasted more like cider than beer.
I've added the new 1L wort as I had it made but don't think I want to use this in a batch
After settling in the fridge for a couple of days I had this thin layer at the bottom so made up 1L @ 1.032.
The yeast was so powdery that I only managed to decant off this much before some of the yeast would have been poured out.
The spent wort had a mild vinegar aroma and tasted more like cider than beer.
I've added the new 1L wort as I had it made but don't think I want to use this in a batch
Did you take a gravity reading of the spent wort? It'd perhaps give a clue as to the yeast health and your sizing of that starter. Anecdotally I've had ale starters that taste sharp and the beer went on to be fine. My guess here is that without a stir plate to boost the growth you'd need to step up really slowly to avoid yeast stress.
Didn't think to check the gravity.
Up to now I've been increasing the starter size x5 and slightly increasing the gravity each time.
Interesting about the stir plate as i thought it may stress the yeast more.
The new 1L starter seems very sluggish getting going though so maybe a stir plate is the way to go.
Hi @MyQul
Just reading through this old thread, as it's popped up as 'new activity'.
I haven't yet played with starters, but find it fascinating, as I hadn't realised you could culture / clone this stuff.
Given that I may look to 'have a go' at this, and seeing as I brew 10-ish litre batches, would you care to share how much yeast in the bottom of a 2 litre pop bottle is about enough please?
A pic with a ruler paints a thousand words :)
Thanks
