Strong Bitter Common Room ESB

Brewer's Friend 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
marinosr said:
I'm brewing this up today! Thanks for the great-looking recipe, and from a fellow Durmite. KingBrianI, do you go to TRUB meetings? I was thinking of checking one out.
Click to expand...

Nope, I've never been to one. There was a time when I tried hard to get out to one, but always seemed to miss them. They're on like Tuesdays or Thursdays or something if I remember correctly. Anyway, the timing just never worked out and I have given up.
 
Just brewed this up two days ago. I altered it by adding a pound of biscuit malt to the grain bill. Pitched a 1 liter starter of 1098 and within 2 hours it was fermenting! Can't wait for this brew!
 
Has anyone experimented with adding Brown Sugar???

I has a ESB from Fitgers in Duluth, MN. Talked to thier Brewers and they said they added some brown sugar into thier recipe.

Thanks!

Deacon
 
I brewed this a few weeks ago and my mash efficiency and attenuation were incredible, OG was 1.061 and finished out at 1.009. When I went to keg today it tasted amazing, one of the best beers I ever made! It will be a staple in my brewing line up!:mug:
 
Got ingredients in. Gonna check my OG after mashing and add dark brown sugar to bring OG up to 1.06.

May try to brew next weekend. Haven't brewed since thanksgiving. So stoked!!!!


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
Brewed this on Wed w/the recommended biscuit malt added - bubbling away and smelling good...
 
Excellent beer. I brewed it and upped the bittering charge (60 minute) with some left over Columbus. I upped the IBUs to 47. I used 15 grams of rehydrated S-04 and fermented at 63F. Came out great...thanks for a great simple recipe.
 
I didn't read through this whole thread, but my brew club is having a brewing contest. The rules are Maris Otter MUST be the base malt, and no more than four ounces of hops. Has anyone tried this recipe substituting Maris Otter for the Pale 2-Row? It seems they would be interchangeable, with the MO giving a bit maltier/biscuity taste. Any ideas?
 
jfk69 said:
I didn't read through this whole thread, but my brew club is having a brewing contest. The rules are Maris Otter MUST be the base malt, and no more than four ounces of hops. Has anyone tried this recipe substituting Maris Otter for the Pale 2-Row? It seems they would be interchangeable, with the MO giving a bit maltier/biscuity taste. Any ideas?
Click to expand...


Maris Otter is perfect for this recipe.


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew
 
Great looking recipe; planning to brew it this weekend but I have two quick questions for KingBrianI and any others that have brewed it:

Using BrewSmith, 1.5 oz of 5.5%AA EKG at FWH only yields 18 IBUs, but when added for 60 min boil yields the 30 IBUs needed to hit 35 total. Is that because brewing software in 2008 couldn't adjust for FWH? Is this a case of "trust the Brewer, not the machine?"

What carbonation level have folks been using for this beer?
 
waldo711 said:
Great looking recipe; planning to brew it this weekend but I have two quick questions for KingBrianI and any others that have brewed it:

Using BrewSmith, 1.5 oz of 5.5%AA EKG at FWH only yields 18 IBUs, but when added for 60 min boil yields the 30 IBUs needed to hit 35 total. Is that because brewing software in 2008 couldn't adjust for FWH? Is this a case of "trust the Brewer, not the machine?"

What carbonation level have folks been using for this beer?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure how brewsmith works but Beersmith is what I used in creating the recipe. It accurately attributes higher IBUs for a given amount of hops for using them as FWH instead of adding them when the boil starts. I think a lot of brewers (and maybe some brewing software) incorrectly calculates FWH as giving the equivalent bitterness as a 20 minute addition, which is inaccurate.
 
Brewed this recipe up and it was really nice! I have never used MO before and now may only use it, i like it that much.

I subbed for WLP013 for the yeast as I am a huge fan of Worthington's white shield, it is just such a "fun" time trying to get it to clear though.. I also added a touch more flavor hops so i wouldn't waste the 1oz packages i had to buy.

All an all, excellent brew! Good job KB! A local brewery, Core Brewing in Springdale AR, cans and markets their ESB as their normal house ale, and it is pretty good and extremely similar. However at ~$8 for a 6-pack of cans, and a 5-gal batch only costing me ~$30, I think I will stick to this for my english fix.
 
I just kegged this (a variation on it,anyway), and it is FANTASTIC. I can hardly wait until it's properly carbonated!

I gotta show my nerd side: I can totally picture myself knocking these back in Dungeons and Dragons land in some smokey common room after a long campaign. I think this one will be a regular part of my rotation.

Thanks for sharing it!
 
Brewed this beer, came out fantastically!! I added 12 oz. of Biscuit Malt...yum. Drinking this right now! So malty, a nice break from hop bombs. Thanks for the recipe! I took this beer to a local brewery, the head brewer said he would drink this over any commercial ESB. Woot! Good recipe!
 
Planning on brewing this tomorrow, but only ordered 1 oz. EKG by mistake. I have German Tradition, but not sure if that would be an acceptable substitute. I do have a full ounce of Fuggles that I could use.

Interested in hearing some opinions. Thanks.
 
Doing this tomorrow as well. Using the OP grain bill on post 1. May toss in the other half oz at flame out as well.

My first ESB!
 
Brewed this a few weeks ago with some slight changes.

I didn't have Maris Otter, so I just used American 2-row (also C60 and C120 instead of British equivalents). I also opted for the London ESB yeast (Wyeast 1968) and made a 2L starter. Lastly, I increased the C120 to .5# to get a color closer to what I wanted.

Fermented starting at 61 for 3 days then ramped to 68 over the next 2 days where it stayed for a week. Over that week I noticed drastic changes in the beer. Originally it had lots of diacetyl and the hops were extremely astringent, I was very worried I did something wrong. 7 days later the malt came forward, the diacetyl faded and the hops blended right in. Its still not fully carbed on the keg, but tastings are amazing already. One of the best beers I have ever brewed, IMO

I'm going to make this again soon, 10 gallons instead of 5, and dry hop half of it.
 
Brewed a half batch this with a little biscuit malt and been bottled for almost 4 weeks now (and already nearly gone)... Did thru my first BIAB - final grav was lower than expected (I think bc my mash temp went a bit high) but turned out great ... Best beer I've done yet and my first where I REALLY like it (only 5 under my belt but hey)... Shoulda made a full 5 gallons!
 
Made up a batch of this on Saturday (2014-04-05).

I had to make a couple of (hopefully) minor tweaks due to ingredient availability at my LHBS.

I added 0.25lb of biscuit as mentioned by some of the people who tried this recipe.
I used Special B instead of the dark crystal (this one bothers me the most but oh well).
I used 1 oz of EKG and 0.5 oz of Fuggles for the first (FWH) hop addition.

I wish I could say this smelled great while I was making it but I was too stuffed up in the head to smell anything. That was disappointing, I love the smells associated with brewing even if my wife and kids complain about it.

Hit expected original gravity and the S-04 was showing visible vigorous activity in about 10 hours. I'm looking forward to this one. I'll try to remember to give my impression of this beer when it's ready (7-8 weeks).
 
Also Brewed a batch of this recipe on Saturday 4/5/2014. Used .75 crystal 10l, and .5 crystal 80l. Added 1.5 EKG first wort. Other hop additions same. Pitched harvested Wyeast 1203-PC Burton IPA Blend from previous brew. Anyone dry hop this beer? I was thinking after 2-3 weeks primary to keg and dry hop with .5 EKG and .5 Fuggles.
Good idea??
will report back in a few weeks the results.
 
Question, I inputed the reciepe as is into my program and the IBU's for FWH were way low, so I inputted them in as 60 min boil and all was good, what gives?
 
1.0685 or 16.7% brix. All maple sap mash. Added 1 tbs calcium chloride to mash. Added 1.5 0z cascade for dry hop.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
Kegged this yesterday after brewing for the first time. It isn't carbed yet, but the flavor is outstanding. I'll definitely add this to my rotation. Oh, and like several others, I added 12 oz. of biscuit malt to the bill. Good stuff...
 
Drinking my last bottle of this - need to make more! Each bottle better than the last, so easy to drink...
 
Drinking a few of these after bottle conditioning for 19 days right now. It's easily the best beer I've made. I'm a big ESB fan, and this one reminds me of my favorite one (Pikes Peak Beam Engine Bitter). Very rich malt character, really biscuity with a bit of stone fruit and a pleasant hop finish. Smell reminds me of Werthers candies. I made a few personal adjustments to the recipe; I used Warminster Floor-Malted Maris Otter as my base malt, used Wyeast 1968, and added a half pound of oats for a bit more body and a little more creamy head. Also wanted to note this beer tastes best when served at cellar temperature. Thanks KingBrianI, cheers!

ImageUploadedByHome Brew1399142958.826588.jpg


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
Pretty new to AG but I think I'll be brewing something close to this next.

Do you think it would convert to a lower ABV ordinary bitter pretty nicely with less Maris Otter? Subbing locally available ingredients it would look like:

7.7 lbs Maris otter
0.8 lb Caramunich III (roughly crystal 60)
0.3 lbs Caraaroma (closest I could find for dark crystal)
(same hop schedule and using s-04)

ABV 3.7
SRM 11.1
35.7 IBU
(According to beersmith @ 6 gallons)

Thoughts?
 
I've been holding off on doing an ESB because I'm not using liquid yeast yet and I heard you really need to use 1968 or WLP002 to make a good one. Is this beer much better with a liquid yeast or should I just go ahead a do it with S-04?
 
Wow, I can't believe it's been a whole year since I've brewed this.

I just ordered ingredients from my LHBS to make more CR-ESB this weekend. I can't wait.
 
matt062286,

Yours appears much darker. Did that come about from the floor malted Maris? Seems you must have added something else?

Did you use Flaked Oats, or Golden Naked?

Thanks!
Andy
 

Similar threads

H
Citrusy Pale Ale to clean out the freezer
Replies
7
Views
802
lumpher
lumpher
Zippy123
Feedback on recipe to split mash for two different beers
Replies
2
Views
449
Zippy123
Zippy123
D
First Recipe: 1 Gallon Maris Otter / Goldings SMaSH (Comments, suggestions?)
Replies
6
Views
398
Northern_Brewer
Northern_Brewer
PashMaddle
Brew day #2 is done.
Replies
22
Views
1K
lumpher
lumpher
Gadjobrinus
Festbier - first lager back in.
Replies
17
Views
1K
Brooothru
Brooothru
InkBird 300

Latest posts

Back
Top