East Bay Special Bitter (EBSB!)

This is a pretty straight forward recipe than the past few that I've posted here.  With the holidays coming soon I have spice beer on tap and spice beer planned to be brewed next weekend (Winter Chai Brown Ale!).  I thought it would be nice to have something on tap that was easy drinking and pull me away from the awesome Harvest Pumpkin Ale.  Also, we are expecting a few Thanksgiving guests who aren't into spiced beers (my Dad....see you at Thanksgiving!).  After debating for some time where to go this weekend, I remembered a nice batch of ESB I brewed a few years ago.  I'm sure this isn't the same recipe, but I whipped this one up Saturday night and headed to MoreBeer! in Concord on Sunday morning.  Without further BS-ing, enjoy!

Brew Day: 11/3/2013

BJCP Style Category: 8C Extra Special/Strong Bitter (English Pale Ale)

Batch Size: 6 gallons

Grains:
11.50 lbs American 2-Row (looking back on this now; I probably should used UK 2-row; relax have a homebrew)
1.1 lbs Crystal 40 
0.4 lbs Crystal 60 (I had an extra 0.4 lbs of Crystal 60 which I substituted; otherwise I would've used 1.5 lbs of Crystal 40)
0.5 lbs CaraRed

Hops:
1.00 oz Northern Brewer - 60 minutes remaining in the boil
0.50 oz Northern Brewer - 30 minutes remaining in the boil
1.00 oz East Kent Goldings - 15 minutes remaining in the boil
0.50 oz East Kent Goldings - 1 minutes remaining in the boil

Yeast:
British Ale Yeast - White Labs WLP 005

Mash the grains at 151 deg F (strike temp 168 deg F) for 60 minutes using 4.5 gallons of water.  Sparge at 170 deg F using 4.6 gallons of water.

Brew Day - 11/3/2013

Sparging!

Fermentation:  

As always, I carbonate at room temperature until I convince my wife to let me convert our garage into a temperature controlled fermentation chamber (not happening....).  If you do have the ability to fine tune your fermentation temperature, I'd recommend 68 to 72 deg F.  That seems to be a pretty common range for ESB's from my Clone Brews book.

11/4/2013 - 7:00 am

11/4/2013 - 6:30 pm - LIFT OFF!

OG = 1.056 (actual 1.062)

FG = 1.018
ABV = 5.0% (projecting 5.8%)