Jims ESB

[D4nny74]

Brewed this on the 13th as am away on the posted dates,hit all targets for a change

Wort after the mash had finished, nice and clear must admit did seem a little on the light side ? time will tell.


23 LTRS into the fermentor.

[joe1002]

Brewed this on the 24th as am away on the posted dates

You can travel through time?

[D4nny74]

whoops amended

[Monkeybrew]

Brewed this on the 13th as am away on the posted dates,hit all targets for a change

Wort after the mash had finished, nice and clear must admit did seem a little on the light side ? time will tell.


23 LTRS into the fermentor.

First of many brewday post's hopefully!

I think ESB's come in all colours, think Hop Back Summer Lightening through to Adnams Broadside

Cheers

MB

[guypettigrew]

Sorted for tomorrow.

Here's the HLT and MT joined by a chugger pump. And the kit from the Malt Miller.

The HLT switches on automatically at about 5.00am--cheap electricity--then stays at about 80-82C.

The MT is a Hop and Grape insulated 30 litre pot. With a Blichmann auto sparge. More piccys tomorrow.

Huge fun!

Guy

[Jim]

Got my mash on at 6:30 - just having a coffee while it finishes, then I'll be sparging.

I'm expecting to make about 6 gallons.

EDIT to add a few more pics. (I'm using the Cascade hops at flame out in place of the EKGs- I got these hops as a free sample and wanted to try them out - they look and smell amazing and I'll be buying some from there for sure- they aren't overcompressed or full of stalks - you can pick out the whole hop flowers).

[guypettigrew]

Early start, Jim!!

My mash is now on, about to have breakfast while it does its stuff.

Guy

The grain going in.

The grain all stirred into the liquor.

Hit 66 C, amazingly!

[Hanglow]

I'm in today as well My mash is just on.

Modified recipe a bit for my supplies but certainly in the spirit of the beer Put two starters on the go last night, one was a mixed bottle culture (St Austell, Hook Norton and Hopback) stepped up for 5l of the brew, the other was WLP023 harvested and stepped up for the bulk

Underlet for the first time ever as well, I will be doing that again. Much easier

Subbed caraamber and medium crystal for the two crystal malts in the original

grains+salts


Trusty old swan HLT

[JamesF]

And we're off!

My son and I planned to do this today though I was hoping for a somewhat earlier start. However for some reason I couldn't get to sleep last night and didn't return to consciousness until some time after my wife woke me up at 9:30 this morning. I got the water heating in the HLT when I went to let the chickens out and feed them, so now I can have breakfast and sort my life out whilst we wait for that.

James

[Jim]

Great to see all the brewers getting to work!

I'm all finished and cleared up now, so here's a few final pictures.

Flameout Hops (Cascade from A Bushel of Hops - thanks Dorothy!)

In the Fridge, pitched with Windsor.

The OG came out at 48, which is slightly lower than expected.

[alexlark]

Looking good Jim! I didn't know you used your pot to boil, what hop filter have you got on that (if any)?

[guypettigrew]

A few more pictures as the morning has progressed.

The wort ran very cloudy from the mash tun for the first couple of gallons. There were also more dough balls in the mash than usual, which took some time to break up. Wonder which Maris Otter Rob at The Malt Miller used. My usual is Fawcett's. This gives me no dough balls and the wort runs clear after a couple of pints or so. The picture of the wort looking clear was taken after 2 1/2 gallons had run off. Hopefully the muck in the wort will break out during the boil.

The hop filter is held away from the base of the boiler by a length of domestic earth wire! If it sits on the base of the boiler it causes the concealed element to overheat and burn out.

Guy

Blichmann autosparge in place.

Clear wort after 2 1/2 gallon run off.

Hop filter held away from the element.

First wort hops in before the boil starts.

Boiling nicely!

[Jim]

Looking good Jim! I didn't know you used your pot to boil, what hop filter have you got on that (if any)?

I've just got one of those perforated copper pipe ones fitted to the tap.

Guy - looks great; the dough ball problem might be due to the crush rather than the make of malt.

[bquiggerz]

I'll be getting mine on late tonight, think 11pm start as I'm a night bird. Cheaper electric and no one bugs me!

[JamesF]

We're now mashed in at 67C. I added 10% to the recipe to give us closer to 25l though the volume of the grain bill did then challenge my 25l mash tun and it was quite tight to get 20l from the HLT in as well. The mash should finish around 1:15pm, though that's slightly dependent on the timing of lunch

As it happens, this may be a double-landmark brew as not only will it take me over 500 pints for the year, but it may also be the last mash I do in my old 25l plastic bucket. All the parts arrived for my thermopot conversion this week (including a new Dremel so hopefully I can get that sorted fairly quickly and get the new mash tun into use.

James