5/20/11 -  Brewed after work on a Friday which was difficult.  Before I left Cara fired up the burner on the strike water, but I mistimed things and the water was boiling by the time I got home (needed to be around 170).  Some ice lowered the temp quickly though.

A recipe I found recommended mashing at 165 which seemed ridiculously high, so I decided on 158 as a safer option; still higher than I mash for most beers but I figure with the sugar and syrup it will be fermentable enough.

I forgot that the timer I set was counting down to the first hop addition and not to the end of the boil so I added 1 oz of Goldings at 30 mins, instead of 15 minutes like the recipe I have called for.  Then I ended up adding the 5 minute hops at 20 minutes, at which point I noticed the boil volume was too high and my mistake became apparent.  In order to still get the proper late hop aroma, I added 1.33 oz of Goldings to the kettle a few minutes into chilling. 

I expect the beer to have a few too many IBUs, and perhaps a bit more hop aroma than an ESB should, but I can't imagine it will be something that time wont fix. 

I was able to find Lyle's Golden Syrup and Demerrara sugar at 17th street market for fairly reasonable prices.  They also had black treacle there which I may put in a porter sometime in the future.

I overchilled the beer to 55 degrees and didnt want to pitch the yeast that cold so I left it overnight in the carboys to get the temp up.  It only got up to 62 at which point I pitched the yeast and let it ride.  within 12 hours the temp had overshot my target of 68 and got up to 72 so I slowly lowered the temp to 68 which I think slowed fermentation a bit. 

Raised temp up to 72 for a diacetyl rest.

I plan to serve this at 55, and possibly through the nitro tap.