Thoughts on this ESB

I'm getting into a real British Pale kick these days and I thought I should try my hand at my own ESB. I'm looking for something malty, obviously, but with a pretty decent hop bite. Not overpowering, just noticeable.

5 gal @ 75% eff.

7.5 lb Marris Otter
0.75 lb Crystal 40L
0.5 lb Dextrine
0.25 lb Aromatic

2oz EKG @ 5%AA for 60 min
0.75 oz Fuggles @ 4.5%AA for 10 min

Wyeast 1098 British Ale

Mash @ 152 for 60 min

Estimated OG 1.050
Estimated FG 1.013
Estimated color 8.2
Estimated IBU 40.7 (1:0.8 ratio)

Please let me know if you've got any comments or questions or suggestions. Thanks!!

Looks fine, although I'd probably leave out the Dextrine malt.

Why's that? I know the crystal's going to add some body, but I was thinking the Dextrine would give it a certain fullness that would otherwise not be there. That's also why I dropped the mash to 152 (to compensate). Would you say hold off on the dextrine and raise the mash temp?

Some folks don't care for dextrin malt but I use it often as I like the "chew" it gives to a beer. I agree with david_42 that oveall the recipe looks fine. My subjective opinon would be to use Goldings as the late hope as I don't care much for Fuggles. If you want to save your Goldings for a purpose other than a bittering addition Challenger makes an excellent bittering hop for British ales and it blends very well with the traditional finishing hops like Goldings and Fuggles.

Yeah, I've seen a lot of recipes go all Goldings, which is something I might consider doing. As well as adding a flavor addition around 20 min.

jacksonbrown said:

As well as adding a flavor addition around 20 min.

Click to expand...

I would steer you away from that. After fooling around for years with various hop addition schedules for bitters and ESBs I have come to the conclusion that the old Brit schedule of one early and one late works the best for these styles.

I second the recommendation for bittering with Challenger or, if you can get it, Galena. Galena has become my bittering hop of choice; at 13.9% AA, a little goes a long way and allows me to save my precious Fuggles and EKG for flavor and aroma uses. In my opinion, keep your hopping schedule to a bittering charge at 60 and EKG (around an ounce) at flameout. The delicate floral character of EKG shouldn't be wasted on bittering, in my opinion. Alternatively, you can use Fuggle for bittering and EKG as your finishing hop.

The base recipe looks good and I'd leave the dextrin malt out for the reasons indicated. If you want a bit more 'heft' in the body, a higher mash temp would get you the results you're after.

Jason

Thanks for the tips on hopping. Mostly, I was going to use Fuggles because I have a bunch on hand. But it sounds like my initial schedule of a 60 min and flameout addition (not originally posted) are where it's at.