ESB

On American Homebrew Day, as designated by the American Homebrew Association, the first Saturday of each May, Nick, Brian and I brewed some ESB (Extra Special Bitter.) ESB is an English style beer, which has a misleading name, since it is really not that bitter. It is a dark beer with low carbonation, often with a toasty malt flavor.

ALL GRAIN HERE WE COME!
Nick devised our first attempt at an all grain brew. Our manifold was at first attempted with a piece of stainless steel, but it snapped, so instead he used a piece of copper (off his wort chiller) and bent it in a question mark shape. The question mark loops in the bucket with the straight point going out the bucket. Inside the bucket, the copper has small cuts, from a dremel tool, facing the bottom of the bucket, which allows the wort to escape, while leaving the grain in the bucket. He used a bottling bucket that already had a drilled hole. The copper tubing fit perfect in a rubber stopper. He used a special molding clay to form a complete seal. The plastic tubing fit perfect on the copper tube. I'll describe our mash/lauter process in a later post, along with the recipe and some photos.