Sara's Robust Porter

Another beer instigated by Sara.  The recipe has evolved from my previous attempts at a porter. This one Sara wanted to do a brewing experiment and re-pitch the English Ale yeast from our previous ESB into half of the batch, and ferment the other 5 gallons with Cal ale yeast just to see the difference. We will ferment both of them at the same time, at the same temperature to see what difference the yeast makes in this recipe.

The Numbers:
Batch size: 11 gallons
Boil size: 13.5 gallons
Boil time: 90 minutes
Grain weight: 23.5 pounds
Efficiency: 80%
Original gravity: 1.063
Final gravity: 1.015
Alcohol (by volume): 6.3%
Bitterness (IBU): 26
Color (SRM): 32.2°L  ___

Grain:
83% Maris Otter (19.5 lbs)
8.5% Crystal 40 (2 lbs)
5.3% Chocolate (1.25 lbs)
3.2% Black Patent (.75 lbs)

Single Infusion Mash:
Saccharification rest at 152 F for 45 min.
Sparge at 168 F.

Hops and Boil:
90 min. boil

2 oz E.K. Goldings (6.7% aa) at 60 minutes.
2 oz Fuggles (5% aa) at 15 minutes.
2 oz E.K. Goldings (6.7% aa) at knockout.

Yeast:
2 day starter of 1 liter + 1 vial of White Labs (WLP001) California Ale Yeast pitched into the first 5.5 gallons.
The remaining 5.5 gallons was fermented with a re-pitch of White Labs (WLP002) English Ale Yeast that we used in the previous ESB.

Notes:
Both beers will be fermented at 67° F.

Once again, Sara did all the brewing. Actually, I (Matt) only followed directions and assisted when I was asked to. This is 100% Sara's beer.

We're back - Jamil's ESB

We haven't brewed in a long time, but Sara got the bug so she picked the recipe and did all the work. Hopefully this will get us back in the swing of things. It should be ready for Christmas. The Recipe is from Brewing Classic Styles by Jamil Zainasheff.

The Numbers:
Batch size 11 gallons
Boil size 14.1 gallons
Boil time 90 minutes
Grain weight 23.5 pounds
Efficiency 70%
Original gravity 1.056
Final gravity 1.016
Alcohol (by volume) 5.3%
Bitterness (IBU) 27
Color (SRM) 9.7°L ___

Grain:
94% Maris Otter (22 lbs)
4% Crystal 20 (1 lb)
2% Crystal 120 (.5 lb)

Single Infusion Mash:
Saccharification rest at 152 F for 45 min.
Sparge at 168 F.

Hops and Boil:
90 min. boil

2.75 oz E.K. Goldings added at 60 minutes.
1.25 oz E.K. Goldings addes at knockout.

Yeast:
2 liter, 2 day starter of 2 vials of White Labs (WLP002) English Ale Yeast.

Notes:
Ferment at 68 F for one week or until primary fermentation dies down. Then crash cool it to 55 for another few days and keg it up.

Sara brewed the whole thing and she hit all her numbers dead on... However, I screwed up the recipe when I was putting it into the software and I put in 70% efficiency, when I know that the brewhouse gets north of 75%. We ended up getting closer to 80%, which means we ended up over shooting the gravity by almost 8 pts. oops. Oh well, 'tis the season.