I bottled my first ESB yesterday. This was also my first beer with good temperature control. This was my pilot fermentation inside of a fridge with a digital temp control and a thermowell. I used Wyeast 1968: London ESB Ale. This is supposed to be highly flocculent, extremely flocculent, bright beers are easily achieved within days without any filtration they say. Well,
thats not what I got. I pitched at 63°F. Day 2 at 64°F, day 3 at 65°F. Over this period the fermentation activity looked very healthy with a nice krausen. On day 4 the temp and the krausen began to fall, so I whipped out my FremWrap and held the temp at 65°F. I raised the temp slowly; at day 9 it was 68°F. I kept it there for a few more days for a diacetyl rest and then let it fall back to ambient, probably a couple degrees lower.
As it sat in the fridge during the fermentation, it never seemed to gain much clarity. On day 26 I racked to secondary to dry hop. The first thing I noticed was how cloudy the beer was, and the same thing at bottling yesterday after 5 days of dry hop. I got good attenuation for this yeast, 70%. So WTF?
As it sat in the fridge during the fermentation, it never seemed to gain much clarity. On day 26 I racked to secondary to dry hop. The first thing I noticed was how cloudy the beer was, and the same thing at bottling yesterday after 5 days of dry hop. I got good attenuation for this yeast, 70%. So WTF?
