NBBC Manly Small Batch ESB, take 1!

Well, today, Sunday is Brewday. Time for me to launch into the middle aged alchemy world of brewing! I chose a rich, ambery, malted to hell ESB (Extra Special Bitter) (or English Special Bitter, depending on final strength...) as it's pretty much my favourite beer and I usually hammer it down at 4 Pines - but at $9.50 a pint, there's only so many you can have! So, I kicked off sterilising all the gear with some Iodophor (iodine some-or-rather) to kill all the bugs and nasties...

Made some Hops tea and activated my yeast in some warm water...

and opened the malty goodness (x2!) which was then added to some hot water...

and mix well! It's then topped up with cold water, mixed further, to a target temperature of 25*, mine ended up about 27*, which is well in the range for the yeast, which is now added with the Hops tea.

Then she's all sealed up with the water lock on top to vent.

After it's all set, I drew some for a SG (Specific Gravity) reading using a Hydrometer. Start SG was 1.039 which is about right. SG is measured at the end of the Primary Ferment to determine that the yeast has finished it's job. Alcohol by volume can also be determined from SG.

So now I just have to sit back, relax and try to accumulate a bunch of empties for bottling! High Five!

Thanks Oscar :)