26 May, 2008

Creativespace ESB

I made 10 gallons of a simple ESB today, and it turned out fine. The ingredients came from Austin Homebrew Supply.

Fermentables

  • 17 lbs Maris Otter Pale
  • 1.5 lbs Crystal 60L
OG 10.75° Plato

Hops
  • 2 oz 7.7% AA Brewer's Gold (60 mins)
  • 2 ox 4.5% AA Yakima Goldings (15 mins)
Est 41.8 IBU

White Labs WLP002 English Ale yeast

What went well:
  • Brewday was quite smooth. I now have a great grasp of how my equipment works together and how to fit brewday tasks into the downtime between hop additions and mash stirrings.
  • I verified that water loss in my mash tun is acceptably small — less than half a gallon. I wondered about losses here because my manifold is not sweated together meaning that suction could be lost before collecting all the sweet wort.
  • I got about 65% efficiency out of my system, which is better than usual. I did a little better on the SG than suggested by Austin Homebrew.
  • The hand-drill paint stirrer is just awesome for aerating wort.
Concerns include:
  • The pitchable tube spent a day in the Texas heat because UPS doesn't knock very loud. It smelled a little funky when I opened it, but the starter was better.
  • I did not chill down to an ideal temperature before pitching. Threw the yeast into about 95° F wort. The fermenter is in a nice cool room now and I think the wort is cooler than last time.
For my readers looking for an update on the duck-in cooler, I made little progress since the last post. Too much weekend traveling. After the Longshot Competition judging this weekend, though, I will have time to finish it.

--Dean

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