ESB Critique Please

I'm looking for some help on a ESB recipe that I am working on. I am just looking for a basic critique of the recipe.

I do all-grain 10 gallon batches with a protein rest at 125 degrees and a decoction to bring up to sac rest at 153 degrees. I mash out & sparge around 170-175. This tends to give me about 80% efficiency batch sparging. I'm a big fan of this mash schedule and tend to use it for lots of brews. It makes for a long brew day but I've always been happy with the results.

Anyway here is the recipe for 10 gallons of all grain ESB:

Malts:

17# Marris Otter
.75# Crystal 40
.75# Crystal 120
.75# Belgian Biscuit Malt
.5# Aromatic Malt

Hops:

1.25 oz Columbus 60 mins
2.00 oz East Kent Goldings 20 mins
2.00 oz East Kent Goldings 5 mins

1.057 OG
45 IBU Tinseth
11 degrees SRM


Yeast: Nottingham

Personally I like my ESB's to be "Americanized" with higher IBUs and a lower finishing gravity which is why I bitter with Columbus & use Nottingham yeast which ferments out really well.

I don't think I could add much to the grain bill, pretty close to the one I usually use for an ESB. The marris otter always satisfies. I also do a similarly styled beer as a pale ale but English-ize it rather than Americanize. I use centennials for bittering, then cascades and EKGs in equal amounts for aroma and flavor.

The only thing I would put out there is the sac rest. I'm just thinking for my own ESB, I rest at 155 to get a little more body out of the beer. I don't consider my ESB a session beer, so I'm usually planning on one or two in a night. I like a beer with body for that.

If you do a sac rest at 155 will you have any issues with fermentation and getting the FG down to the 1.012-1.014 range? I like the idea of getting more body but the last thing I want is stuck fermentation at 1.020....

I generally don't have a problem with stuck fermentations. I don't think you would have a problem getting the FG down to the range you are targeting. At 155 you are still getting a good amount of fermentable sugars that the yeast should be able to chew through. That said, if you want the beer to dry out more, definitely mash lower.

I personally don't think you need the aromatic malt. It might get lost in all of that MO and crystal, but everything else looks pretty good to me. I like my brews drier, so I tend to mash lower on everything. 153 is kindof high for me.