New Albion Ale - the 4th Act?

Did Jack McAuliffe ever talk about where he got the yeast he used?

 

A quick review of the stuff I have doesn't mention the yeast, other than many articles noting it was, at the time, the only bottle-conditioned beer brewed in the US at the time.

It's funny - a generation early and few brewers mentioned what hops they used, other than "Imported" or "Bohemian" or "Pacific Northwest" hops. And it would be a a generation after New Albion that specific yeast strains would be commonly be noted. Even Grossman never really specifies his ale yeast strain, even though in his book he mentions contacting other US brewmasters who used the yeast. (Some, of course, claim it was the P. Ballantine & Sons strain).

Yeah, 2012.


Pretty sure I bought a case of the Noble Union imported stuff (still a Bass brand) in the '90s at Shangy's in PA.

 

Apparently Jack McAuliffe obtained his yeast from Michael Lewis of UC Davis:

“Some 10 years later Jack McAuliffe showed up at my office. He wished to open a brewery to make British ales that he learned to love during a navy deployment in the UK. Of course, I knew those beers well and understood the ale-making technology to make them. That was my wheelhouse. I was very excited by Jack’s ideas and passion and indeed wondered why I had not thought of building such a brewery myself! I helped in every way we could: we provided an authentic ale yeast and a talented employee (Don Barkley) and such advice as Jack wanted.”

https://www.tastewashingtontravel.com/drink/beer/item/617-pob

Cheers!

 

Any thoughts on the likelihood of it being Ballantine's?

 

Chris, something I posted in a past thread:

At HomebrewCon 2018 Ken Grossman gave a presentation about his 50 years of brewing experience. On page no. 19 he presented a photograph of his handwritten recipe for what he labeled as Pale Ale #1 6/25. On that sheet he lists: "yeast BRY 167". I am personally unfamiliar with a yeast strain of BRY 167 but I am aware of yeast strain BRY 97 which is one of the Ballantine yeast strains. There are two strains of yeast attributed to Ballantine that is available from the Siebel yeast bank: BRY 96 and BRY 97. One of these strains was used to ferment Ballantine Ale while the second was used to ferment Ballantine Beer.

I have read varying accounts of which strain is which. For example some folks suggest that BRY 96 is the Ballantine Beer yeast strain and is the Sierra Nevada house strain and BRY 97 is the Ballantine Ale yeast strain and is the house strain for Anchor brewing. Whether this previous sentence represents fact?

It would seem closer to Ken writing down BRY 167 in his notes while meaning to write BRY 97?

Boy, really do not know what's what here.

I think it is safe to say that Ken Grossman obtained yeast from a yeast bank since he lists the acronym of BRY on his recipe sheet (BRY = Siebel nomenclature?). It is common lore that the original source of the yeast that Ken used in brewing his original Pale Ales was originally from Ballantine. I suppose this equates to fact? Which specific Ballantine yeast he used is still an area of confusion for me. How this 'translates' to a specific yeast strain from yeast vendors like Wyeast, White Labs, Fermentis,... is also still an area of confusion for me.

I am 100% confident that somebody(s) at Sierra Nevada knows exactly what's what here but I suppose they like to keep folks like you and me in suspense?

An interesting related story to the aspect of the Sierra Nevada yeast strain is that Ken had some difficulties in brewing his first batches of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. He had to dump his first 13 batches and that that time he had very limited resources so these 'bad' batches caused great financial and emotional strain. As I remember his speech he reached out to industry folks (former brewer(s) at Ballantine?) and he was educated that this particular yeast strain had a requirement for lots of oxygen being introduced into the wort prior to pitching the yeast in order to have a healthy fermentation. With this knowledge in hand he oxygenated his next batch (batch #14?) and great joy and success was the result. Take this information with a grain of salt since it is my memory of his verbiage from June 2018.

Cheers!

Edit: There is also the complication that yeast strains will 'evolve' over multiple generations of brewing (i.e., being reused over a number of batches). Does Sierra Nevada have in storage an 'original' strain that they periodically go back to when brewing their beers like Sierra Nevada Pale Ale? How closely does that 'original' yeast strain match the 'original' strain that a given yeast vendor (Wyeast, White Labs, Fermentis,...) uses to produce their products?

 

Ah, some swear it is - and I think I recall some folks claiming they heard Grossman at a seminar say it, too. But, while his book mentions Ballantine IPA (and incorrectly says it was no longer brewed when he started SN), he never says who the brewmaster is that he contacted when he had trouble with early batches nor what brewery he worked at.

I'm not certain that Falstaff even used the Ballantine yeast, since the Narragansett brewery in RI was already brewing top-fermenting ales and they might have just used their house yeast intially. They did admit to changing the original recipe a couple of time in the early years.

 

I had the chance to try a best before January 10th 1986 bottle in 2011. I felt that it didn't go down the "usual" trail of being a Port like or Sherry like aged Ale from the UK.

Worthington's White Shield Fine Burton Ale, best before Jan 10, 1986, 275ml bottle.

Holding up the bottle to the light, I see some sediment on the bottom of the bottle but..

It pours, after a pretty big hiss, a deep red brown, 2+ finger head of foam, (wow!) waiting for the head to calm down so I can check on any lacing. Very very slowly, the foam is shrinking. Looks like lots of sticky lacing. In appearance alone, I reckon this garners a perfect 5.

The smell is the usual suspect for these old, long seen since fresh, UK brews. All malt, tons of caramel and an overall nose of a fine Port. It has me entranced and I reckon a score of 4.5 is not out of order.

First sip of this +25 year old brew....the caramel dominates and reminds me of chewing on a Milky Way bar. The Port smell didn't take a hold in the taste at all; the caramel seems to be the one and only at this stage and though nice, I fear this one has seen much better days; I'd bet a decade ago, this would have left me in awe. Oh well, I wouldn't rate it less than a 3.0

Mouth feel was just fine and drinkability was amazing, considering. A worthy experiment in its own right so I have no regrets.

 

According to the BYO article, most of the recipe was developed simply because those are the ingredients that anyone would sell him - the malt and hops. As far as the yeast, he apparantly knew someone who knew Lewis, and knew that he could get or provide what he was looking for. It wasn't a specific strain they were looking for other than an authentic English ale yeast, and this is what was provided. I suppose it could have ended up being any other British strain.

 

Rob Burton's book about Sierra Nevada, Hops and Dreams, mentions that New Albion was committed to using top-quality ingredient including "name-brand yeast" , which I take to mean a cultured yeast of a recognized specific strain?

Yeah, the malt came from the Bauer-Schweitzer Malting Co. malt house then still operating in San Francisco, with McAullife putting his "homemade" 1500 lb. capacity malt bin on a trailer and driving down to the city (IIRC, Grossman used the same maltster, also self-trucking the malt to Chico).

I'd guess in '76 he was getting his Cascade hops from Segal Ranch,
possibly via a connection w/Maytag? Although earlier in the 1950s (when there were many breweries in SF and the surrounding central CA region), Bauer-Schweitzer was called "Hop and Malt Co.".

Pictures of the brewery show that they were baled whole hops.

I knew I'd heard it somewhere... (that'll happen with two post being composed at the same time...).

 

That's unfortunate you have to drink BrewDog beer now.

 

I doubt it... and this article suggests that it isn't.

 

I enjoyed watching the below video about the latest iteration of New Albion Ale via BrewDog. Hopefully others will enjoy it was well.



Cheers!