My ESB Bitter - 2nd AG attempt

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el_horno

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So my new years resolution is to perfect my AG process and perfect two beer styles (to my taste of course) One being a Bitter and the other being a RYE IPA. I learned a lot from my first RYE IPA Attempt and I think I over thought it a bit too much, and looking forward to a better 2nd attempt.

Anyway, I did some research on other ESB Bitter recipes here to help me put together the following recipe and would welcome any and all feed back. Please also not I am new to beer smith so I welcome any suggestions you see I might have done wrong.


BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: ESB Bitter
Brewer: Spencer Horn
Asst Brewer:
Style: Extra Special/Strong Bitter (English Pale Ale)
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 3.21 gal
Post Boil Volume: 2.08 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 4.75 gal
Estimated OG: 1.058 SG
Estimated Color: 10.3 SRM
Estimated IBU: 40.3 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 72.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
9 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 83.7 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 2 9.3 %
12.0 oz Amber Malt (22.0 SRM) Grain 3 7.0 %
1.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 60.0 Hop 4 19.8 IBUs
1.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 30.0 Hop 5 15.2 IBUs
2.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 5.0 Hop 7 5.3 IBUs
1.0 pkg London ESB Ale (Wyeast Labs #1968) [124. Yeast 8 -
0.25 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 6 -


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body, No Mash Out
Total Grain Weight: 10 lbs 12.0 oz
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 20.40 qt of water at 165.7 F 154.0 F 75 min

Sparge: Batch sparge with 1 steps (0.20gal) of 168.0 F water
Notes:
------


Created with BeerSmith 2 - http://www.beersmith.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I also have a question about how beersmith is suggesting i do the mash process On the water volumes tab it states I will need 8.3 gallons of water total, almost 6 for the initial strike which would leave roughly 2 and a half gallons to sparge with, does this sound right?

Thanks for the help! Trying to understand beersmith better.
 
That seems like an awful lot of late hops. I would move the 30 minute to 20 and knock both late additions down by half. For Example: 1oz at 5min;1oz at 20min; x amount to get up to 40 IBUs at 60min. You want some hops, and EKGs seem to be more subtle than others, but you seem to be encroaching on English IPA territory. Also, you don't want it to be too sweet, I would suggest halving the crystal malt. Most recipes I have seen don't go higher than 7%.

Keep in mind this is your brew, and my suggestions are just what I would do (and I am not a hop head, yet).
 
Thanks I do appreciate the feed back and will make some changes. While I love hops, that's what my rye ipa will be for. For the ESB I am aiming for malty/biscuity bitter not hoppy bitter. I didn't initially have so many hops in the recipe, only half in fact, but when plugged into Beersmith it came up on the low end on the IBU scale so I altered it to fall not in the mid range. But definitely do not want it overly hoppy.
 
Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 3.21 gal
Post Boil Volume: 2.08 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 4.75 gal
Estimated OG: 1.058 SG
Estimated Color: 9.5 SRM
Estimated IBU: 39.1 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 72.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
9 lbs 4.0 oz Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 86.0 %
12.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 3 7.0 %
12.0 oz Amber Malt (22.0 SRM) Grain 2 7.0 %
2.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 60.0 Hop 4 26.4 IBUs
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 30.0 Hop 5 10.1 IBUs
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 5.0 Hop 7 2.6 IBUs
1.0 pkg London ESB Ale (Wyeast Labs #1968) [124. Yeast 8 -
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 6 -


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body, No Mash Out
Total Grain Weight: 10 lbs 12.0 oz
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 20.40 qt of water at 165.7 F 154.0 F 75 min

Sparge: Batch sparge with 1 steps (0.20gal) of 168.0 F water
Notes:
 
did some more tweaking and ended up with this, thoughts?

Boil Size: 3.21 gal
Post Boil Volume: 2.08 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 4.75 gal
Estimated OG: 1.055 SG
Estimated Color: 13.8 SRM
Estimated IBU: 41.2 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 72.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
9 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 87.8 %
2.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 60.0 Hop 4 27.3 IBUs
1.0 pkg London ESB Ale (Wyeast Labs #1968) [124. Yeast 8 -
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 6 -
1.00 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 5 9.5 IBUs
1.00 oz Bullion [8.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 7 4.4 IBUs
8.0 oz Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 3 4.9 %
12.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 2 7.3 %


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body, No Mash Out
Total Grain Weight: 10 lbs 4.0 oz
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 19.98 qt of water at 165.5 F 154.0 F 75 min

Sparge: Batch sparge with 1 steps (0.33gal) of 168.0 F water
Notes:
------
 
Ray Daniels, in Designing Great Beers recommends a thicker mash, .9 to 1 qt/lb for bitters

also a Bitterness to Gravity ratio of .7 to .9 and yours looks like .75.

rightonrightonrighton

I would drink it
 
Thanks! Sounds like I need to buy that book! I have palmers version Brewing Classic Styles but it wasn't til after i put this recipe together that i realized english pale ales and bitters were in the same category. Still learning =)

Thanks for the feedback.
 
that's what I do. I think about brewing. I read about brewing. I think about reading about brewing.

I rarely brew.

well, rarely, compared to the thinking and reading and thinking about reading
 
I personally like your second version the best so far. If you are planning on making this a bunch to perfect it I would start simple and add from there. That's the easiest way to make a recipe I think. So, I'd go 85-90% base, 5-10% crystal, 0-5% specialty and all EKG hops. Boring I know but you'll get a taste of it and decide where to go from there. This is essentially the same beer I just made and we are pretty much the same venture it sounds like.

I did 90% ESB malt, 5% English Medium Dark Crystal and 5% Victory malt FYI.
 
You do have a point, hm! That probably makes more sense if im trying to perfect it. Brewing Monday, woot! Let me know how yours comes out.
 
I agree with inhousebrew, do something simple and then add from there. I'm actually going back to the drawing board and doing a single hopped ESB with all Northdown and plan to add/sub hops afterwards. However, all EKG is always a great hop schedule for an English ale.

Despite my advice for going simple to start, here are some comments on your latest revision. I did a lot of research on Brewer's Gold hops about a month ago (supposed to be very similar to Bullion), and found that most people suggested a longer boil for them. They said they didn't like them late in the boil and that the longer you boiled them the more they liked them. I'm torn between suggesting moving the Bullion addition back in the boil or saying try it and report back :D. Also, I personally wouldn't "waste" the EKGs for a 60min addition they are just too good for that, if your mixing different hops for each addition I would use something like Target or Challenger and save the EKGs for later in the boil (unless you are going for something specific with that addition).

Good luck on the brew day.
 
I would use something like Target or Challenger and save the EKGs for later in the boil (unless you are going for something specific with that addition).

I was actually going to bitter with Challenger but Northern Brewer was out of them so I switched to EKG. Luckily I snagged the last two EKG hop bags :ban:
 
So, brewing version 2 on Monday. The first attempt came out decent, drinkable and in fact is about gone now. It had a pretty distinctively bitter bite late on the tastebuds that I want to try to resolve, also looking for more malt bitterness as opposed to Hop bitter.

I was out eating dinner last night and I came a crossed a new homebrew store, one that is actually closer than the one I had been going to Score! So I went ahead and bought my ingredients. Well not having my list with me I went from memory (with adjustments in mind) and actually got the wrong base grain (2 row pale instead of marris otter) and they didnt carry wyeast so i subbed the 1968 for White Labs 002. I also upped the biscuit hoping for a more malt / biscuit taste.

Version 2.0 Recipe

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
12.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 4 7.0 %
1 lbs Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 3 9.3 %
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - First Wor Hop 5 18.1 IBUs
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 30.0 Hop 6 12.6 IBUs
0.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 10.0 Hop 8 3.0 IBUs
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 7 -
5.00 gal Durham, NC Water 1 -
9 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 83.7 %
1.0 pkg English Ale (White Labs #WLP002) [35.49 Yeast 9 -

Thoughts?
 
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