Hops - Which to use for bitter/finish?

[420IPA]

Hello all,

I am new to home brewing, up to this point I've only used kits. However, I went to my local brew shop and told them I would like to try to make an ESB. The did not have a kit and provided me w/ the following:

Dry Malt (I did not get the name)
1oz Willamette Hops
1oz UK Challenger Hops
9 lbs Briess Golden Light Liquid Malt
White Labs English Ale Yeast

Though this will be the first time I'm brewing an ESB and the first time I'm brewing w/ out instructions, the one question I have is, which hop should I use for the bittering and which for the finishing?

Apologies if this my question is unclear.

 

[signpost]

My guess is the UK challenger hops are for buttering.

 

[signpost]

Bittering. Damn auto-correct.

 

[Kate00]

Agreed. Willamettes are a really good aroma hop. Often the higher AA% is intended for bittering You can always smell both and decide which aroma you want to come through more too.

 

[420IPA]

Thanks all, I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[agcorry00]

My guess is the UK challenger hops are for buttering.

Whoever breeds the buttering hop would deserve a Nobel prize.

 

[Calder]

I would like to try to make an ESB.

Dry Malt (I did not get the name)
1oz Willamette Hops
1oz UK Challenger Hops
9 lbs Briess Golden Light Liquid Malt
White Labs English Ale Yeast

How much DME?

With the LME you will get an OG of 1.065, which is pretty decent for an ESB (maybe a touch high). Adding more fermentables will just get you both a higher OG and FG (sweeter tasting beer).

A lot of folks would disagree, but I would replace 1.25 lbs of the LME with a pound of table sugar. Extract tends to end with a higher FG than needed, and this will help reduce it without removing too much malt.

I would also suggest using some crystal. About a pound of C40 or C60.

I'd probably go with the Challenger for flavor and aroma. Post your recipe and let people critique it for you.

 

[BrewKnurd]

I did a challenger single hop pale ale. It came out a bit oniony. So I'd be in the camp of challenger for bittering (or buttering, whichever you prefer) and willamette for the finishing hops.

 

[420IPA]

Short story behind this brew. I went to a tiny local brew shop that was pretty much out of everything and told them I wanted to brew an ESB. The guy there seemed knowledgeable but did say he did not have this or that ingredient, etc. The ingredients he did have were provided to me and basically using this forum (which was a HUGE help), I brewed. Here is what I did:

Boiled for 60 minutes:
Dry Malt (never got the name)
9 lbs Briess Golden Light Liquid Malt

Then the hops @:
.50 oz Williamette (60 min)
.50 oz Challenger (30 min)
.50 oz Williamette (20 min)
.50 oz Challenger (5 min)

Once the temp dropped to 70, I added the White Labs English Ale Yeast

Ferment for 2 weeks, bottled and let them sit another 2 weeks. The beer taste is good, however, to me it does not taste like an ESB (using my knowledge of Red Hook and Fullers), it reminds me more of a brown ale, if that is possible.

All things aside, I appreciate everyones assistance and plan on brewing again in the next month...just not sure what I'm going to attempt next. This time I'll visit a more stocked brew shop to get my ingredients.

 

[420IPA]

One more item of note, I just recently purchased a hydrometer, so I do not have any readings from the brew process.

 

[420IPA]

Final update on this one all, I took my beer to a local shop (different from the ingredient shop) and had them taste test it. Come to find out, they said it was more of an amber than a ESB.

The cool bit about this trip was there were a few other local brewers there who tried my beer also and I got to round table w/ them about it. While there I picked up a Rye IPA, I'll let you know how that one comes out.

 

[F250]

No Kent Goldings?

Rick