Bulldog ESB

When I made the Red Rooster for a second time, I had 3 ounces of hops left over from a half pound of Willamette pellets that I bought from Midwest Supplies. I think it was for $6, which is a great deal!

I thought about what kind of style of beer I could make with 3 ounces of Willamette, since the Rooster was going to take up 5 ounces. For some reason, I was wanting to have a Goose Island Honker's Ale. I like using Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer's Brewing Classic Styles as a place to start, so I looked up the chapter on Extra Special Bitters. I believe I used the malt bill for the most part to make up what would become the Bulldog ESB.

I've seen that Willamette are good substitute hops for English Fuggle hops. However, the recipe did not call for Fuggles, but for Goldings. I just decided to wing it because I had Willamette.

I was also wanting to have a beer with a big biscuity-malt taste, so I opted to use all Marris Otter as the base malt. In the end, I had also just harvested my backyard hops. The trellis fell in June, so I had to rebuild it, but I didn't take the time to sort through the bines to divide the hops into respective bags. They all went in the same bag; The Magnum, the Zeus, and the Cascade. I christened them 131 Westchester hops and used 2 ounces to dry-hop the beer as an afterthought.

Bulldog ESB

OG: 1.061

SRM: 10.9

IBU: 40.7

5.4% ABV

10.0 lb Marris Otter

1.0 lb Victory Malt

0.25 lb Crystal 120*L

0.50 lb Crystal 20*L

2.0 oz Willamette @ 60 min

1.0 oz Willamette @ 0 min

2.0 oz 131 Westchester hops (55% Zeus, 44% Magnum, 1% Cascade) Dry Hop

Wyeast London ESB 1968

Danstar Llallemand Nottingham dry yeast 11 gram

A note on the yeast: I had planned to make a starter, but didn't. I figured the gravity was low enough that I could just pitch from the package, and the Wyeast smack pack blew up big, and it did it quickly. However, after 36 hours, I opened the bucket and there was no Kreuzen. I ended up pitching a pack of Nottingham I had ordered extra.

The beer turned out great - it has cleared, and has an orange hue. The nose is of the Zeus hops, and has a nice Willamette bite. As an "afterthought" beer, it has turned out to be quite a nice ale. I have added it to my list of annual beers to make.

Red Rooster Ale

A couple of months ago, I started putting together a spreadsheet of beers I wanted to make along with the ingredients and prices. I frequent the Northern Brewer website, and occasionally post on their forum. I saw a kit they had there called Dawson's Multigrain Red, and it sounded awfully good to me.

Of course, the kit is for a 5-gallon batch, and I try to get enough ingredients for a 6-gallon batch. I bought the Willamette hops over at Freshops for a mere $1 per ounce. I got the grains and yeast at Midwest Supplies for $16.40. That's right, $19.40 for 6 gallons (a little more than 2-cases) of good beer. Of course, add in the postage, too. I ordered the ingredients for a Black Lager as well. That's the subject of a whole 'nother post.

Before this, I had never used the Danstar Nottingham yeast. When I think of Nottingham, I think of Robin Hood, the Sherwood forest, and England in general, even though this yeast is made in Canada.

The difference between my version and Dawson's: His is a little lower in gravity. I upped the amounts of 2-row malt and the color malts (the chocolate rye and the CaraWheat) to bring the gravity up to 1.054 instead of 1.044. Also, since I had to order whole ounces of hops, I ended up using all 3 ounces by adding another quarter ounce to the bittering and flameout additions, and dry hopping the leftover half ounce. The recipe:

Red Rooster Ale

6-gallon batch

OG: 1.054

30 IBU

SRM: 12.7

11.0 lb 2-Row Pale Malt

0.5 lb Caramunich II

0.33 lb CaraWheat

0.33 lb Chocolate Rye

1.25 oz Willamette (4.5%AA) @ 60 min.

0.75 oz Willamette (4.5%AA) @ 30 min.

0.50 oz Willamette (4.5%AA) @ 0 min.

0.50 oz Willamette (4.5%AA) Dry Hop 5 days prior to bottling

Danstar-Lallemand Nottingham dry yeast, 11 grams

I really need to get a back light for photos. The glass here usually makes the beers look darker. In a standard pint, this one looks more lighter in color. It's not like one of those hoppy California red beers that have become so popular. There is nice lacing, you can sort of see it on this glass.

The hop profile is nice. It's sort of "woody". The nose is malts, yeast and just a tiny bit of the Willamette. I will probably buy another ounce and dry hop an ounce and a half next time. Maybe.

What I really like about this beer is the mouthfeel. It's sort of creamy, and I think it would be great if it were kegged and poured using nitrogen as opposed to CO2.

1.054 is big enough. My batch sparging technique was lacking, in that I didn't drain the mash tun all the way with the first bit of water, and then probably used too much water in the second sparge. I need to resolve the sparge water calculation and how to do that to improve the efficiency. As it was, the beer ended up at 1.049, which isn't too bad. It still tastes great.