So I bought this Graham Wheeler book everybody bangs on about...

[moto748]

I I started home brewing a very long time ago with a book by Ken Shales called "Brewing Better Beers". Most of the recipes used a tin of malt extract and a ton of sugar - I shudder to think of them now but at the time it was the only guidance available.

Ha! Me too! I still have it right here!

As for S-04, I used to use it too, but was put off by much criticism here, and have sought other alternatives lately for bitter-type beers, with varying success.

I've never tried US-05 with 'hoppy' beers, but it's my go-to for stouts, where I've found it works very well

 

[moto748]

It is obviously the yeast that makes the beers taste different as most of the recipes are very similar in hoppage etc it is hard to realise how some of them could be different.
The book is a good recipe base but you will never clone any of the beers unless you have that magical ingredient - the correct yeast but you can make some good beers/ales from it as I have done over the years

Indeed, baron, and for that reason I cheerfully dislike the term 'clone' any way, and vow not to use it on any my beers. I think, for example, 'Irish-style stout' is much better than 'Guinness clone'. Seems to me the objective is make a beer that tastes good, not one that is marked up or down on how much it tastes like a commercial beer.

 

[trueblue]

Years ago Mr Malty came up with a list claiming the origins of liquid strains. It caused a lot of arguments on the forums of the day and I recall Graham Wheeler was one of the loudest claiming the list was b*llocks so in the interest of science I brewed several of Grahams recipes using their stated yeasts. Wyeast 1469 in a Timothy Taylors Landlord produced a remarkable similar beer as did Whitelabs WLP004 for Guinness. Passable were WLP013 for Worthington White Shield, 1768 for Youngs and WLP005 for Ringwood but WLP002 and 1968 despite producing very good beers had no resemblance to Fullers

 

[JockyBrewer]

Fullers is easy enough to get - just culture up the dregs from a couple of bottles of 1845. Can confirm it’s the real thing - my strong bitter’s aroma is very reminiscent of ESB.

 

[MickDundee]

I've never tried US-05 with 'hoppy' beers, but it's my go-to for stouts, where I've found it works very well

It’s very good in hoppy beers, and so are M44 and BRY-97.

The latter is my favourite of the 3 but there’s very little between them - US05 is very clean. M44 isn’t quite as clean but floccs better, and BRY-97 is a happy medium between the 2.

 

[An Ankoù]

Pity you didn't discover Dave Lines' original book 'The Big Book of Brewing'. That was the one that introduced Mashing to many, including me.

I cut my teeth on The Big Book of Brewing, too.
Still got a copy, which I haven't looked at for years. i can feel a bit of instructive bedtime reading coming on.

 

[An Ankoù]

It’s very good in hoppy beers, and so are M44 and BRY-97.

What is BRY-97 anyway? I used it for the first time in an NZ recipe and put a flask of the residue in my fridge, about 3 weeks ago now. Now and again when I open the fridge door, it sends up a bubble of gloop. It looks like a lager yeast. It's slow to start, like US-05, but I don't think it's the same strain.

 

[The Baron]

What is BRY-97 anyway? I used it for the first time in an NZ recipe and put a flask of the residue in my fridge, about 3 weeks ago now. Now and again when I open the fridge door, it sends up a bubble of gloop. It looks like a lager yeast. It's slow to start, like US-05, but I don't think it's the same strain.

It says it is a West Coast ale yeast which is neutral with high flocculation.
I think I used it many years ago when I bought a All Grain kit and that was the yeast supplied but can not remember how it performed

 

[Hop_it]

Pity you didn't discover Dave Lines' original book 'The Big Book of Brewing'. That was the one that introduced Mashing to many, including me.

I still have a very battered copy of this book. It was first published in 1974, and cost 75p. I was given a copy in ~1977 by my father-in-law, who was already a keen homebrewer. In it's day it was a revelation to homebrewers, and especially to would-be mashers. It looks very quaint and amateurish compared with today's publications, but few people had access to anything better. I can remember using his floating mash tun system in an old Burco wash boiler for many years . . . . and it worked well.

 

[An Ankoù]

I still have a very battered copy of this book. It was first published in 1974, and cost 75p. I was given a copy in ~1977 by my father-in-law, who was already a keen homebrewer. In it's day it was a revelation to homebrewers, and especially to would-be mashers. It looks very quaint and amateurish compared with today's publications, but few people had access to anything better. I can remember using his floating mash tun system in an old Burco wash boiler for many years . . . . and it worked well.

View attachment 53612

And this must be rocket science compared with the methods used by the beerwives of yore.

 

[moto748]

I still have a very battered copy of this book. It was first published in 1974, and cost 75p. I was given a copy in ~1977 by my father-in-law, who was already a keen homebrewer. In it's day it was a revelation to homebrewers, and especially to would-be mashers. It looks very quaint and amateurish compared with today's publications, but few people had access to anything better. I can remember using his floating mash tun system in an old Burco wash boiler for many years . . . . and it worked well.

View attachment 53612

Ha! That's where I had the genius idea of cutting out the intermediate tun and brewing direct in the Burco!

And it's still going strong!

 

[trueblue]

The Ken Shales books, I still have them both, were the best around until the David Line books were published. The next big leap forward did not happen until the Graham Wheeler books in the 1980s.

 

[MickDundee]

What is BRY-97 anyway? I used it for the first time in an NZ recipe and put a flask of the residue in my fridge, about 3 weeks ago now. Now and again when I open the fridge door, it sends up a bubble of gloop. It looks like a lager yeast. It's slow to start, like US-05, but I don't think it's the same strain.

I was always of the impression it was Lalleman’s “Chico” strain like US05 but it does have a couple of different characteristics. I’ve used it a lot over the last couple of years, I always used to alternate between US05 and M44 before that

 

[dwhite60]

I've used SO4 more than any other yeast and have found it's probably the most floculant I've ever used and when I have had haze issues, it's been down to me rather than the yeast.

I like S-04. I like the flavor in most beers. It does settle well and sticks to the bottle really well. Only thing I've tried that's stickier is Coopers ale yeast.

 

[RoomWithABrew]

I I started home brewing a very long time ago with a book by Ken Shales called "Brewing Better Beers". Most of the recipes used a tin of malt extract and a ton of sugar - I shudder to think of them now but at the time it was the only guidance available.
How things have changed!

I've got a signed first edition of the Ken Shales book. He was a friend of my grandfather and they used to brew before homebrewing was legal. The recipes as you say simple, malt extract, sugar hops and the odd bit of crystal or dark roasted. Yeast there was no distinction with a few mentions of using yeast from commercial bottles.
I shudder to think how those recipes would taste these days. Maybe I'll try one.

 

[CD]

The Ken Shales books, I still have them both, were the best around until the David Line books were published. The next big leap forward did not happen until the Graham Wheeler books in the 1980s.

You've got that spot on. I got The Big Book of Brewing the month it was first published, and haven't used malt extract since!

 

[An Ankoù]

I've got a copy of Shales "Advances Home Brewing". Pink cover, half of the back cover missing! Haven't looked at it for ages, but I do remember that I found his written style extremely irritating.
I agree that Wheeler took the baton from Dave Line and where do we go from Wheeler? Mosher? Parpasian? I think the aforementioned baton crossed the pond at some stage.

 

[trueblue]

Agree it did go across the pond after Wheeler and now we have the internet which has bought about the biggest leap forward but we should never forget those pioneers

 

[moto748]

There was another guy, a contemporary of Ken Shales, hang on, I have it here... Home Brewed Beers and Stouts, by CJJ Berry. First edition 1963, 20th edition, 1980. That's where i got the idea for the parsnip stout from! But his recipes was undrinkable, and I had to do a lot of trial-and-error to get something drinkable. I remember I doubled the amount of water, for a start!

 

[RoomWithABrew]

I've got mine close to hand, smells pretty musty. He was more a winemaker I think.

Mine is 2nd edition 1966 , what a way to celebrate the world cup.



Not surprised the stout was dire based on the milk stout recipe he had. No lactose, no pale malt must have been pretty harsh.