First Gold EPA

11lb Maris Otter (Hugh Baird)
10 oz Crystal 70-80L (Simpson's?)

60 mins 2.0 oz First Gold
KO 1.5 oz First Gold
dry hop 0.5 oz First Gold

1 tsp gypsum (in the mash)
1 whirlfloc tab @ 15m

Mash @ 148F, 1.75qt:lb, 90 mins
Capped mash w/~190F water for mashout

I intended to use 1968 in this beer, but, as it happened, my yeast was not viable at all, and hadn't even taken 1 point off of my 2qt starter in 36 hours. Note to self: 1968 does NOT freeze well (though most other yeasts I've frozen have lived to tell).

As it happened, Windsor did an amazing job on this beer as it tastes amazing. Nicely malty with a detectable amount of bready/nuttiness and a complexity from the crystal malt that plays nicely with the classic english ester profile of Windsor. You'd never guess that it's 1.010 and 6.7% alcohol from the mouthfeel or malt flavours here. The hops are delicious too - they provide a very 'english' character to the beer that's earthy, and yet fruity - sort of a marmalade thing going on there.

This beer strongly reminds me of Fuller's ESB, just a little hoppier.


At present, this is my favourite homebrewed beer ever.

Congrats on the brew. Having drunk mainly Americanized, supersized ESBs, Fuller's tastes really boring to me. I can't really appreciate the more subtle British variants.

I've gotten good results on ESBs using Belgian Aromatic and Biscuit malts at 3% each. It's not exactly "true to style" but William III was a Dutchman, after all. Close enough for me.

When I first started drinking beer and tried (fuller's) ESB, I remember thinking 'whoa, this is IPA-hoppy!' Now, I do find fuller's a little on the 'boring' side, hence the (slightly) exaggerated hop profile I used here.

Over the years, I've tried a bunch of different ESB and EPA recipes to try to create the 'ideal' ESB. While I've made and enjoyed beers with Aromatic, Biscuit, or Amber malts in them, they've never really seemed 'english' enough for me. The kilned malts tend to hide the subtle Maris Otter characteristics, I think, so when I do use them, I tend to pair them with (much cheaper) canadian 2-row.

Anyway, this one is the closest I've come thus far to a big, yet still 'british' ESB.

I bought a pound of First Gold. Orange Marmalade is a good description. I use them in my ESB to great effect.

they're quickly becoming one of my favourite UK hops