What’s your version of what classifies as a whale? GO…
A “whale” for me used to be a highly regarded beer that I couldn’t find locally. As an example from someone who lives in PA, this would be Pliny the Elder (or anything from Russian River for that matter). But…eventually I managed to get my hands on one and realized that nothing can ever match the hype that surrounds it. A fine beer for certain, but I’ve had a lot of fine beers.
So no more chasing commercial “whales”.
Now, all a “whale” means to me is a beer style that I want to perfect in my own brewhouse but haven’t yet hit the bullseye. That would currently be an English Porter, though I am getting close.
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Love this answer and the move to what it means tied to homebrewing.
This is my definition, as well.
DON’T RUIN IT FOR ME! 
I think I almost had my wife talked into a beercation to try Pliny.
And I see that I need to get the hang of quoting on this new platform. 
*Mod Note: I fixed the formatting. Don’t ask how, I don’t know. 
*
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Ditto.
For example, I’ve trying to lay my hands on a bottle of La Folie for ages, but even when I’ve been in Colorado, the stores around me haven’t had it.
Yeah it’s weird that NB went from wanting La Folie to be widely accessible to now it’s nearly impossible to find. I can get it on tap at a few places in Denver but if there are bottles around they probably have some age on them (which is a good thing). I’m not sure if they’re even bottling it anymore but if I see one around town I’ll pick it up and figure out a way to get it to you if you’re interested.
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I think NB has just accepted that Voodoo Ranger is their money-maker and the sour/foeder stuff is secondary.
But if you can find a bottle anywhere, DM me and we’ll figure something out.
I always assumed a “whale” was that beer or maybe beers from that brewery everyone was attempting to copy/clone. Samual Smith Oatmeal Stout, Floyd’s Zombie Dust, Anchor Steam, to name a few
It started as a reference to difficult to obtain beers. It’s a Moby Dick reference. Like Pliny the Elder was a whale for a long time because it was hard to get and if you could get it, it was a rare event. A beer could be your (white) whale just because it’s hard for you to get it.
Beer traders turned it more into the beers that were expensive to acquire because they were hard to acquire and in such high demand that they were expensive to acquire in the trading market.
I don’t know that it’s a commonly used term for homebrew but I like Megary’s take on it.
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You should take a trip to Sonoma to try it at either Russian River location. Even if your wife doesn’t drink beer, it’s extremely scenic, a fantastic place to enjoy wine and good food if she doesn’t drink at all.
OTOH, we are now getting it fairly regularly here in Denver. Like I bought several bottles of Pliny and Pliny for President at the whole foods across from where I work. If you just want bottles, I could probably help make this happen. But really, you should try to get to the brewery and drink the enormous flight.
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Surly brewed it in 2017 as a commemorative beer given away at the Minneapolis NHC - named WhaleZBrah! I’ll be darned, but I don’t recall the style, if there was one….
In Mexico the workers buy their beer, not in six packs, but in ballenas (whales - slightly larger than a 22oz bottle). This is the cheapest way to buy beer for them. Por eso, en mi mundo, una “whale” es una ballena de cerveza.
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For me, the “whale” is cask ale. Can’t get it locally and it’s not easy to get to where it is available.
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You speak my language! Hey I’ve yet to evolve to serving my Extra Soecial Beautiful on cask but curious what you think about my column. Extra Special Beautiful
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Ok you baited me
Bitters or strong bitters can have a pretty simple grain bill. Agree on a good British malt such as Maris Otter # 19 from Crisp. After that I just use some dark British crystal/caramel malt for color. That it. You are using that good malt for a reason right?
Agree on hops use whatever UK hops you like (for a twist US citrusy hops work real well).
Agree on yeast. 1968, 002, 007, Ringwood or 1469
Agee on natural carbonation but I cannot tell the difference on sugar type. I prime my kegs at 1/4-1/3 cup of table sugar
Now here are the parts that were missed
Condition in a cool area for about a week or a few days more for a Strong Bitter less for an ordinary. A few days prior to putting in your serving fridge Vent the keg one or two times per day to release excess co2. You will hear it vent
Fridge should be such that the beer is 50F in the glass
Put in serving fridge wait 24 hrs and vent multiple times releasing the co2. Wait a day and vent again before “tapping” to release excess co2
Serve at the lowest pressure possible if you don’t have beer engines. You will have to vent every day until some of the beer is gone. This is just experience
In my years of brewing and serving this is the key to cask beer at home. Low CO2 levels and a higher serving temp as well as not “aging” your beers
Make the same recipe and over carbonate and serve cold completely different experience. Cask conditioned ale is not about the cask it is about the conditioning.
Edit: I should clarify you don’t have to have extremely simple grain bills but it is a great place to start. I do add dark crystal for color and do experiment with a small percentage of other malts and grains mainly to change things up.
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One of my bitter hybrids I just poured. Looks flat but has nice condition to it. This has been on draught for almost a month
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I am still catching up on several months’ reading, so while I had glanced at this article, I hadn’t really “read” it before. This was a great column on several fronts: well-written, accessible, packed with information. The resource links introduced me to articles and a podcast I wasn’t familiar with. The choice of Golden Promise is interesting because the recipe I have been using as a jumping-off point has actually TWO versions in the AHA recipe database, and the first uses MO and the second uses Golden Promise. You have to think that this was a very intentional change (and apparently an auspicious change, since the second version won NHC gold). That recipe uses all Fuggles, and even with my first try at this recipe I swapped out half of the Fuggles for UKG and moved some of that to knockout, and I’ve dry-hopped this recipe with UKG as well. I just checked, and in Designing Great Beers Ray Daniels notes that in England, most bitters “are often dry hopped in the cask.” After reading a bit more, I am pondering priming with sugar in the keg next time.
I fell down a rabbit hole about ESBs (I’ve liked Bitters ever since I encountered them while stationed in England in the early 1980s), and after digging through Google Photos I was able to confirm that the very first beer I ever brewed was an ESB! It was an extract kit with steeping grains I purchased from a LHBS in Tallahassee, Florida and brewed on January 12, 2009, and of course I fermented without any temp control whatsoever. I am sure the kit included a list of ingredients, but that is long since lost. I took a photo of the hops that day, but they were simply labeled “Bittering Hops,” “Aroma Hops,” and “Flavor Hops” (I give that store credit for keeping it simple for the newbies).
In some ways that first homebrew is its own sort of whale – oh to go back in a time machine and recreate the excitement of that first brew. Keepin’ it fun is important!
Wow and what a road map. Thanks for filling in the gap on carbonation, condition and temp approach. Next time I brew this I’m going to give this a go.
#Yum and looks like the holy grail to me.
Everything about this reply just made my day.