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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.esb5

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

esb2

Can't make beer with out Drinking Beer!

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.

esb3

esb1

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.

esb6


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This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 at 9:00 am and is filed under Home Brewing, Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

10 Responses to “ESB Home Brewing Session”

  1. Brian Welch Says:
    November 10th, 2009 at 10:06 am

    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.

  2. nate Says:
    November 10th, 2009 at 10:11 am

    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.

  3. Simply Beer Says:
    November 10th, 2009 at 10:16 am

    @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.

  4. Simply Beer Says:
    November 10th, 2009 at 10:21 am

    @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.

  5. nate Says:
    November 10th, 2009 at 10:45 am

    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!

  6. Simply Beer Says:
    November 10th, 2009 at 11:38 am

    hummmmm… flemish style, did you get Oak barrels???

  7. nate Says:
    November 10th, 2009 at 11:48 am

    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.

  8. Simply Beer Says:
    November 11th, 2009 at 3:39 am

    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:

  9. Simply Beer - ESB Home Brewing Session Says:
    November 12th, 2009 at 10:11 am

    [...] by admin on November 10, 2009 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 … Original post:  Simply Beer – ESB Home Brewing Session [...]

  10. Simply Beer Says:
    January 26th, 2010 at 11:20 pm

    Updated the quantities for the grist

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