Good Ed's Ballantine IPA

[Dennis King]

I was given a bottle of this by Will, good Ed, at the recent festival. Was expecting a big in your face American beer but what I have just drank was a superb, well balanced beautiful beer. A slight haze, Will did mention there was a lot of yeast in the bottle, subtle hop aroma that seems quite unique. At 7.56% not a session beer so probably good I've only the one bottle. Cheers Will.

Cheers Dennis, it was a recipe from Mitch Steele's book and I got hold of some ECY-10 which is supposedly the Ballantine ale yeast. Although I'm a bit puzzled why it has such a shitty bottom as the yeast is supposed to be highly flocculent. It's now 9 months old and the richness has smoothed out.

Sounds great. I saw one guy saying that he grows up and decants brewery yeast cultures after 48 hours I think, to get rid of the less flocculant cells that may have mutated, before stepping up or pitching. I have a gallon with St Austell yeast (bottle harvest) which went off brilliantly with a real top croppy looking head in the DJ. 8 Days on, it's as murky as hell, while the rest of the batch with WY1098 is bright clear. I'm wondering if I should have followed his advice.

I've had a few of ed's beers and theyre always so balanced and beautifully soft and quaffable!