AG #63 Jims ESB

[BrewerBen]

First brew for 2016 is Jims ESB which i will be brewing tomorrow. It was a Christmas present and was a complete fluke that it was Jims ESB as i had suggested a mash kit but gave a load of links to a number of brew home brew shops. I've made a couple of small tweaks as in my brews i like to add some acid malt to reduce the alkalinity and i added a little more challenger for the 90 min addition to get up to the suggested 50IBU. Its also the first brew that i will use WLP002.

Jims ESB
Target Gravity: 1.052
Batch size: 25L
Bitterness: 49 IBU

Grains
4600 Maris Otter 82.29%
270 Caramalt 4.83%
270 Pale Crystal Malt 4.83%
270 Torrified Wheat 4.83%
180 Acid Malt 3.22%

Mash Schedule
Mash in 30L @ 38C
Step 1 60 mins @64C
Step 2 10 mins @76C
Sparge 7L @76C

Hop Schedule
90 Min Challenger Leaf 50g 33.4 IBU
90 Min Challenger Pellet 20g 15.7 IBU
10 Min Progress Leaf 40g 8.7 IBU
Aroma Steep East Kent Golding 40g
Dry Hop East Kent Golding 60g

Yeast
White Labs WLP002
Fement @ 20C

Grain Shot:


Training some yeast special forces as per viewtopic.php?f=12&t=70926. I've used this method a couple of times with the gales yeast and has worked well. I made a starter from the pure pitch pack and then split and made another starter thats a little over 1L from one of the splits. I've knocked 1 litre off the sparge water as the whole lot will be pitched so i don't go over my volume target. This yeast isn't like any i have used so far, the starter fermented out very quickly and when i tried to swirl the yeast back into suspension i found it had set to the bottom like cement and when it did break up it was into large chunks. I'm also beginning to think about doing a Gales/Fullers dual strain bitter just for fun as they seem to bahave so differently.

[Hanglow]

That is some good foam in your starter


It's a great pint, my Jims ESB was a bit different as I had slightly different cara malts to use up but I'd certainly brew it again

[BrewerBen]

Blimey this yeast was quick, its 24 hours since i made the starter. Looks like i missed the high krausen but there is lots of yeast in there:

[Goulders]

WLP002 is very flocculant, so it doesn't take long to drop out.

[BrewerBen]

All done. A couple of things weren't quite to plan the hop weights went quite what they were supposed to be as i ended up with 48g of challenger and 48g of progess from the kit. Pretty minor really so i just went with it. I also overshot the volume by 2 litres giving me 27L at 1.050. Also steam was an issue so i need to improve the extraction. Overall though a successful brewday.

And skip to the end....


Fermenter is quite full and i get the feeling the fridge wont be looking so clean for long.


Lovely golden colour to the wort and looks like 1.050 or maybe just a little under

[BrewerBen]

This has dropped to 1.015 and I've just roused the yeast, added the dry hops and set the temp controller to 22C.
A slight deviation from the recipe as after a rummage through my freezer i found some EKG and fuggle hop pellets and as i find pellets much easier to deal with in they went. In the end the dry hop was 44g EKG and 34g Fuggles. Beer is smelling great, it definitely has a familiar Fullers type aroma. Hopefully it will drop a few more points but it wont be the end of the world if it doesn't.

[Jim]

Looking good!

[BrewerBen]

Well the gravity certainly dropped a few more point finishing at 1.010. A 5.2% ESB sounds pretty good to me. I kegged with gelatin and primed with 50g sugar. I also got 8 bottles, which i will no doubt give in to temptation in a week or so while convincing myself its just to check the carbonation level. The WLP002 yeast has cleared really well and and the cold crash made the pellets drop and stick to the bottom really well too. All in all pretty happy with how things went so very much looking forward to the taste test.

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