Thoughts on first ESB recipe

[Jonas Lapienis]

Hey,

Thinking on brewing my next batch I've decided to brew an ESB. I mostly did IPAs until now and want to brew something different.

Can you help with thoughts on this recipe i've came up with?

20L batch:

Malts:
4kg Pale Ale (Best malz)
0,5kg Wheat Malt (Best malz)
0,3kg Biscuit Malt
0,25kg Caramel Amber (Best malz)
0,25kg Caramel Aromatic (Best malz)
0,1kg Chocolate Malt (Best malz)

Hops:
50g Challenger 5,6%AA (60min)
30g Challenger 5,6%AA (15min)
40g Fuggle 4,5%AA (60min)

Targets as given by Beersmith
OG: 1,065
FG: 1,016
ABV 6,45
IBU ~40
EBC ~30

I usually don't get a good efficiency so i would expect OG 1,055 and FG close to 1,012.


I think maybe there is a lot of types of malt, but this looks good to me.

Jonas

 

[BigEd]

Hey,

Thinking on brewing my next batch I've decided to brew an ESB. I mostly did IPAs until now and want to brew something different.

Can you help with thoughts on this recipe i've came up with?

20L batch:

Malts:
4kg Pale Ale (Best malz)
0,5kg Wheat Malt (Best malz)
0,3kg Biscuit Malt
0,25kg Caramel Amber (Best malz)
0,25kg Caramel Aromatic (Best malz)
0,1kg Chocolate Malt (Best malz)

Hops:
50g Challenger 5,6%AA (60min)
30g Challenger 5,6%AA (15min)
40g Fuggle 4,5%AA (60min)

Targets as given by Beersmith
OG: 1,065
FG: 1,016
ABV 6,45
IBU ~40
EBC ~30

I usually don't get a good efficiency so i would expect OG 1,055 and FG close to 1,012.


I think maybe there is a lot of types of malt, but this looks good to me.

Jonas

I think your grain bill is a bit too busy. Are you using Best malz because that's all you can buy where you are? It's very good malt but for this style I'd use a UK malt if it was available. The wheat seems unnecessary and I would only use one caramel/crystal malt. I don't know what the colors are for the Amber and Aromatic malts on your list. A crystal/caramel malt with a similar color to a UK 55 Lovibond medium crystal would be my choice.

Keeping the Biscuit malt is OK if using the German pale malt. If you used a UK pale I'd skip it. The chocolate malt is a good idea but IMO 100g is going to be too much in a 20L batch. About half that amount seems about right. Just a little will reinforce the color and get the beer to a deep, copper color. Too much can make the beer a touch on the brown side and start to introduce a slight roasty flavor.

So I'd ditch the wheat and add 500g to the pale malt. Keep the Biscuit if using the Best pale. Pick one caramel malt in the 55L (about 150 EBC) color range and use 500g of that. Bring the chocolate malt quantity down to 30-50g.

 

[thehaze]

An easy/pleasent/tasty ESB/english bitter recipe is:

95-97% English Pale Ale malt/Maris Otter
5-3% English Crystal 60/120L

Fullers yeast ( Wyeast 1968/Imperial A09 Pub )

35-50 IBU / 5-6% ABV / SRM: anything between 8 and 12, so it doesn't get in that dark amber/red/light brown territory. This achieves some things: the colour looks better - refreshing beers are somewhat associated with lighter colour, the amount of " specialty " will also be less, when trying to achieve a lower SRM colour, and that will benefit the hops. More Crystal and Roasted malts will only "cover" and muddle the hops flavours, which undoubtly are not high in such a style, but still you want a bit of hop presence/bite.

English hops: Bramling Cross + Goldings + First Gold + etc. Don't diss late additions: I like a little bittering at 60 minutes, but lates additions in the last 15 minutes are also good and beneficial for hop aroma and flavour.

Ferment at 19-20C and raise temp. to 21-22C after 3 days. Give it 10-12 days in the fermenter and then bottle / keg at around 2.3-2.5 vol. CO2. Drink after 10-20 days, depending how well the beer conditions and your taste.

An FG of 1.016 is OK and will leave plenty of body and malt presence in the beer, but something that finishes at 1.010-1.011 will be much pleasent and drier*, which can aid drinkability.

Cheers.

 

[Jonas Lapienis]

Well, I thought of the Best malz because that's the main type i can buy at my local supplier. In Brazil is hard to get that much variety, but they also have Maris Otter. But why would i skip the biscuit malt when using a uk malt? I thought in tasting it with the biscuit.

I've already changed the grain bill considering what you both said. Thank you very much.

 

[kevin58]

One of the head brewers at Fullers, John Keeling, laid out the recipe for their famous London ESB . Pictures of Fullers brew logs that surfaced not long ago on Twitter also reflect a similar grist. Note that Mr. Keeling also mentions London Pride when talking about ESB. That is because the two are partigyled from the same grist... as well as Chiswick Bitter and sometimes Golden Pride. The recipe is quite simple.


95% Pale Ale Malt
5% Crystal 150

Target hops for bittering
Challenger, Northdown and Goldings hops in the last 5 minutes of the boil.
Note that Goldings should be only 5% of the total late addition hops.

English Ale Yeast.

The OG of ESB is around 1.058 with an ABV of 5.9%
London Pride has an OG of 1.047 with an ABV of 4.7%

The color of ESB should be about 16 SRM
London Pride will be around 12 SRM

I've heard that Imperial A-09 yeast does well at giving that marmalade character famous in these beers. I haven't tried it but its on my to-do list for next time.

Edit: I looked up that photo of a 2018 Fullers brew log and it does have a bit of black malt in the recipe but only about 1% of the total grist. I also realized that in the recipe notes quoted above John Keeling did not mention overall bitterness... I dug up another interview I have where he says an IBU in the low 40's is where you want to be. Hope this helps.

 

[BigEd]

but they also have Maris Otter. But why would i skip the biscuit malt when using a uk malt?

Because the UK malt won't need the flavor/aroma help from the biscuit. Use the Maris if you can get it. As I said previously, the Best pale malt is very good, but it won't quite have the richness and aroma of a UK malt.