Hey guys , how do you like an english ipa with 80% pale ale, 7% wheat, 11% crystal 60l , 1 target, 1 simcoe and 1 1/5 fuggles? Would you say it has what it takes for an ipa?
For an English IPA, I’m not sure why the wheat? Generally speaking, I would go with ~90% British Pale and maybe ~10% Carastan or C40L. Well, and I would tend to stick with EKG or Fuggles for the hops.
I would leave out the wheat as well and actually go with 90% MO, maybe 5% crystal and 5% Munich with noble hops and ferment with WY 1968
+1. And I’d definitely drop the Simcoe and go with all British hops, especially EKG late. 40-60ish IBUs.
English ale is my specialty. Traditional English-style IPA does not contain crystal malt or munich malt. The grist is composed of 100% pale malt or mostly pale malt with a touch of torrified wheat. Traditional English IPA is also more bitter than American IPA. American IPA has more late hoping and less kettle hopping.
Love lots of EKG for this style.
Appreciate it , i had second thoughts bout the simcoe , just had the the oz there i used fuggle as late addition , couldnt get any ekg
I was wondering what yeast that you prefer for English IPA?
Sadly, I am still searching for “the one” when it comes to English IPA strains. None of the strains that are available from Wyeast and White Labs are true Burton-style strains. Lately, I have been experimenting with a culture collection yeast strain called NCYC 1108. NCYC 1108 is attenuative enough to be an IPA strain, but it is not a traditional IPA strain from what I can ascertain.
I see that Wyeast has a private collection Burton style blend (WY 1203). I wonder what that would be like?
That’s just a made up name for a mixture of strains in the Wyeast collection. True Burton strains are non-flocculent, which is why the union brewing system became so popular. The union design allows for harvesting of non-flocculent yeast cells. A true Burton strain has an apparent attenuation of at least 80%.
Good to know. So does that mean that there are no true Burton yeast strains available for brewers? I appreciate your knowledge on the subject.
Yes, indeed
To the best of my knowledge, neither of the two major yeast propagators is offering a historically accurate Burton strain. R.S.W. Thorne, who I believe was Catherine Roberts’ husband, deposited the Burton strain shown below in the NCYC in the fifties. Catherine Roberts was an American born scientist who pioneered the field of yeast genetics with Øjvind Winge at Carlsberg labs in the forties and early fifties. I have a yeast culture that she deposited in the U.C. Davis collection in forties.
NCYC 231
Depositor: R.S.W. Thorne
Deposit Name: Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Month of deposit: June
Deposit Year: 1951
Habitat: Brewing strain
Equivalent Strain Designations: Strain V, Burton-on-Trent brewery strain
Deposit: > 15mm
Head Formation: No Head
Attenuation: 1.006-1.008
Clarity of Final Beer: >20
Fermentation Rate: 4-6°
Flocculence: N/A
One data point that is not given here is the original gravity used for the fermentation tests. That gravity was 10% w/v, or 1.040. With a final gravity in 1.006 to 1.008 range, we are looking at apparent attenuation levels of
in the 80 to 85% range. A true Burton yeast strain is a non-flocculent strain that does not produce a skimmable head, which is why the union system was so critical to maintaining a healthy culture. These strains would not work well in traditional skimming or double-drop breweries.
Marstons still uses a union system. I wonder why that one is not on the market?
I am not certain if it is or not. One of the Marston strains is available as WLP026.
Jeff, by the way, I do not purchase yeast from White Labs or Wyeast very often, but your posts piqued my interest in WLP022 Essex Ale (a.k.a. Ridley’s strain). I undoubtedly saved a vial of WLP022 from the trash bin by purchasing it the weekend before NHC. It’s “best by” date was 6/12/2015. I started it yesterday in 500ml of 10% w/v wort. It has been slowly waking up. If it does not kick into high gear in the next few hours, I may decide to plate it and grow a new culture from a healthy colony. WLP022 is seasonal for us mere mortals.
The only way I can get it through the year is that a local Brewpub, Grizzley Peak in Ann Arbor uses it as the house strain. It is a top cropper, and the head brewer says they are over 90 generations on it. I like the fruity esters it kicks out.
It was brought back from Ridley’s by Jeff Renner, who was visiting a former club member who repatriated to Chelmsford in Essex, before Ridley went under. Jeff also was instrumental in getting WLP833 (ayinger) to White Labs. He did the home brewing community some big favors getting those yeasts to Chris White.
The weird thing is that WLP022 did not form a head on my starter, not even a foam head. I am wondering if the vial was mislabeled. I always get a yeast head on my starters with top croppers when starting from slant. I made a promise to myself that I would not bank any yeast strain that I can acquire without laying out a c-note, but I may plate and bank this strain just because it is not available year round.
I had to delay brewing for two days, so I let starter ferment out, decanted the spent wort, and transferred the slurry to a larger media bottle with 600ml of 10% wort. WLP022 formed a head this time. The batch formed a head in less than 12 hours (it more than likely reached low krausen in around 8), so there you have it, a White Labs culture that lived several months in a LHBS refrigerator that was opened and closed many times a day and used after the “best by” date fermenting like a fresh out the lab culture.
By the way, the Ridley’s strain is one flocculent yeast strain. The sediment breaks loose in large clumps when disturbed. It’s difficult to truly appreciate a flocculent culture until one uses a non-flocculent culture such as NCYC 1108. NCYC 1108 sediments well. It just does not want to stay in place after sedimentation.