Gnasty the Gnome ESB
Brewed: 2/9/2014 Kegged: 2/23/2014
Next up on SheppyBrew's 2013 goal to have brewed all-grain batches of beer in all 23 of the BJCP categories (see SheppyBrew Styles) was Category 8, English Pale Ale. Of the three beer styles in that category, I decided to go with the biggest and hoppiest, ESB.As you may know from my blog, Gnasty the Gnome has become a SheppyBrew Brewing assistant and drinking buddy. He is also a Christmas gift designed to help me get over my irrational fear of gnomes. Plus, he is a Chicago BlackHawks fan.
As Gnasty and I have become beer-buddies, we decided to collaborate on a beer recipe. It turns out that Gnomes love English Pale Ales ... especially ESB's and the fact that I had to brew one seemed like reason enough to make this the beer we worked on together.
The beer itself is designed to be a goldish copper color with nice rich English malt flavor and aroma with lots of East Kent Golding hop character. It has a restrained fruity ester flavor, and is medium light bodied and relatively low in alcohol. It is a session beer that both Gnasty and I can enjoy while watching the BlackHawks without worrying about being hung over the next day.
This is the first beer I made with significant water modifications. I used the Beer Smith water profile tool to get my Denver water closer to that of Burton on Trent's. It was a bit scary to be adding that much mineral salts to my brewing water, but Gnasty assured me that there is nothing to be frightened of.
Gnasty and I brewed it together, and it turned out great. The first batch was a bit darker in color than I imagined. It was also more malt-forward and didn't finish quite as bitter as I thought it would. It could also probably use more hops. But it still turned out great.
I took out the dark Blackprinz malt in Batch 2 to get a lighter color beer. I moved around the hop additions to get a bit more hop bitterness and flavor.
Follow any updates to the Beer on the Gnasty label on my blog: http://blog.ericshepard.com/search/label/Gnasty
| Gnasty the Gnome ESB --- Batch 2 |
| Style | Extra Special/Strong Bitter (English Pale Ale) | Batch Size | 5.50 gal | |||
| Type | All Grain | Boil Size | 7.76 gal | |||
| Brewhouse Efficiency | 75.00 | Boil Time | 90 minutes |
Recipe Characteristics
| Recipe Gravity | 1.057 SG | Estimated FG | 1.013 SG | ||||
| Recipe Bitterness | 48.2 IBUs (Rager) | Alcohol by Volume | 5.7 % | ||||
| BU : GU | 0.852 | ||||||
| Recipe Color | 8.4 SRM |
|
|||||
| Measured OG: | 1.056 |
Measured FG: | 1.011 | ||||
| ADF: | 80 | Measured ABV: | 5.9 |
Ingredients
| Amt | Name | Type | # | %/IBU |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15.00 g | Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 mins) | Water Agent | 1 | - |
| 6.00 g | Epsom Salt (MgSO4) (Mash 60.0 mins) | Water Agent | 2 | - |
| 3.00 g | Chalk (Mash 60.0 mins) | Water Agent | 3 | - |
| 1.00 g | Baking Soda (Mash 60.0 mins) | Water Agent | 4 | - |
| 10 lbs 4.0 oz | Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) | Grain | 5 | 93.2 % |
| 8.0 oz | Crystal, Medium (Simpsons) (55.0 SRM) | Grain | 6 | 4.5 % |
| 4.0 oz | Crystal, Dark (Simpsons) (80.0 SRM) | Grain | 7 | 2.3 % |
| 0.500 oz | Goldings, East Kent [6.30 %] - First Wort 90.0 min | Hop | 8 | 13.5 IBUs |
| 0.500 oz | Magnum [14.70 %] - First Wort 90.0 min | Hop | 9 | 31.6 IBUs |
| 1.00 tsp | Yeast Nutrient (Boil 15.0 mins) | Other | 10 | - |
| 0.750 oz | Goldings, East Kent [6.30 %] - Boil 5.0 min | Hop | 11 | 3.1 IBUs |
| 1.0 pkg | Dry English Ale (White Labs #WLP007) [35.49 ml] | Yeast | 12 | - |
| 1.500 oz | Goldings, East Kent [5.80 %] - Dry Hop 5.0 Days | Hop | 13 | 0.0 IBUs |
Mash Profile
| Name | Description | Step Temperature | Step Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mash In | Add 13.75 qt of water at 163.7 F | 152.0 F | 60 min |
Batch sparge with 2 steps (1.76gal, 3.88gal) of 168.0 F water
Recipe Notes
Decided on water additions by starting with getting Denver Water profile to Burton on Trent and then reducing.
Final: Ca=169,Mg=26,Na=29,SO4=365,Cl=23,HCO3=178
Brewing Record
| Brew Date: | 2/9/2014 | Strike Temp: | 170 | |||
| Mash Temps: | 154 (maybe up to 155). Down to 149ish. | |||||
| Pre-boil OG | 1.046 (1.046 SG) | Pre-boil Vol | 7.5 (7.76 gal) | |||
| Actual Mash Efficiency | 83% | Pitch Temp | 60 | |||
| Fermentation | ||||||
| Day 1: 60 | ||||||
| Day 2: 63 | ||||||
| Day 4: 68 just about done. | ||||||
Brewing Notes
2/8/2014 Bought ingredients yesterday. Need to brew this weekend.
2/11/2014 Brewed this on Sunday. Pitched at 58. Has risen since then to 63ish. Bubbling away.
2/13/2014 Was going strong last night at 68. Pretty much done now. Starting to clear up a bit.
2/16/2014 Dry hopped into a secondary fermentor. Ended up using the rest of the EKG, which was 1.75 oz as opposed to the 1.5 of the recipe. Gravity at 1.016, putting the abv at 5.3. Sample nice and hoppy. Color much more esb-like than last batch. Should be a great beer in a corrupt weeks.
2/23/2014 Kegged today. FG is 1.011, considerably lower than last time I measured. This puts my abv at 5.9. Nice firm bitterness. Nice floral hop character. Beautiful color. Malt maybe not as rich as last batch, but certainly closer to an ESB than before. Success!
2/24/2014 Chilled outside under 25 or so psi last night. Put into the keggerator at 20psi today.
2/26/2014 Took a lurk little sample. Nice and holy with a firm bitterness. Good head formation and retention. Great golf color. Certainly more inline with what I think an ESB should be than the last batch.
4/12/2014 Killed the keg today. Was surprised that this finished up before SWMBO. Nice to have the empty keg, though. Need it for TRASH.
2/8/2014 Bought ingredients yesterday. Need to brew this weekend.
2/11/2014 Brewed this on Sunday. Pitched at 58. Has risen since then to 63ish. Bubbling away.
2/13/2014 Was going strong last night at 68. Pretty much done now. Starting to clear up a bit.
2/16/2014 Dry hopped into a secondary fermentor. Ended up using the rest of the EKG, which was 1.75 oz as opposed to the 1.5 of the recipe. Gravity at 1.016, putting the abv at 5.3. Sample nice and hoppy. Color much more esb-like than last batch. Should be a great beer in a corrupt weeks.
2/23/2014 Kegged today. FG is 1.011, considerably lower than last time I measured. This puts my abv at 5.9. Nice firm bitterness. Nice floral hop character. Beautiful color. Malt maybe not as rich as last batch, but certainly closer to an ESB than before. Success!
2/24/2014 Chilled outside under 25 or so psi last night. Put into the keggerator at 20psi today.
2/26/2014 Took a lurk little sample. Nice and holy with a firm bitterness. Good head formation and retention. Great golf color. Certainly more inline with what I think an ESB should be than the last batch.
4/12/2014 Killed the keg today. Was surprised that this finished up before SWMBO. Nice to have the empty keg, though. Need it for TRASH.