Just happened an interesting factoid in the book Brewer's Apprentice and curious what others might think of it. In an interview with John Keeling, brewing director at Fuller's (where they use the yeast we know as Wyeast 1968 or WLP002), Keeling says: "We pitch at 17C (63F), and allow it to naturally warm to 20C (68F). When a quarter of the gravity remains, we chill it to 6C (43F)." Pitching at 63 and letting it rise to 68 seems pretty standard for many ale yeasts, 1968 included. But finishing at 43? I think most of us would be inclined to take the temperature up, if anything, for those final few gravity points. And my experience with 1968 is that it's going to floc pretty hard anywhere below about 60. I feel like if I took a 1968 beer down to 43, it'd get stuck there for sure. So... am I completely misunderstanding what Keeling said? Is this some kind joke/misprint? Or is this something people actually do to improve their beers? As a definite fan of 1968, I'm curious what you all would have to say.
My first thought would be to shock the yeast and have it finish a little higher on FG than if you kept it at ambient 68F. There are a lot of unknowns here and he may leave out part of the story. I don't know how they prime their bottles, but if it's force carbed then this could work. They may also pasteurize the beer and kill off the yeast. They may centrifuge the beer at a certain point. Maybe others can shed some more light.
Listen to Keeling's description of the brewing process at Fuller's on the Can You Brew It podcasts. They do some unusual things with temperature, but my recollection is that it is not this extreme. Perhaps there is a typo in the article? Links to podcasts found here: http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/The-Jamil-Show/search/fuller I think it was one of the May 2010 episodes in which he describes the temperature regime
I would guess that they also use a high mash temperature, as is typical for English pale ales. That "quarter of the gravity remaining" could well refer to reaching a stable FG prior to cold crashing...
That's my guess, too, but it still seems odd. For one, you'd be tempted to raise the temperature for bit before crashing the yeast just to make sure you're done with clean-up, and beyond that, it seems kind of unnecessary (and more costly) to take it down to 43.
I wouldn't take 1968 down that low unless I was crashing it down when done. Infact, 1968 floccs out so well anyways, that cool, it's bound to give up if it's not done at those temps. Not only that, but this yeast needs a diacetyl rest.
What do think they mash at? Most of the British brewers mash in the 149-153F range according to the CAMRA recipe books. Edit, I think he is saying that when the Gravity is 1/4 of the OG, they take it down to 43F. That would be 75% attenuation, which is good for the Fullers yeast.
Yep, 75% attenuation is very good for 1968. Also, it's not unusual to crash cool to remove most of the yeast and then warm it up to finish. The yeast very seldom gives up completely unless it's chilled for a long, long time. Diacetyl at low levels is part of the profile for most Fullers beers so the 'rest' might be minimal; they might also rouse the yeast with a shot of CO2 occasionally to deal with the high flocculation.
Most of the Fullers beer you see in England is Cask conditioned too. Sugar and finings are added to the cask, CO@ develops in the cask at cellar temps, ~53F.
Actually, it's not typical at all for English brewers to mash pale ales, or anything else for that matter, and high termperatures. This appears to be a common misconception among American homebrewers.
Are their yeast strains just not very attenuative, then? Because most of the representative styles tend to have a lot of body, very dextrin-rich.
FWIW, a couple years ago Brew Your Own did a feature on Fuller's in which they included some clone recipes, supposedly put together with input from Fuller's. Needless to say this is the homebrew version, and it's going to be different from what they do commercially. And I've never brewed this, so I can't vouch for the recipe. But note that the mash temp isn't particularly high, and that the attenuation exceeds (slightly) 75%. (Also note: BYO is a great mag, run by really nice guys who probably won't get mad at me for posting this. You should check them out: BYO.) Well, more food for thought, I guess, for those of us interested in 1968... Fuller’s ESB clone (5 gallons/ 19 L, all-grain) OG = 1.060 FG = 1.014 IBU = 35 SRM = 15 ABV = 5.9% This recipe is for the bottled version of ESB. The cask version in the UK is 5.5% ABV. Ingredients 11 lbs. 3 oz. (5.1 kg) Muntons pale ale malt 1 lb. 2 oz. (0.51 kg) crystal malt (75 °L) 5.25 AAU Target hops (60 min) (0.53 oz./15 g of 10% alpha acids) 2.6 AAU Challenger hops (60 min) (0.34 oz./10 g of 7.5% alpha acids) 0.83 AAU Northdown hops (15 min) (0.1 oz./2.7 g of 8.5% alpha acids) 1.66 AAU Goldings hops (15 min) (0.33 oz./9.4 g of 5% alpha acids) 0.33 oz. (9.4 g) Goldings hops (dry hop) Wyeast 1968 (London ESB) or White Labs WLP002 (English Ale) yeast Step by Step Mash grains at 153 °F (67 °C) in 16.5 quarts (15.5 L) of water. Mash for 60 minutes. Collect 6.5 gallons (25 L) of wort. Boil for 60 minutes, adding hops at the times indicated. Cool and ferment at 69 °F (21 °C). Add Goldings dry hops to secondary fermenter.
I just assume they mean a quarter of the sugar in solution is left (meaning over 1.000 that you would have at water; e.g. the beer is 1.040 and they crash at 1.010 (made up numbers). I don't think they mean a quarter of the fermentation until the target FG is achieved since WLP002/WY1968 is relatively famous for flocculating out at cask temperature.
If you look up on Wyeast or WLP's pages, you see the max attenuation for the Fullers strain to be about 70% (I see more) and for the Chico strain you see 80% max.
If you look at recipes for many of the British ales, they use more Crystal malt than US homebrewers are comfortable with.
