ESB Recipe To Enter Into Competition

BrewSwag 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.
PhelanKA7

PhelanKA7

Relax? RELAX?!
HBT Supporter
Joined
Feb 4, 2010
Messages
995
Reaction score
103
Location
Indy
I brewed this recipe last year for a competition and got really good notes on just about everything except the level of carbonation. I was told it was far too much carbonation for the style and although I don't recall going overboard with my priming sugar it was definitely overcarbed. I'm going to shoot for 2 volumes this time around but anyway, that isn't the purpose of this thread.

Here is the recipe and tell me what you guys think and if you have any suggestions. It's a somewhat basic recipe. Nothing far out. Just curious if any of you have experience with the ESB style and anything that can help it stand out in a good way. For the record it will be my first time brewing with RO water so should I try dropping in some gypsum and calcium chloride? 5 grams each perhaps?

Thanks for any suggestions!

[size=+2]Recipe: Muggle Fuggles (Traditional E.S.B.)[/size]
Brewer: PhelanKA7
Asst Brewer:
Style: Extra Special/Strong Bitter (English Pale Ale)
TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications

Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 6.46 gal
Estimated OG: 1.055 SG
EStimated FG: 1.015 SG
Estimated Color: 13.3 SRM
Estimated IBU: 47.0 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
Code: 
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
8 lbs                 Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM)         Grain         1        78.0 %        
1 lbs                 Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM)                   Grain         2        9.8 %         
8.0 oz                Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM)                  Grain         3        4.9 %         
8.0 oz                Special B Malt (180.0 SRM)               Grain         4        4.9 %         
4.0 oz                Acid Malt (3.0 SRM)                      Grain         5        2.4 %         
2.00 oz               Fuggles [4.20 %] - First Wort 60.0 min   Hop           6        31.8 IBUs     
0.50 oz               Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 30.0 min         Hop           7        6.6 IBUs      
1.00 Items            Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins)        Fining        8        -             
3.00 oz               Fuggles [4.20 %] - Boil 5.0 min          Hop           9        8.7 IBUs      
2.0 pkg               London ESB Ale (Wyeast Labs #1968) [124. Yeast         10       -             
3.00 oz               Fuggles [4.20 %] - Dry Hop 1.0 Days      Hop           11       0.0 IBUs

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 10 lbs 4.0 oz
Code: 
Name              Description                             Step Temperature Step Time     
Mash In           Add 12.81 qt of water at 163.7 F        152.0 F          60 min
 
I'd aim for about 1.5-1.75 volumes of carbonation. Most Americans (myself included) like their beer fizzy, but most English beers are supposed to have lower carbonation. As far as the recipe goes, I don't like Fuggles, but they're certainly traditional and I won't be drinking your beer.
 
kingwood-kid said:
I'd aim for about 1.5-1.75 volumes of carbonation. Most Americans (myself included) like their beer fizzy, but most English beers are supposed to have lower carbonation. As far as the recipe goes, I don't like Fuggles, but they're certainly traditional and I won't be drinking your beer.
Click to expand...

Really that low? I thought I had read somewhere that while English style ales are lightly carbonated on draught, the bottled variations are considerably more carbonated. I'll have to look into this further as I have plenty of time to figure it out. Thank you. :mug:

Oh, and that's fine if you don't like Fuggles. That just leaves more for me!
 
So sayeth the BJCP, "Low to moderate carbonation, although bottled commercial versions will be higher." Often, I think the BJCP is narrow-mindedly restrictive with their style interpretations. Here, I don't really know what they're saying. Low, medium, high, maybe all three at once.
 
I brewed about 5 ESBs/bitters in about a year timeframe and experimented with carbonation. My current one is 1.6 vol of CO2, the lowest yet. It's either perfect or slightly too low, 1.8 vol oc CO2 seemed a little too high. I'd aim for that range using a priming sugar calculator and your highest temperature (probably fermenation temperature) as the input otherwise you risk very flat beer at these carbonation levels.

The carbonation will still take time to dissolve into the beer even if the levels are lower. The bottle opened at 2 weeks had me second guessing if I used enough priming sugar this time, 4 weeks fine.

I don't think you need any acid malt for your grainbill with RO/distilled water. [Crisp] Maris Otter will lower the mash pH in RO/distilled water to about 5.55 (measured at room temperature), the other crystal malt and brewing salts will decrease it. I predict about 5.44 mash pH (measured at room temperature) if you don't use acid malt and <5.2 pH if you use 4 oz.

You want calcium in the mash. I'd simply add 0.67 g/gal of CaSO4 and 0.33 g/gal of CaCl2 for all RO brewing water (Ca = 64, Cl = 42, SO4 = 98 ppm).
 
DSmith said:
I brewed about 5 ESBs/bitters in about a year timeframe and experimented with carbonation. My current one is 1.6 vol of CO2, the lowest yet. It's either perfect or slightly too low, 1.8 vol oc CO2 seemed a little too high. I'd aim for that range using a priming sugar calculator and your highest temperature (probably fermenation temperature) as the input otherwise you risk very flat beer at these carbonation levels.

The carbonation will still take time to dissolve into the beer even if the levels are lower. The bottle opened at 2 weeks had me second guessing if I used enough priming sugar this time, 4 weeks fine.

I don't think you need any acid malt for your grainbill with RO/distilled water. [Crisp] Maris Otter will lower the mash pH in RO/distilled water to about 5.55 (measured at room temperature), the other crystal malt and brewing salts will decrease it. I predict about 5.44 mash pH (measured at room temperature) if you don't use acid malt and <5.2 pH if you use 4 oz.

You want calcium in the mash. I'd simply add 0.67 g/gal of CaSO4 and 0.33 g/gal of CaCl2 for all RO brewing water (Ca = 64, Cl = 42, SO4 = 98 ppm).
Click to expand...

Ok. I was just going with ~3% acid malt based upon the Water Chemistry Primer by adjelainge. I'm thinking I should still keep a vial of lactic acid handy just in case my mash pH is ever off. Also is that ratio for water treatment for strike water, sparge, batch size, or total water volume?

Thanks for the advice!
 
Those salt ratios are suggestions for all brewing water. I premix all the water the same in regards to salts, but the ratios differ a little for different styles. There are rare cases when I mix in 25% tap water for mash water only for very dark beer, but still figure out a salts ratio per gallon and apply it to all water.

[Crisp] Maris Otter with a small amount of crystal malt seems to work out very well for mash pH with 100% RO water without acid.
 

Similar threads

S
Autumn Wheat Ale
Replies
5
Views
1K
kwilson16
kwilson16
Zippy123
Feedback on recipe to split mash for two different beers
Replies
2
Views
421
Zippy123
Zippy123
Wrendelar
Harry Potter themed Black IPA recipe
Replies
8
Views
1K
bike2brew
bike2brew
jturman35
Red IPA recipe
Replies
16
Views
2K
Indian_villager
I
W
English Bitter - Partial Mash - finally got back into brewing
Replies
1
Views
513
mbauer013
M
Williams Brewing 300

Latest posts

Back
Top