Strong Bitter Common Room ESB

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Mine finished a lil high at about 1.020 after two weeks... I kegged anyway due to time constraints but I hope it settles out some....still a lil sweet for some of the bitterness to come through...
 
my lhbs only had 8 lbs of 2 row so i subbed in 2 lbs of maris otter. also they didnt have medium crystal so i had to use some crystal 60.

what do you think?
 
gmtech825 said:
my lhbs only had 8 lbs of 2 row so i subbed in 2 lbs of maris otter. also they didnt have medium crystal so i had to use some crystal 60.

what do you think?
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Should be fine. I always use maris otter for the base malt. And the crystal 60 will be slightly different than an english crystal 55, but the beer will still be great.
 
unfortunatley i only hit 1.044. i think it was the crush, ive never used this lhbs before and the crush didnt look right. but on a plus side this thing is already bubbling like crazy.
 
Cracked one open last night after only a week in the bottle (too young I know) and Im not quite sure what to think. Not sure if the flavors haven't mixed yet or if I messed something up since this way my first all grain beer. Either way I leave town for a few weeks so I'll try this again when I get back and it has aged properly. Likely going to brew this again, but I might add some bisquit malt, or something to give it some bready flavor.
 
Until I find out otherwise, this has been my experience too, jim. I've done a series of english ales like this and my suspicion is the Kent Goldings requiring some time to mellow/meld with the rest of the beer.
 
I made a partial mash version of this beer. It was brew #4 for me... and it is my favorite so far. Absolutely delicious. Thanks for the recipe!

esb.jpg
 
I've only had 1 ESB so far and it was a Fullers ESB. How does this compare?

Pretty similar? Less body, more malty, etc? Give me some good reasons to put my new keggle hlt to work! (Would be my first 10g batch). :mug:
 
OK, yeasties have been pitched. Will report back in 6 weeks or so.

I upped the late hop additions, because I hate to have half an ounce left over at the end.
 
Sparging a batch of this right now. Well, almost. It was a surprise brewday and my LHBS sucks so I could only get the gains and hops for this recipe in the US versions. And I had some WLP002 in the fridge that needed to be used up so I went with that. Tastes awesome so far and I've heard good things about this recipe so I will report back when it gets to the keg. :D
 
frazier said:
OK, yeasties have been pitched. Will report back in 6 weeks or so.

I upped the late hop additions, because I hate to have half an ounce left over at the end.
Click to expand...

marubozo said:
Sparging a batch of this right now. Well, almost. It was a surprise brewday and my LHBS sucks so I could only get the gains and hops for this recipe in the US versions. And I had some WLP002 in the fridge that needed to be used up so I went with that. Tastes awesome so far and I've heard good things about this recipe so I will report back when it gets to the keg. :D
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Nice! Hope you both enjoy it!
 
Hi,

Sipping on my first conditioned pint of this brew and I´m "Lovin it".
I already brewed my second batch of this (the fg sample of the first tasted great).
Hope to get the FG up a bit, mashed to low temperature the first batch, but still a great beer.

Skål (cheers) from Sweden

/Roger B
 
robran2000 said:
Hi,

Sipping on my first conditioned pint of this brew and I´m "Lovin it".
I already brewed my second batch of this (the fg sample of the first tasted great).
Hope to get the FG up a bit, mashed to low temperature the first batch, but still a great beer.

Skål (cheers) from Sweden

/Roger B
Click to expand...

That's great! I'm glad you like it!:mug:
 
So, just checking back in. It's been what, almost 7 weeks now since I brewed this? Anyway, I just tapped the keg today and here's what I found inside:

my-esb.jpg


Overall, it's great. You know it's an ESB from the very first sip. As I mentioned before, I had to substitute US variants for most of the UK grain/hops, but it tastes true to style. The only thing I wish I would have done was stick to S-04 yeast. I opted for WLP002 since I had a vial sitting around and didn't have any S-04. Because of the lower attenuation it did finish a little sweeter than I would have liked and it throws the balance of bitterness off slightly, but it in no means makes it a bad beer. If I were to use WLP002 again I'd just make sure to shoot for a couple points lower on the OG.

Anyway, thanks for the great recipe. I have a feeling this keg is going to go quick! :mug:
 
I brewed this in July, bottled in August; in early September I took a couple 6’s to a party of Irish musicians. They absolutely loved it. They put down the Guinness and attacked the ESB. Then, well, they went back to the Guinness. But the ESB was a big hit.

My assessment is that it was still a little green, and has gotten better and better over the last few weeks. The richness of the Maris Otter comes through, along with a noticeable Goldings character. Very nice, I’ll be making this again.
 
I made this beer with using just EKG a few weeks ago and it's kicked off my obsession with ESB. Absolutely fantastic representation of a good english beer, IMO. Going to go for the Fuggle/EKG combo next time and probably dry hop as well. Thinking of using WLP007 too...maybe mash a bit higher to compensate for it's higher attenuation. Thoughts?

Interestingly, my LHBS has both Marris Otter and "British Pale Ale Malt". I'll have to stop by sometime to get the exact descriptions, but I remember them being pretty different. My first batch was with the British Pale malt. Thoughts on which one to stick with?
 
Do I have everything to brew this ? Yes. Is it my next brew ? Probably, altough I do want to brew something to take with me and share during Christmas holidays and I'm the only one in the family who does enjoy beers with IBUs that are not in the teens.
 
Craigvu said:
I made this beer with using just EKG a few weeks ago and it's kicked off my obsession with ESB. Absolutely fantastic representation of a good english beer, IMO. Going to go for the Fuggle/EKG combo next time and probably dry hop as well. Thinking of using WLP007 too...maybe mash a bit higher to compensate for it's higher attenuation. Thoughts?

Interestingly, my LHBS has both Marris Otter and "British Pale Ale Malt". I'll have to stop by sometime to get the exact descriptions, but I remember them being pretty different. My first batch was with the British Pale malt. Thoughts on which one to stick with?
Click to expand...

I think a 154 mash would be fine for wlp007. The FG should end up right around where it should.

Maris Otter will probably be bit a bit more flavorful than the generic "british pale ale" malt. Either will make a good beer though.
 
Just brewed a 3.5 gallon batch of this 2 days ago. I bittered with willamette and fermented with nottingham. I still used a 1/2 ounce of goldings and fuggles and 20 and 0. I have a half ounce of each left and was considering dry hopping. What did you think?
 
bgburdman9 said:
Just brewed a 3.5 gallon batch of this 2 days ago. I bittered with willamette and fermented with nottingham. I still used a 1/2 ounce of goldings and fuggles and 20 and 0. I have a half ounce of each left and was considering dry hopping. What did you think?
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I think that would turn out really well. Let us know the results!
 
I just mashed in... I'm using us 2 row, crystal 60 and 120. Its just what I had on hand. I did happen to have the KG and fuggles and s-04. So, off we go!
 
I brewed this last year, as part of a competition i had with a buddy who also brews. Mine won. Its time again to return to what was an incredible beer. This time I plan to switch the extra dark with special B, and use marris otter, with 60L. fuggles, and goldings, and london III. i can not wait. Oh, and some bisquit too.
 
thanks for the quick responses, I have some harvested neo-brittanica right now and thought about that also.

I am using 1469 right now in a Tim Taylor clone, I just pitched it last night!!!
 
I am drinking this out of my tap and it is great. It has been a long time since I have had an ESB so I can't compare it to any commercial brews but I love it none the less.
 
I brewed this last night, man, every time I buy my grain bill crushed from Brewmaster warehouse, i exceed my target efficiency. My OG clocked in at 1.061 (over 80%), and with the West Yorkshire yeast (luckily in a starter), it was purcolating away in 6 hours at 68 degrees.
 
Beernewb said:
I brewed this last night, man, every time I buy my grain bill crushed from Brewmaster warehouse, i exceed my target efficiency. My OG clocked in at 1.061 (over 80%), and with the West Yorkshire yeast (luckily in a starter), it was purcolating away in 6 hours at 68 degrees.
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Plese let me know how it turns out with the 1469!:mug:
 
KingBrianI said:
Plese let me know how it turns out with the 1469!:mug:
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I definitely will, thanks for the recipe. I've been drinking beer for a alot of years, but had my first ESB just two weeks ago at dba in NYC. It was Fulers on tap and a as fan of big malty beers, I couldn't believe I hadn't tried one to date. I always believed them to be super hoppy/bitter so i stuck to porters and oatmeal stouts from Britian.
 
I ordered 4 ounces of First Gold on a whim to brew an English IPA, until realized I didn't really want an IPA. Could First Gold work in this beer replacing the EKG ? I would still keep the IBUS the same though... I also have MO on hand for the base malt.
 
jfr1111 said:
I ordered 4 ounces of First Gold on a whim to brew an English IPA, until realized I didn't really want an IPA. Could First Gold work in this beer replacing the EKG ? I would still keep the IBUS the same though... I also have MO on hand for the base malt.
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I've never used first gold but I think it should work out well if used here. I believe it's a bit fruity, right? Might make for an interesting change.
 
I heard reports of marmelade and abricot, wich sounded yummy with the toasted, bready Marris Otter. I might just brew it straight and keep the First Gold for my Barleywine though.
 
1968 should work on this beer, but it definitely requires a bit of tweaking. My experience was the same as previous 1968 users, ie. the beer ended up too sweet. 1968 is also hugely malty and will obscure the delicate hopping schedule used here. It is commonly reported that S-04 is the Whitbread strain and is characterized as mildly malty and slightly fruity by Wyeast. To use 1968 for this recipe, I would do three things to make it work.

1) Mash really low: I'd probably go to 150 or even 148F.
2) Up the bittering hop a bit to improve the balance between malt and bitterness.
3) Use a good pale ale water profile to showcase the bitterness.

My 2 cents. Of course, Brian is king and thus he has last say :p
 

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