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In an article by Bishop about continuous fermentation there's an intriguing paragraph about the brewing of Yorkshire Stingo. Revealing it to have been brewed a very traditional way well after WW II.

Here's the passage:
Strong beers.— Until few years ago strong beers fell into two distinct classes — either very sweet and only partly fermented because the yeast had come out too soon, or overdry because they had been fermented completely by the traditional rolling in cask over several months. The latter method was that used at my brewery for producing Stingo — a method which took nine months. Needless to say, the losses of this very expensive beer were extremely high. In contrast, we found we could produce Stingo by continuous fermentation in two days instead of nine months without direct loss of beer or loss through development of acidity—either of the lactic or acetic variety. In addition, the beer could be produced with an intermediate degree of sweetness exactly as required.
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Vol. 76, 1970, page 175.
Those two classes of strong beers are presumably ones which did or didn't undergo a secondary fermentation. And, with such beers becoming "overdry", it's clear that Brettanomycers was at work. Which is clearly what was happening with Stingo, being rolled around in casks for nine months. During which time it hopefully wouldn't turn into vinegar and need to be discarded.

I wonder what happened to Stingo when the continuous fermenters were removed in the late 1970s? I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have reverted to rolling it around in casks for months. They might well have just quietly discontinued the beer.



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