Al’s ESB – Extra Special Bitter

Well I have most of the day off and I’m anxious to brew for an upcoming homebrew BIF on beeradvocate.com.  Thus I’m going to make an ESB today.  I’ll still be brewing on Saturday too!

Here’s the recipe and procedure:

• Briess Golden Light Liquid Extract  6 lbs, 0 oz
• Briess 2 Row Caramel 60  1 lbs, 0 oz
• Briess 6-Row Malt  1 lbs, 0 oz
• Briess 2 Row Carapils  0 lbs, 8 oz
• Fuggles Pellets, UK  1 oz @ 60 mins
• Kent Goldings, UK Pellets   0.5 oz @ 30 mins
• Fuggles Pellets, UK   0.5 oz @ 30 mins
• Fuggles Pellets, UK  0.25 oz @ 10 mins
• Kent Goldings, UK Pellets  0.25 oz @ 5 mins
• Fuggles Pellets, UK   0.25 oz @ 5 mins
• Kent Goldings, UK Pellets   0.25 oz @ 0 mins
• SAFALE S-04

1. prepare checklist
2. lay out ingredients and equipment
3. bring 1.75-2 gallons spring water to 160 F
4. add grains (in mesh bag)
5. steep for 40 minutes at 155F
6. In separate pot, pre-boil 1 gallon spring water
7. when grains are finished steeping, remove grain bag, add 1 gallon boiling water and bring entire pot to a boil for one hour
8. add bittering hops, 1 oz fuggles at 60 minute mark
9. at 30 minutes, add 0.5 oz fuggles AND 0.5 oz EKG
10. begin sanitation procedures on spoon, thermometer, bucket, siphon, hoses, wine thief
11. at 20 minute mark, add wort chiller, pre-filled with hot water
12. over the course of the last 20 minutes of the boil, add the LME
13. at 15 minutes, add 0.25 oz fuggles
14. begin pre-boiling of 2 cups spring water for yeast rehydration
15. add 1/4 tsp Irish moss powder
16. at 5 minutes, add 0.25 oz fuggles AND 0.5 oz EKG
17. at flameout, add 0.25 oz EKG
18. let stand 10 minutes before beginning cooling
19. stir occasionally with sanitized stainless spoon during hop rest and during cooling
20. while wort is cooling, add 2 gallons chilled spring water to sanitized primary fermenting bucket, allowing it to fall into bucket to increase aeration
21. add pre-boiled water to sanitized 2L flask for yeast rehydration
22. when 2L flask reaches about 95F, pitch yeast into flask and place on stir plate for about 20 minutes
23. when wort gets to about 75F, add to fermentation bucket using strainer
24. top to 5.5 gallons with chilled spring water
25. take OG reading with sanitized wine thief
26. thoroughly aerate wort with sanitized stainless steel spoon
27. ensure wort is 70F or a little less before pitching yeast
28. pitch yeast
29. gently stir using sanitized stainless steel spoon
30. install sanitized bucket lid and airlock
31. ferment in closet for 12-14 days at 69F ambient air temp.
32. take FG sample and bottle (after a minimum of 12 days)
33. use 4 oz corn sugar at bottling

Actual OG: well I dropped and broke my SG tester, so I’ll never know.  I’ll have to order another one, but that won’t happen till I can make sure and get cheep shipping because anything I am going to brew in the next week or two won’t need a gravity reading bad enough to spend a bunch of money on shipping!

Note: I accidentally cut off the labels for the hops and didn’t notice that they were unlabeled.  At the 10 minute mark, I lost track of which was which!  So I just combined them and added by weight, LOL.  So it’s close but not exactly what my procedure said to use.

This one is currently fermenting in the closet at 67F (as of May 4th).