brewer’s notes
Well, after the luxury of a few days off it’s back to the grind with a 5 brew week. This week we’re brewing Blonde Ale, Best Bitter, Ironman Pale Ale, Irish Red and 3 Lions …. my back is hurting just thinking about it! We’re starting with fresh pitching yeast delivered from White Labs in San Diego who house our strain for us. The 7bbl pitch is grown from a single cell and is 98.5% viable. The initial fermentation of this pure strain will take a couple of extra days as it has a longer than usual initial lag phase as it adjusts to its new environment (obviously the yeast has not been in contact with wort before, having been grow on lab media). We have new pitches for the first 2 brews of the week, which is why we are starting with 2 of our lower gravity beers Blonde (1.043) and Best (1.048) , to ease the yeast into wort fermentation as it were. Had we started with the 3 Lions (1.075) the yeast would have struggled and fermentation may not have reached attenuation within an acceptable time limit. The need for fresh, pure pitching yeast is simple ….yeast is cropped from one fermentation and pitched into the next wort, each pitch representing a new yeast generation as the pitched yeast cells generate new cells as “daughter’ cells bud-off from the “mother” cell. As yeast goes through progressive generations it will decline in viability and become more likely to undergo spontaneous mutation which may alter its performance and possibly the flavor profile of the product. Yesterday’s brew has developed an interesting appearance, a sort of yin-yang style surface!
The newly pitched yeast adopts a "yin-yang" type pattern!
Today is also the day that we send kegs to the warehouse so Justin is frantically kegging batches of Amber Ale, 3 Lions, Ironman and Irish Red. Cask sales are still going strong and this week we’re sending a couple of firkins out to Pizzeria Paradiso in D.C. for the first time which is exciting for us. Well, that’s all for now. Cheers
Steve