Homebrew - Fuller's ESB Clone

Hot on the heels of the London Pride clone I decided to do our other favorite Fuller's beer, their ESB. I brewed while watching Virginia Tech play away and this turned out to be pretty easy to handle. I did let the water get hotter than the steeping temperature of the grains and had to let it cool down a bit. After that I switched to watching the game from the kitchen rather than running back and forth. I used my new brew thermometer both during the brewing and while cooling the wort. I also started to stir the wort every time I walked by it while it was in it's ice bath. I think the stirring helped with the cooling and having the thermometer made it much easier to know when it was cool enough, it was nice to stop guessing that part.

This was the first time I made a starter, I used the washed yeast from the London Pride primary. I was a bit scared this would not work because I didn't have any backup yeast to use so I used two mason jars of washed yeast instead of one. The starter looked fine on brew day, one jar would have been fine. It's amazing looking at the difference in the brew day compared to the first time. It's very relaxed now, with little to no panicking :)

Preparing the starter

• Day 1: Take washed yeast out of the fridge.
• Day 2: Boil 8 ounces of DME with a pinch of yeast nutrient in 0.5 gallons of water. Cool in flask with foil on top. Pour out most of the liquid from the washed yeast and pitch into the flask. Cover with foil again. Give it a good swirl every time you walk by the flask.
• Day 3: Nothing.
• Day 4: Move flask to fridge to floculate yeast.
• Day 5: Take flask out of the fridge the morning of brew day. When ready to pitch, pour out half the liquid, swirl and pitch.

Ingredients: Fuller's ESB, Extract clone kit from Austin Homebrew Supply
Starter:     07 Sep 2011 
Brew:        10 Sep 2011
Rack:        18 Sep 2011 (8)
Bottle:      02 Oct 2011 (14)
Ready:       25 Oct 2011 (23)
Summary:     Primary 8 days, Secondary 14 days, Condition 23 days

Beer turned out clear with good head retention. Very malty taste, not quite as much as the London Pride though, Gemma liked this one better I suspect because of this reason. On the whole a very drinkable beer but it did not knock me over. I preferred the fearsome maltiness of the London Pride. There was little, to no sediment in the bottles we have tried so far, a combination of the high flocculation of this yeast and the 1-2-3 schedule for the fermentation.

Starter

Brew

Rack

Bottle

Ready