Brew #18: Diamond Jubilee ESB

 

As an experiment I am trying some new tricks in order to see if I can increase efficiency. I started with 26 litres of water instead of the usual 25 – the water level came up to the top notch in the centre rod (Speidel Braumeister 20L users will know what I’m on about). I interrupted the programme twice in order to stir the mash and I sparged or rinsed with 7 litres very slowly, collecting the wort into a bucket and adding it later into the boil. The 6th litre collected had the OG of 1028 so I added another litre, 7 litres in total.

While the mash is on, it is time for a beer. Surbiton Wild Man Pale Ale is very fruity and I put this down to Fermentis S04 and will duly switch to Nottingham yeast for these kind of beers. This is Wild Man 6 days in the bottle:

But back to the brew at hand. Wort volume in the beginning of the boil was 29L (I got every single drop…), OG 1046. End of boil and after chilling 26.3L…

…time for a quick pint…look at that head, sure is conditioning fast…

Into the fermentor and the gravity is 1051 and the volume 25.5L. This translates to 86% mash efficiency and 83% efficiency into the FV. Considering that I usually bottle 1.5L less indicates 78% overall net net efficiency – efficiency into the gut, the only statistic that really matters in the end.

I wanted to push 20L BM unit a bit with a typical ~1050 OG beer just to see some efficiency numbers, I think I did OK…and I did hit the target gravity bang on.

name	Diamond Jubilee ESB
“style”	ESB
IBU	39
EBC	22
OG	1051
brewing date	11-Apr-12
yeast	Safbrew S33
fermentables	grain	kg	%
grain 1	Pale Ale	3.5	68.6%
grain 2	Rauch	0.5	9.8%
grain 3	Munich	0.4	7.8%
grain 4	Vienna	0.4	7.8%
grain 5	Wheat	0.15	2.9%
grain 6	Crystal 150EBC (76L)	0.1	2.0%
grain 7	Black	0.05	1.0%
	total	5.10	100%
hops	hop	gram	minutes
bittering	Target 10.7%	25	60
flavour	EKG 4.5%	15	25
flavour/aroma	EKG 4.5%	30	15
aroma	EKG 4.5%	30	5
	total	100
mash schedule	minutes	degrees c
step 1	mash in	45
step 2	30	45
step 3	15	55
step 4	30	62
step 5	15	68
step 6	10	74
Protafloc tablet
			OG
mash with	26	litres
sparge with	7	litres
start of boil	29	litres	1046
end of boil	26.3	litres	1051
into FV	25.5	litres
left in trub	0.8	litres

Recipe: Diamond Jubilee ESB
“Style”: Extra Special/Strong Bitter (English Pale Ale)
Brewed: 4/11/2012
Bottled: 4/24/2012
OG: 1.051 SG
FG: 1.014 SG
Alc%vol: 4.9 %