Friends-in-beeriness:

My apologies for the absence. I was on vacation, then spent lots of weeknights and weekends coding Perl. But that’s neither here nor there, because it may actually help fund a larger brewery one day…in the mean while, I am happy to report the expansion of my 5-Gallon brewery with a brand new burner! The Bayou Classic from Home Depot is a steal at $29. Clearly, the most boring process of brewing, IMHO, is waiting for water to boil. This 55,000 BTU monster boiled two gallons of water in - I swear I am not making this up - 6 minutes. I was flabbergasted, scrambling for ingredients.

Brewing ESB is clearly one of the easiest beers you can brew, period. I mean, it’s a 45-minute boil and not too many ingredients. Though many kits provide garden-variety ale yeast , I recommend the authentic Wyeast 1968 strain to provide the required authenticity. Indeed, a 45-minute boil with only a couple ounces of hops bittering, a couple more at the end, yields a bittersweet ale which is extremely drinkable. This particular variety rides the border between ESB and Strong Bitter because I added some extra malt, bringing the potential ABV to 5.3% (1.053 OG). She’s flocculating nicely, and should be ready for bottling soon (yet another reason to like ESB).

Here’s one problem with a 20psi outdoor burner: too much of a good thing. The flame is easy to control, but I only had a little propane left in the grill’s tank, and ran out just as the boil started. Panicked, I hopped into my car and headed to a nearby station for a refill. 30 minutes, and a stop to Starbucks later for an iced coffee, I checked the residual kettle temperature: 140 degrees. No problem, as it was boiling within few minutes. Just let this be a lesson to you outdoor brewers (Kolonel, I consider your back deck to be ideal for this–no mess in the kitchen). Things to watch out for:

• Huge flames (like this is a bad thing–sheesh)
• Reasonably large boils–get a huge pot (6 Gal)
• 20 psi tends to freeze pressure regulators. Don’t stick your tongue to it.

I’ll write again soon to let you guys know how it turned out!