Oatmeal ESB

When we first started brewing we each started with a different brand of brew kits. Eryn started with a basic Mr. Beer kit, I started with a 1 gallon Brooklyn Brew all-grain kit. We fell in love with brewing and started doing a few 5 gallon DME kits. Had I never gotten a Brooklyn brew kit then our foray into all-grain brewing would probably still be a year or two out, but having started with a mini all-grain kit, we quickly grew out of DME kits.

The Oatmeal ESB was our first venture into 5 gallon all grain brewing. We used a large cooler as our mash tun, dumped in the grain and made beer. Of course it wasn’t that simple, we ran into all sorts of complications including the spigot getting clogged, not enough water heated and more, but it was still awesome to do a 5 gallon batch. Looking back now our efficiency was way off and when we measured the OG it only came in at 1.047 instead of an estimated 1.058. All the same, the beer came out awesome.

We put this beer on tap for my 30th birthday and it went over really well. The beer pours a great amber color with a nice creamy head that settled out quickly. It’s got a great malty taste with a nice hop backbone, but not overdone. Even though the beer comes in at 52 IBU, it tastes lower then that. Unintentionally it also became a great session beer. Because of our lack of skill initially at mashing the beer only comes in at 3.8%. A bit lower then I would like but it made it very easy to have a couple pints worth. The mouthfeel on the beer was I think the most interesting part. The carbonation hits your tongue then quickly rolls off. I think it’s the oats that give the beer this sensation. Overall I love this beer even though it came in pretty low. I’m pretty sure this is on the list to make again and we will tweak it a bit when we do (cut the oats in half I think), but for the time being I’m enjoying just the way it is.

For recipe see more.