What a day!!!

[Dronfieldbrewer]

Eh up...

Just had one of the best and most informative days in my fledgling brewing career. I drove a round trip of 260 miles to go to Brewlab in Sunderland for a bit of 1 to 1 tuition with Alison the Labmaster....

In the day I have been playing with yeast slopes, Microscopes etc. Had a tour of the training 4 Bbl brewery, the lab and have a notebook full of scribbled instructions of how to keep my favourite yeasts for ever....

I also came away with a very very deeply precious cargo....a yeast strain....Shhhh! cannot tell you which brewery, past or present, it has come from but to those that know me well will know that I hold this one dear to my heart. I still to this day go misty eyed when someone mentions this lost brewery. The beer that this yeast produced was, in my opinion, the finest beer of its time. Loads of brewers have tried in vain to copy it but never quite got it right.

Many a tear was shed when this one closed, bought by and asset stripped by a huge brewing company, the remains of the brewery still there for all to see, the brass door furniture tarnished beyond recognition, the windows smashed, roof all caved in. The once highly polished name plates now covered in pigeon ****..BUT...I now have a slope of the original strain.....I feel like I have won the lottery...However I still need the recipe....or do I???? :whistle:

 

[godfrey]

well the yeast is your entry point,

the rest of the ingredients are probably off the shelf

so now it is trial and error...

good luck to make this lost brew :thumb:

if only you could find one of the old brewers :wha:

 

[Dronfieldbrewer]

good luck to make this lost brew :thumb:

if only you could find one of the old brewers :wha:[/quote]

Funny you should say that.....He lives a the end of the road...and confirms that my recipe is as near as dam it... :thumb:

 

[RokDok]

Alison is incredibly helpful, and highly knowledgable With the yeast you're 90% there. RD

 

[jonnymorris]

...a notebook full of scribbled instructions of how to keep my favourite yeasts for ever....

Any tips you'd care to share?

 

[dennisking]

I've spoke to Alison twice over the phone and found her realy helpfull.

 

[Dronfieldbrewer]

...a notebook full of scribbled instructions of how to keep my favourite yeasts for ever....

Any tips you'd care to share?

slant...reslant...slant...reslant

 

[Good Ed]

Alison is great at Brewlab, although she does insist that we respect Brewlab's "secrets", meaning that they have quite stash of brewery yeasts past and present and don't want us to be blabbing about this on forums. But if you are after a particular yeast, just ask Alison and there is a good chance they have it.

The best thing about Brewlab is that your order is made and shipped within days and is therefore very fresh and is ready to go straight away by making a starter, whereas the White Lab and Wyeast yeasts have been made months ago and require a bit more effort to get ready.

 

[Dronfieldbrewer]

Alison is great at Brewlab, although she does insist that we respect Brewlab's "secrets", meaning that they have quite stash of brewery yeasts past and present and don't want us to be blabbing about this on forums. But if you are after a particular yeast, just ask Alison and there is a good chance they have it.

The best thing about Brewlab is that your order is made and shipped within days and is therefore very fresh and is ready to go straight away by making a starter, whereas the White Lab and Wyeast yeasts have been made months ago and require a bit more effort to get ready.

Your quite right, the breweries that have placed their yeasties in storage do not want it blabbing all over.

I can actually say that the yeast I was recommended to use by Alison is fantastic so far in the little minibrews I have made. It started fermenting within a few hours. It climbed up the side of the 5 litre fermenter, throwing off some lovely aromas. It finished fermenting within 2 days and dropped like a rock. I poured off the used wort and replaced with 3 litres of fresh wort to give it a feed...Bang...off it went again. When its finished, I will split it down, slant as many samples as I can, freeze some etc to get as much into storage as possible

I think it will have grown enough for its first outing of 80 litres of BG Dronx this next week...cannot wait...

However the prized yeastie (Sheffield Strain) is a bit sluggish, still at the 2nd step up, not much action..