First attempt at an ESB? Your critique please :)

Going to try making my own ESB. Want to know what you guys think of the recipe.


Recipe Type: Extract
Yeast: WYeast London ESB
Yeast Starter: no
Batch Size (Gallons): 5.0
Original Gravity: 1.058
Final Gravity: 1.017
IBU: 30.7
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: 11.8
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 7 days
Secondary: 14 days

Ingredients:

7.00 lb Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract 77.78 %
1.00 lb Dark Liquid Extract (17.5 SRM) Extract 11.11 %
0.25 lb Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 2.78 %
0.25 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 30L (30.0 SRM) Grain 2.78 %
0.25 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 2.78 %
0.25 lb Corn, Flaked (1.3 SRM) Grain 2.78 %
2.00 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] (60 min) Hops 30.7 IBU
1.00 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] (0 min) Hops -

Personally, I would use amber extract instead of the dark and probably lose the corn alltogether. Other than that, it looks pretty good.

Grizzlybrew said:

Personally, I would use amber extract instead of the dark and probably lose the corn alltogether. Other than that, it looks pretty good.

Click to expand...

i agree. amber would be much better.

thanks!

Omit the corn. It must be mashed to provide anything useful; it cannot be steeped.

I'd swap the dark extract. Amber and dark extracts contain proportions of darker grains, including Crystal/Caramel malts. The trouble is, you have no way of knowing how much of what.

Here's an idea: Substitute Munich extract for the Dark and a little bit of the Light; call it 3 lbs Munich extract. Munich extract is made from 50% Munich malt, and contributes a wonderful malty tone to the beer. ESB can use that malt backbone.

If you do that, omit the Biscuit and the 30L Crystal malt and increase the 60L Crystal to 8 ounces. Yum.

You can get Munich extract from Northern Brewer.

Cheers!

Bob