ESB Recipe input

Hi everybody
I'm about to pull the trigger on ordering the ingredients for this batch and just want to make sure I haven't missed anything or made some sort of glaring error which would lead to a disappointment of other-worldly proportion.
After some earlier input and further reading, I'm thinking of maybe replacing the 4lbs Pale Malt w/Maris Otter. Whichever one I use I'm going to order 20plus lbs.

3.00 lb Extra Light Dry Extract (3.0 SRM) Dry Extract 33.33 %
4.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 44.44 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 11.11 %
1.00 lb Toasted Malt (27.0 SRM) Grain 11.11 %
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (60 min) Hops 10.3 IBU
1.00 oz Williamette [5.50 %] (30 min) Hops 8.7 IBU
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (20 min) Hops 6.2 IBU
0.50 oz Williamette [5.50 %] (5 min) Hops 1.1 IBU
1 Pkgs SafAle English Ale (DCL Yeast #S-04) Yeast-Ale
OG-1.053 FG-1.014 IBU's 36

Maris Otter is a very, very popular base malt. Many brewers use it for all ale styles, American or British. It has a distinctly crackery, biscuity flavor compared to US 2-row.

But US 2-row is a fine base malt for ESB and English styles as well. In fact, you may prefer it because it's neutral; you can make damn near anything you like with US 2-row alone, from Koelsch to IPA to Tripel to Munich Helles.

Pale malt is to a brewer what chicken breast is to a chef. A chicken breast is a chicken breast - bland and unexciting - until you start adding spices or mess about with how it's prepared. The difference between US 2-row and Maris Otter is, IMO, like the difference between chicken breast and turkey breast.* When tasted side by side, with no spicing, the difference is apparent to most palates. When you start messing with them, adding Caribbean jerk or garam masala or ginger and lemongrass, the differences are much less apparent. If you start adding specialty grains to base malts, the differences between the base malts are much less apparent. It's really, really difficult to tell the difference between stouts made with different pale malts, for example; all that roasted-barley character is the flavor equivalent of standing next to an aircraft carrier and trying to see its shape - all you see is grey.

Anyway, I should get off my soapbox and let you get on with your Thanksgiving holiday. Cheers and all that!

Bob


* Appropriate analogy, given the holiday, don't you think?.

I did a similar partial mash brew as your recipe:

Pale malt 2-row (US) 3.25 lb.
Crystal Malt (40L) 0.75 lb.
Light DME 3.3 lb.
Kent Goldings 2.5oz
-1.5 oz for 60min
-1.0 oz at 30 min
Safale S-04

I topped everything up to almost 6 gallons so my original gravity was a little bit low at 1.040. Final gravity was 1.010 after 10 days in the primary.

After primary the beer went straight bottles with 3/4 cup of priming sugar. The beer turned out really great. I backed off the original recipe's call for 3.5-4oz of hops but next time around I'm definitely adding the full hop compliment. It's an ESB after all, right?