Racking the porter and preparing for an ESB

There is a lot of brewery action happening here in Denver this weekend. The dunkelweizen I bottled 2 weeks ago is ready to drink, and appears to have turned out very well. Good carbonation and great head retention, with the right color and a very nice flavor. I’m quite happy with my first wheat beer.

Meanwhile, I racked the robust porter I brewed 3 weeks ago to its secondary fermenter, and I’m preparing to brew an all-grain ESB tomorrow.

The ESB is a recipe I developed based on the BJCP style guidelines and suggestions from Ray Daniels’s Designing Great Beers. I’m again going with a 50/50 mix of 2-row pale malt and Maris Otter, with about 7% of 40L caramel malt and 5% Munich malt for color.

I made the yeast starter this afternoon; this is the first time I get to use my stir plate from Stir Starters

Recipe (90 minute boil):

Malt

• 4.75 lbs Rahr 2-row
• 4.75 lbs Crisp Maris Otter
• 0.75 lbs Breiss 2-row caramel malt 40L
• 0.5 lbs Weyermann Munich I

Hops

• 1.00 oz East Kent Goldings 5.7%, first wort
• 1.00 oz East Kent Goldings 5.7%, 60 min
• 0.50 oz Fuggles 4.4%, 15 min
• 0.50 oz Fugges 4.4%, 0 min

Yeast

• White Labs WLP002 English Ale Yeast
• 1 L yeast starter with 75 gm of DME

Mash

• Infusion: 16 quarts at 170F
• Mash out: 11 quarts at 200F
• Sparge: 11.6 quarts at 170F

— Steve

Posted on 20 October 2012