Best recipes for Gambrinus 2-row and Esb

[eelgerg]

First time AG brewer! Made a moose drool kit for my very first AG batch, and now looking forward to my next batches.

I just bought a sack of gambrinus 2-row and a sack of ESB. Going to make my 2nd all-grain batch next week. Also bought a variety of specialty malts, three hops (fuggles, wilamette, and Goldings), and three yeasts (s-05, s-04, Nottingham)

Any suggestions on recipies to make with this? I am a big fan of English ales, brown ales (mmmm nut brown!) and Irish red ales. Low hops preferred (heartburn with high hops!)

Thanks for the ideas in advance!

 

[giraffe]

The esb malt is supposed to be like marris otter, ive found it to be alot blander, I was dissappointed. But you can likely find recipes that call for marris otter (like most english styles), sub it in, and nudge up any charecter malts by a few % points.

Or use it in any recipe that calls for generic 2 row. It will be a little toastier, but not that much.

 

[eelgerg]

Blander is not really what I wanted to hear, but I guess that's the difference between $40 a sack and $60 a sack. Still will be worth the try though. I agree I will up the specialty malts a bit to give more character.

 

[thaymond]

You can always toast a few pounds in the oven to give it some more complexity. There's several threads that talk to toasting base malts for more flavor. I toasted 1 lb of Maris Otter and added to my Pale Ale. 275 for 25 minutes. It turned out good imo. Then again this was my first foray into roasting, so others with more experience should chime in.

From what I read, The darker the roast, the longer you'll want it to sit. So if you toast it @ 400 for an hour for a dark roast, you'll want to let that sit in a bag for a few days to a few weeks. I guess this makes harsh flavors that roasting imparts disappear.

 

[eelgerg]

Are 2-row and ESB that similar that they can be subbed?

I intend to mix things up with these two base malts - experimenting to see which I like as my go-to base malt. Roasting some of it is a great idea - I'll definitely give that a try.

As I said, my main beers this year will be brown ales, dark mild beers, and red/Irish ales. Hopefully these base malts will do for these styles.

 

[giraffe]

Are 2-row and ESB that similar that they can be subbed?

I intend to mix things up with these two base malts - experimenting to see which I like as my go-to base malt. Roasting some of it is a great idea - I'll definitely give that a try.

As I said, my main beers this year will be brown ales, dark mild beers, and red/Irish ales. Hopefully these base malts will do for these styles.

Yes and no they can be subbed. The esb malt is a tad more toasty than two row. If you are making a cream ale or american pilsner or something, the esb malt would be a touch odd. Use 2row. But for all the styles you mention, if the recipe calls for 2row, feel free to use the esb malt. If it calls for generic pale ale malt, esb malt is that, you are good. If it calls for marris otter, use the esb malt an add a touch more of the specialty malts.

 

[eelgerg]

I should clarify a bit. I have 2-row pale malt and esb malt grains in bulk.

Looking forward to trying different recipes to see how they compare. My general brewing schedule for. 2015:

- next - 10 Gal of Irish red Ale
- then 5 gal of ESB (boddingtons)
- then 5-10 gal of a pale ale with a but of flavour
- then a 10 gal brown ale (2nd time)
- then a 10 gal pumpkin or winter ale
- then a 10 gal (split batch) of pale ale to try different dry hops
-

 

[eelgerg]

10 Gal of Brown ale done. Now onto an American Pale Ale......