Extra Special Bitter

Not a Fuller's Clone but a damn fine full bodied beer for those looking for something large.

Brewer:	Kelsey Wagner		Email:	kwagner@bardel.ca
Beer:	Extra Special Bitter		Style:	English Strong (Extra Special) Bitter
Type:	All grain		Size:	5.5 gallons
Color:	24 HCU (~13 SRM)		Bitterness:	53 IBU
OG:	1.060		FG:	1.010
Alcohol:	6.5% v/v (5.1% w/w)
Water:	1 tsp Gypsum/gallon in mash and sparge water to acheive Burton-esque levels and pH. Note:Check your local water analysis before following this.
Grain:	11 lb. British pale 8 oz. American Munich 10 oz. American crystal 60L 0 oz. British Carastan 2 oz. Roasted barley 8 oz. Flaked barley
Mash:	70% efficiency
	I mashed this a little higher (68 -69 C) than the traditional temps so that I could produce a maltier, heavier beer.
Boil:	70 minutes	SG 1.042	8 gallons
	Longer boil was simply due to the fact that I collected 8 freakin' gallons of wort! I needed to reduce it to 5.5 before I pitched and therefore kept boiling it down to reach my OG and my desired volume. Hey, it was only my second all-grain batch.
Hops:	1.5 oz. Kent Goldings (5.4% AA, 70 min.) 1 oz. Fuggles (4.9% AA, 40 min.) 1 oz. Fuggles (4.9% AA, 20 min.)
Yeast:	Wyeast 1968. I swear by this yeast, I truly do. It is so fantastic when one is brewing a bitter. It nearly takes care of itself so long as you use pale malt as a base, a little crystal and maybe another darker grain for colouring. I'm sure White labs has something along this vein but I have heard several rumours that this yeast comes from the same strain as the Fuller's ESB yeast which, in my humble opinion, is one of the best beers going.
Log:	I brewed this in earlier August of 2007 and therefore had to contend with some higher than normal temperatures (though here on the coast of British Columbia we rarely get temps over 30 C). This beer would be better brewed in the shoulder seasons when average temps are closer to 15 - 20 C.
Carbonation:	I used 3.5 Ozs of dextrose and bottled 42 pints of this stuff. That will work out to being a little higher than intended. A better amount would have been around 2.5 - 3.0 by traditional standards.
Tasting:	Extremely malty with some spicy hop notes and flavour more due to the pH than an excessive amount of hops used. Not a lot of hop aroma due to a lack of aroma hopping but decent hop flavour. The 1968 yeast yields an extremely clear finished product and makes it extremely impressive when bottled or kegged. I can imagine this being absolutely fantastic out of a traditional hand pumped set up. Crystal, crystal clear and tasty. Hope you enjoy it. - Braumeister Kelsey Wagner, Big Wagon Breweries Vancouver B.C.

Recipe posted 09/01/07.