With the daytime temperatures in St. Louis dropping to around 65, its getting to be a great time to make home brewed beers. My first beer of the year is an Extra Special Bitter, or ESB.
Extra Special Bitter belongs to the pale ale family of beers, but with a larger hop profile. Well known commercial versions of this beer are Boddington's and Fuller's ESB. While I kept to style for the base of my ESB with American pale and crystal malts, I included Munich malt, roasted barley and a small amount of rye to round out the grain bill. I'm excited about the addition of rye, which should add a understated spicy finish to this beer.
I started with a first wort hop addition of East Kent Golding's and followed up with additional doses of Golding's and Willamette hops though out the boil in 15 minute intervals.
I would like to have this beer in bottles by the middle of November and share with friends and family over the holidays. I hope you enjoy these pictures showing several parts of the brewing process.
A yeast starter at krausen. A yeast starter increases the number of active yeast cells and aids in kicking off a fast and healthy fermentation. I made this starter about 36 hours before brewing.
Grains rolling through a mill. The grains are cracked so water and enzymes can help the sugars contained within each grain "escape" during the mashing process. This sugar becomes the fermentable that the yeast above will consume in the production of beer.
Sparging the mash and collecting the first running of wort. You can think of sparging as washing the last of the sugars off the grain bed.
A first wort addition of whole hops, soaking as the wort comes to a boil. Hops can be thought of as the spice of beer. Added early in the boil, hops contribute a bitter flavor to beer. In the later stages of the boil hops contribute aroma.
Collecting wort in a fermentation vessel. In a few weeks this wort will become a young beer, and a month or so after that, a beverage shared with friends.
