English Bitter Ale

grain
- 13 pounds Maris Otter Pale Ale malt
- 1 pound Briess Caramel 80

hop
- 1 1/2 ounces East Kent Golding whole hops (90 minutes)
- 1 ounces East Kent Golding whole hops (dry)

yeast: Wyeast London ESB and Wyeast West Yorkshire

comments:
Low gravity bitter ale.  Simplest grain and hop bill to date?  I have not been more excited about a beer.  A return to simple recipes and a desire for balanced beers.

The yeast propagated in this batch is planned to be pitched into a near-future batch of English IPA. The yeast from the IPA will be pitched into near-future Imperial Stout, English Mild, Chancellor Ale, and English Pale Ale.

Two yeast starters were created on the previous Sunday.  Tuesday they were stepped-up.  The beer was poured off the yeast cake on brew day until only enough remained to loosen up the yeast by shaking and swirling the solution.  That solution was pitched separately into the two 5 gallon batches of Bitter.  The ESB yeast is extremely flocculant.  Looked like chunks of tofu in the starter.

The West Yorkshire shows obvious signs of fermentation 6 hours after pitching.  The ESB is a little slower ... I agitated the carboy in hopes of getting more of the yeast into suspension.  The ESB is working ... just more slowly.

batch size: 10 gallons (the yeast split between 5 gallons)

ambient outdoor temperature: upper 80s
ambient basement temperature: 64 degrees Fahrenheit

gravity pre boil: 8 degrees Brix
gravity post boil: 10 degrees Brix

final gravity (West Yorkshire): 1.010 (3.75% abv)
final gravity (London ESB): 1.010 (3.75% abv)