Yeast starter time question

[hopfenundmalz]

@hopfenundmalz

@hopfenundmalz

Yes Arcadia uses Ringwood. One of the Brewers said it was a “Fussy b****” in that it would require more attention some times, ie rousing.

Grizzly Peak in Ann Arbor had a Pugsley system and would struggle with Diacetyl. They changed to Essex and the beers are much improved. They open ferment and top crop. The problem is they don’t have the tank time for a long D rest, they were doing close to 1600 barrels on a 7 barrel system. WLP -022 produces clean beer for them.

Real Ringwood is a Yorkshire square multi-strain yeast culture that requires rousing and aeration during fermentation, or it will tend to produce a diacetyl bomb.  While the culture is named after the microbrewery Peter Austin built after he retired from the Hull Brewery, Ringwood originally came from Webster’s Brewery (a.k.a. the Fountain Head Brewery) in Halifax, West Riding, Yorkshire.

If one examines a Peter Austin designed/Alan Pugsley installed brewery closely, one finds a device that I like to refer to as a Yorkshire shower head.  This device is used to rouse and aerate the yeast during fermentation (yes, I said rouse and aerate the yeast during fermentation), as can be seen at time 0:12 in this video shot at the Blacksheep Brewery in North Yorkshire: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJmLNj14C_w.  It can also be seen in the following video, which was shot a Peter Austin designed /Alan Pugsley built brew pub in Baltimore, Maryland: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGIThQ7w0ls (the device is also used to aerate wort).

Arcadia has the Pugsley system, I don’t know if it is still in Battle Creek or at the new production brewery in Kalamazoo. The next time I see the brewer I will ask her more specifics on her feelings about Ringwood.

She said the pumps had to be turned on (not sure she said when), as the years drops in 3 days if done or not.

The best time for them to top crop was at 1.022. They thought they would have the timing figured out, but sometimes it would be much earlier, which had some stories associated.

After fermentation, she said the beer had to be kept away from O2 to the point that they would purge the tanks and transfer lines. Just a little air would create diacetyl from the leftover precursors.

There was a much that had to be done to make beer with low diacetyl, according to her.