ESB Home Brewing Session
Yeah me! Two brewing sessions in one week! I brewed the Coffee Stout earlier in the week and now I’m experimenting a bit on a simple ESB. Often times it is the simple recipes that can be the hardest to do well with out a lot of additives to cover up flaws. Like the Coffee Stout, I’ll be entering this slightly more robust ESB into the Office Bar & Grill homebrew competition for a chance to have my beer brewed at High Point Brewery where they make Ramstein beer.
Two days prior to the brewing session I made my starter with an American Ale (Wyeast 1056) yeast. For the starter, I made an 800ml starter with 4 oz of ultra light DME which had an OG of 1.044. After the gravity reading I had a final volume of 600ml for the starter. I probably should have had a bit more since my OG of the ESB ended up at 1.070. It should have been 2 times as much.
I’m going to leave my poor mill along on this post. It’s what I got and I don’t think you can get repetitive motion injury from only an hour… ok, the grist
- 11lbs Domestic 2row
- 1lb Caramel 60L
- .5lb Caramel 40L
- .5lb Carapils
- .25lb Special B
Can't make beer with out Drinking Beer!
The Mash:
This was a single infusion mash of all the grain at 152°. For this beer, I did a 70 minute sparge at 170°. Very straight forward. Nothing complicated about his one.
The Boil:
A very simply boil for this beer basically, 1 oz Northern Brewer Hops (10.5%) and 1 oz of US Tettnang (4.7%) at 60min followed by 1/2 oz of Williamette Pellet Hops (4.6%) 15 minutes & 1 Whirlfloc Tablet, and finally last 2 minutes 1 oz of US Tettnang Pellet Hops (4.7%). Then cooled down to 70° to match the temp of the starter.
The Original Gravity on this beer was 1.070 and I’m expecting it to complete around 1.016.
I will update this post as the brew process continues.
Nice, I am brewing an ESB this weekend. It’s only the 2nd batch of homebrew that I have done but am loving the hobby. I am still using malt extracts but hope to switch to all grain brewing soon.
@brian good luck with the esb. I too love the style and the obsession.. err hobby even more. I used malt extracts for years, made some great beer. It’s a great way of brewing beer without the extra equipment.
I am impressed…2 brews in a week!
I agree with your sentiments on a simple additive free beer….the flaws are more noticeable.
One of my next brews is going to be a tweaking of my ESB. It’s one of my favorite styles as it is very drinkable. How do you like dragons milk? I thought it was pretty good.
@nate My supply of home brew is down to a 1/4 corney of tripel. Needed to get some brews rolling. Just ordered ingredients for 3 more batches, Roggenbier, Dunkelweizen, and Wit. Plus The sour Saison I’ll be making in a week or so.
the Dragons Milk, was amazing. really impressed. It was my first barrel aged beer from New Holland. I’ll have a review of it up on Thursday I think.
I have been behind in brewing too…budget/new baby. I am planning on hitting it hard early in 2010.
Mike gave me a generous gift, so I’ll be brewing this weekend…I haven’t formulated the recipe, but I’ll be shooting for a flemish brown style…maybe.
I hope you win the competition!
hummmmm… flemish style, did you get Oak barrels???
Not yet…hopefullly though. I’m waiting to hear back from a guy who runs a small local winery. If not, I’ll attempt to cheat with chips and just end up with a sour beer.
I have my Oak Barrel on it’s way from mexico. haven’t decided how to condition it yet. Nothing, Whiskey, tequila, wine. I’m leaning toward tequila right now. here’s a picture of it:
Updated the quantities for the grist