Fuller's ESB

Intro and Welcome

Hello again! Although my stats on blogger are showing me that it's literally just me that's looking at this blog so it's feeling more like some elaborate exercise in getting in touch with myself instead of the wildly popular blog which soon turns into a steady (and sizeable) income stream, resulting in me packing in my job at Christmas and ending up doing my own TED talk next year. I'm an absolute novice in the world of getting traffic directed places so I'm just going to have to hope that the content is so quality it shines on its own

UPDATE: this has been sat in my drafts for a couple of weeks for various reasons (work on the house, more brewing, holiday and work getting busier than I want - what's all that about). As outlined above no-one is reading this blog so there's no-one to disappoint but wanted to apologise for the drop in the standard no-one has come to expect. Anyway - one with the show!

Brewday!

Anyway - brewtime again and this time it's my favourite shop bought beer, Fuller's ESB, using the recipe in the Brew Your Own books. I've made it twice before:

- Number one was a shocker - full of musty off flavours but I convinced myself it was fairly close to the real thing enough to soldier on through most of the batch. I think poor sanitation was to blame on sterilising the FV. I also used the recipe that involved dry hopping, I had a vague suspicion that this introduced some infection.

- Number two was great! Unbelievably pleased with it and very close to the real thing. Had a lot of gunk in the bottom of the FV though which did make its way into the last couple of bottles I filled which ended up being chucked. I found another BYO recipe that didn't involve dry hopping and did include torrified maize so I tried this one and it was much better

Here's the recipe. Not a hop fest it's fair to say

It's apparently Bruce Dickinson's favourite beer as well - if I ever meet the guy (again - I did shake hands with him at a record signing in 1996!) I'll ask him to try my version. If that is his favourite beer I'm not sure how he ended up championing the Trooper beer for Maiden which, let's be honest, is a handful of Crystal malt short of being a mass produced lager. Still, I've got a branded glass kicking about and it's sometimes good to kick back with a pint of branded beer and crank Weekend Warrior until the neighbours complain it's not Seventh Son.

Dave, your ESB is a Revelation(s)

So I'm having a crack at recipe number 2 again and also looking to store it in my pressure keg this time on the basis of a) not being naffed to bottle and b) liking the idea of having a keg of ESB in the house as Xmas approaches. That said, ease of access to it may well be the latest step down the road to alcoholism. 

Brewday went fine - nothing major to report other than I boiled it for 90 mins rather than the usual 60. This must have had an impact as I hit OG which I never do - indeed I exceeded it at 1.062 instead of 1.060. I got about 20 litres out of the kettle and cooled it overnight.

There was an absolute stack of sediment in the bottom of the FV, seriously about 2 inches. After 2 weeks-ish I racked it into my pressure keg, filtering through a muslin bag to clear the sediment. Samples taken at this point tasted pretty good.

As above I was keen on the keg idea but having not used it before did a bit of research - thanks to the Dude's Brews for teaching me how to do it , although with hindsight I could and perhaps should have worked it out for myself. 60g of sugar went in and the following day a sample taken was overly sweet. I panicked that I'd ruined the batch but what do you know 24 hours after that I poured a pretty awesome keg sample of ESB - it's since matured and is tasting absolutely brilliant. Really really pleased with it - a subtle carbonation just like you get when you've got a beard and order a cask ale in a pub to gesture with while you pontificate on Brexit.

Final Thoughts

The pressure keg is awesome! Really pleased with how it all worked out and I think I'll always look to have something on keg in future. I haven't really got the technical knowhow/inclination for a corny keg so this feels like a good mid ground. It definitely lends itself to a bitter type drink that is gently carbed rather than a honking IPA - perhaps I'll just look to get a lug of ESB in it at all times.