Thoughts on ESB recipe

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ardonthorn5

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Howdy. So, I was playing around with beersmith and decided to develop my own ESB recipe. Awesomely enough, my ingrediants came in the mail today, so I'm shooting to brew tomorrow or Monday. Any comments would be appreciated.

Steep 8 oz. each of Victory and English Medium Crystal

6.30 lbs. NB Gold Malt Extract (60 mins)
2 oz. UK Northdown Hop pellets (60 mins)
1 lb. Extra Light Dry Extract (15 mins)
1 oz. UK Bramling Cross (15 mins)
1 oz. UK Bramling Cross (flameout)
Yeast: Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire Ale

Beersmith is giving me these numbers:
Est. OG of 1.055
IBU's: 41.1
11.3 SRM
Est. ABV of 5.1%

I was wondering...should i increase the amount of Crystal or Victory?
 
I have an ESB that I love. I get most of my IBU's from bittering hops (60 min boil). If you have previously tried a beer like this with flavoring additions and liked it, then go for it.
I would definitely recommend crystal to match the malt profile of an ESB.
Here's my recipe for 5 gallon @ Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.0:

10.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 90.9 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 9.1 %
0.75 oz Warrior [15.00%] (60 min) Hops 38.0 IBU
0.50 oz Hallertauer [4.80%] (20 min) Hops 4.9 IBU
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50%] (0 min) Hops -
1 Pkgs California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) Yeast-Ale
 
Everything looks in order. I found the West Yorkshire yeast was very odd. Tasty but I probably won't use it again. Report back on how it works for you.
 
Thanks for the comments. I've never used the West Yorkshire, but I thought I thought I'd give it a go. If the backbone of the recipe tastes okay, then I'll try it with a few different yeast strains to see what I like the most.
 
Just as an interesting aside,I was told by the North American cooper's distributor that a can of Cooper's English bitter with 2 boxes of their light DME & an ounce of Kent Golding hops makes a good Fuller's ESB clone. Have to try that one myself,cause the English bitter was pretty good with pit bbq.
 
Brief update: So, I'm going to tweak this recipe. Still haven't bottled the original batch yet, probably going to do that on Wednesday. Originally, planned on using just different hops, but after stopping by an LHBS, I'm switching hops and yeast. MKII will use 2 oz. of UK First Gold at 60 mins., an ounce of UK Fuggles at 45 and then an ounce of UK Fuggles at flameout. Going to use WLP023 Burton Ale yeast.
MK3 will use some American hops ... 2 oz. of Amarillo at 60 mins., 1 oz. of Ahtanum at 15mins. and 1 oz. of Ahtanum at 0. Yeast...WLP037 Yorkshire Square Ale.
 
Just an FYI,Ahtanum is the sub for Amarillo or Citra. Fuggle is good,but very earthy.
The one thing that puts me off about the Burton ale yeast is the fact that one of the ester flavors it produces is green apple. If I ever competed with it,it'd likely be judged as aceteldahyde,in my opinion. But the other qualities it has sound good.
 
Thanks for the FYI. i still have to order some ingredients for MK3, so i might just pick up some different hops for a more traditional English style, then use my American hops for something else..
 
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