Critique: My first recipe, it's a ESB

Ok so I finally made the attempt at my first recipe after researching ingredients for a bit. This is for a ESB and did everything within the BJCP limits for this style.

8lbs 2Row
2lbs Crystal Malt 20L
2lbs Maris Otter
1.5oz Fuggles 60 Min
1oz East Kent Goldings 45 min
1.5oz Fuggles 5 min

Yeast Wyeast 1968 London ESB

I'll also add some Whirlfloc tabs in later.
Just going to a basic malty ESB.

 

no one has any thoughts on this?

 

Looks good to me. I would personally just used all Marris Otter, but no reason your combo won't work. Looks like a lot of hops for a 5 gal. bitter. I'd lose the EKG at 45 and Fuggles at 5 min. and go with an ounce more EKG at 10. Again that's personal preference, Fuggles is a classic, but I think EKG is just better and may be used in Britain more now as well. Bottom line......your recipe will work fine.

 

I agree with Befus. I would do all MO and lower the crystal a bit. You could do some heavier crystal for more color and avoid cloying sweetness that you might get from 2lbs of crystal. Maybe .5lb 60L and .5lb 20L. I would also move more hops toward the end of the boil and eliminate the 45min addition. You might want to consider dry-hopping as well. Most cask conditioned English Bitters are dry-hopped. Looks tasty!

 

Here are my suggestions:

Use all UK pale malt.

Lower the percentage of crystal malt. You are at 16%+. That's a bit much IMO. I'd go no higher than 10% and probably more like 5%. If you want a deeper color use an ounce of Chocolate malt.

Simplify the hop additions to 60 (better yet 90) and 5 minutes. One ounce is plenty at 5 minutes.

 

I agree 2lbs of crystal is quite a bit for an esb but it may work if you balance it right with hops and 4oz of hops is on the high side.

The average ESB seems to use about 1lb of crystal malts. Mix different crystals to your personal prefference. Balance with the appropriate amount of hops to achieve the hop to malt bitterness you desire.

MO will give a toastier/breadier flavor than straight 2 row. So if you like that use more MO if not leave it be.

My suggestion is to understand what each ingrediant in the recipe does and tweek to what you like. That is the greatness of designing your own recipe. It is also helps to understand "normal" percentages of different ingrediants if you want to avoid a beer thats really "out there".

Heck I'm sure a lot of people think my beers arent too great but they are amazing for me because I brew them to my taste.

 

If you like fuggles, then use the fuggles in the late addition. If you're not sure if you like fuggles or not, then you might want to go with something else. I found that fuggles was a bit difficult for me. Sometimes, I'd drink the beer that I made with it, and just think it was awesome; other times, it just seemed weird and harsh. You could check the fuller's esb recipe for other ideas on the hopping.

 

Thanks for all the great tips I'll take them all into account.

 

If you can get your hands on some Carastan -- it's a British crystal/caramel malt and it's great in British recipes. If you can get some, I'd use that instead of the American crystal. That plus other tips (like going all MO for the base), and you should have a classic ESB.

 

So far everyone that had tried this beer has liked it, my only complaint would be to tone down the end bitterness a bit and increase the aroma of the hoops a little. This was my first recipe I formulated and it didn't turn out so bad, a little more tweaking and I might have something. I do want a bit more malt taste to it. Open for suggestions.