Edwin Sandys Bitter - 4

owner: Michael Erwin | started: 02/23/2008 | last updated: 06/03/2008
Recipe: Edwin Sandys Bitter (ESB) | status: Finished

This brew is based on the Palace Bitter in Papazian's book. But, I upped the malt and upped the hops to keep up with the malt, pushing it into the ESB range. Plus, I changed the hops around, b/c I didn't want to use low-alpha and hard-to-get Fuggles to bitter this one. Newport is a good choice for this purpose.

This brew is named after a direct ancestor, an Archbishop of York whose theological leanings played an integral part of the Separatist movement some of whose members eventually became the Pilgrim Fathers. Also, this is the connection to Scrooby Manor, after which I've named my brewery.

2/28/2008 - OG: 1.057 I dumped off about 2/3s of the slurry from the previous batch (Irish Red) and just dumped this in the carboy. Who knows what will happen?

[same day, pt 2] - Just checked carboy, this thing has been active for at least an hour, which means it started less than 3 hrs after pitching.

3/1/2008 - Fermentation has slowed. I blew off almost a gallon of beer! I don't like that. Lots of slurry in the bottom. Racked to bucket, cleaned carboy, and racked back to carboy. So, now I am utilizing a secondary for the first time. SG: 1.017, so it's pretty much done. I'll let it sit until Wednesday or Thursday.

3/5/2008 - SG: 1.015. Apparent attenuation: 74%. Bottled at 5.5% ABV, which is the strongest I've made yet. Reduced the DME to 1 cup to get a little less carb in the English style of this brew. I got 7 bottles less than 2 cases b/c of the extreme blow-off. Tastes really good. Harvested two bottles of G3 yeast, capped and fridged.

3/27/2008 - I've been drinking this one for a couple of weeks. Good beer, with moderate bitterness and good flavor and aroma, great light amber color. Very enjoyable brew.

4/16/2008 - Has really matured into a fine beer. Definitely needs some time in the bottle for the flavor to coalesce.

6/3/2008 - This one's gone now. It needs to make a reappearance in the near future.