Strong Bitter Common Room ESB

[zippy84]

I get 4.24 g

True, not sure where I got 4.1g... although the difference I'm sure would be indiscernible.

Cheers.

 

[bolus14]

Planning to brew this weekend, just trying to decide on a yeast strain. I've more or less married it down to 1469 or 1275 if LHBS has either of them.

Has anybody made this with either of these strains? What are your thoughts? Also, thinking of fermenting with the lid lose on top of the fermenter, after researching a little it seems that many English strains benefit from having additional oxygen during fermentation. So, I'm thinking keep the lid lose for the first 3-4 days, check on it and tighten the lid if fermentation has more or less finished. Then give it a few more days, raise the temp a few degrees for a couple days then move it to an upper 50's area for a couple weeks.

 

[rmyurick]

Love the 1469-has some pear-like fruity esters that really benefit a bee r like this.

 

[wtaylor3]

I should brew this again to recover from my botched batch. Had a sour apple flavor even though I used a swamp cooler. Maybe I'll use us-05 next time.

 

[zippy84]

I haven't ordered any more extract, maybe I should just reduce the water to be added to compensate.

For example at 23 liters 60% efficiency I should get 4.3%... 19 liters should give me 5.2% with same recipe. Just missing out on a few pints I'm fine with 4.3%, I just want to remain as faithful to the recipe as possible.

My ESB is on, got a good efficiency compared to last time... was conscious of trying to extract every last bit of goodness from the grains because of my lack of ingredients.. got an o.g. of 1.047. (guessing around 70-75% efficiency).

I was a little nervous about pitching yeast I harvested the same day, first time using harvested yeast. Mixed the yeast cake with about a litre of water, shook and transferred to sterile mason jar. Closed and let it settle throughout the brew. After about 3 hours there were 3 distinct layers, beer on top, yeast layer, trub layer at bottom. Using a turkey baster I took 150 ml from the middle layer and pitched. Hope that was enough. Took the brew between 24-36 hours to show signs in an opaque bucket (pressure - lid bulging). Would have liked it a little quicker, but hey, it's going!

How was my yeast pitch? Find it a little difficult to objectively use the MrMalty calculator... i.e. thin slurry/thick slurry? Guesswork?

 

[bolus14]

Picked up ingredients today, went with WY1275 Thames Valley, was either that or 1968 based on LHBS stock. Going to get yeast starter going tonight and brew Saturday morning.

Kind of excited for this as I can't get my hands on many ESB's besides Southern Tier's Harvest Ale, Goose Island's Harvest Ale, and Fuller's ESB. I do like Fuller's although wish it had a little more caramel/toffe malt taste. ST Harvest Ale to me is too hoppy for the style and I'm guessing uses some Cascade based on the grapefruit taste I pick up. Goose Island's Harvest Ale going by their site only uses Cascade, I don't care for many beers that are heavy on Cascade. I believe Southern Tier's is around 45 IBU's from what I've been able to find and Goose Island is around 40 IBU's. I think the low 30's will be more ideal and using UK "earthy" hops instead of American "C" hops will help tremendously with showcasing the malt with a smoother bitterness to balance it.

 

[bolus14]

Brew day went well, hit 1.054 with 6 gallon going into the fermenter. I think I carried over a little more rub than usual, but still happy that I hit the OG since my last couple batches have been a little low. Only mishap was my 4 yr old son dropped the aroma (0 min) hops about 1 min before they had to go in, luckily because of my hops having slightly higher AA I had enough left of both to measure them out quickly and get them in.

After about 24 hours have a really good layer of krausen on top, at this point I have the lid on tight with a blowoff tube, really don't have much headspace since i ended up with 6 gal in the fermenter instead of 5.25 like i was expecting. Wanted to do more of an "open ferment" with the lid more or less just laid on top for the first 4-5 days, but with the lack of headspace I may want till the krasuen drops then loosen the lid for a few days to introduce a little more oxygen, the nbutton it back up. Some research suggests that a little oxidization simulates the oxygen introduced when cask are tapped. Any thoughts?

Can anybody compare this to Brooklyn's Summer Ale? That's classified as an English Pale Ale, but to me it doesn't have much malt to it and had a good amount of carbonation to it. I would expect being an English Pale that it would've had more malt presence and the amount of carbonation could've been due to the restaurant having the CO2 up to high or just carbonating all their beers the same.

 

[acott]

Giving this a go on Saturday!

On the fence when it comes to Bitter, so I'm hoping this can change my mind

Just incase I want to scale the recipe down to 3 gallons, not sure about my calculations, I used Brewers Friend to scale it down.

Should I round off some of these numbers?

5.45 lb Maris Otter (2 Row)
0.41 lb UK Medium Crystal 60L
0.14 lb UK Extra Dark Crystal
0.82 oz East Kent Goldings (60 min) (First Wort Hop)
0.14 oz Fuggles (20 min)
0.14 oz East Kent Goldings (20 min)
0.14 oz Fuggles (0 min)
0.14 oz East Kent Goldings (0 min)

 

[bolus14]

Pulled a hydro sample this morning and it's at 1.018 right now, I'm thinking of moving it to a little warmer room to see if it'll drop a few more points, OG was 1.054.

Has a surprisingly fruity, almost citrus like taste right now. Assuming this is more from the hops than yeast, since WY1278 is supposed to have low fruitiness. I'm not picking up much malt at this point, but it hasn't been quite 2 weeks in the fermenter yet so I'm sure the flavor will change in over the next week or two.

 

[bolus14]

I have had this at 72 degrees for a week, checked on it today and there's half an inch of krausen and its dropped 2 gravity points. Taste is less citrusy than the last sample, more malty with some balancing hop profile. Just wondering if anybody has ever seen the krausen come back after raising the temp, maybe something with this yeast strain...

 

[bolus14]

What level of carbonation have most shot for on this? Hoping to bottle this coming weekend, maybe earlier in the week if I can get the time.

 

[fimpster]

I usually shoot for about 2.1 or 2.2 volumes on this one.

 

[bolus14]

Checked gravity today and it's down to 1.009 so a little lower than projected. Hydro sample was certainly sweet, especially for being at 1.009. Planning to bottle it up this weekend, kind of hoping that once it's cold and carbonated some of the sweetness mellows, otherwise this is going to make a great beer for fall/football season.

 

[oljimmy]

Hey all, I don't have access to Simpson's Dark, the darker malt in this recipe. Would subbing ordinary Crystal 120L be OK? Or should I stick to UK malts (I can get Baird's dark, 70-80L)?

 

[atimmerman88]

I think key in the malt bill is the high and low crystals. I've used 120 and 150 for this with Good results paired with 60l each time

 

[Bigdp228]

Got a batch of this in the fermenter right now. Wort tasted great!

 

[houndsbreath]

This is a great recipe. My goal was an ESB / Mild with a big floral aroma and this delivered. I swapped 0.25 lb of medium crystal for some biscuit malt and really enjoyed the results. My mash temp was around 158 F so my FG was 1.020 which I think actually made this a better beer; lots of body and great maltiness to balance the hops. Rebrewing soon.
This batch hasnt really carbonated yet and I cant keep my hands off it.

 

[Bigdp228]

Cool. My mash averaged 156-158 so I'm looking forward to a slightly heavier body as well.

 

[Bigdp228]

Last night my s-04 was raging and had 1" of Krausen on top. Tonight it barely has any action and 1-1.5" of cake at the bottom. Should I be concerned? I haven't used s-04 before. Ferm temp is 68F +/- .5 in a refrigerator controlled by an sts-1000.

View attachment 1440474897376.jpg

 

[Taboot]

You should be good to go. S-04 blew through my 3 gallon batch in just 2 days. Kegged a week later and kicked the keg 3 weeks later.

 

[fimpster]

Common Room ESB + S-04 FTW!

 

[GammaRay4130]

About 5 minutes from the 20 minute addition now. Smells great so far. Missed my mash temp ended up at 151 but I am still looking forward to this one [emoji481][emoji481]

Edit:

Came in at 1.058 for the OG currently waiting for the wort to cool down to pitching temps in the fermentation fridge then I will pitch some re used windsor yeast. Can't wait to try this one.

 

[wtaylor3]

I think I might rebrew this with us-05 or perhaps s-04 again and ferment at my dads (his basement is always 66 degrees)

My version would be good if it weren't for the sour apple aftertaste. I believe this came from getting too warm

 

[abbysdad2006]

13.75qts and 8qts seems low to me. Am I wrong

 

[oljimmy]

Just brewed this puppy. Got 78% instead of 82% mash efficiency... so there will be less of it than I wanted, but can't wait to taste it. Thanks, KingBrian!

 

[bolus14]

Here's a pic of mine, about a month in the bottle and it smooth and hitting its stride. Originally it had some graininess and and off almost yeast like flavor going on, that's all gone now.

View attachment 1442583404358.jpg

 

[BaylessBrewer]

Picked up the grains and yeast (wlp013) for this one today. Now all I need is my hops to show up and I'll be brewing this bad boy this weekend.

 

[Iseneye]

I brewed this a few years ago and liked it and rebrewed it this year. Made with New Zealand malt and came out delicious. Likely to be on my yearly brew schedule Kegged and carbed to 2.5 since I don't want to change volumes for different beers. A vigorous pour seems to knock a bunch of C02 out anyway.

 

[acott]

Brewed this yesterday, came up short on my OG at 1.052, this could be down to my first time crushing grain.

12 hours later and I've had to connect a blow off, the S-04 has taken off like a rocket.

I didn't see a fermentation temp so I'm fermenting between 66-68.

Brewed this for a competition, so here's hoping it goes well!

 

[BaylessBrewer]

Brewed this up yesterday and came in @ 1.061
For some reason my ferm chamber brought it down too low (61) even though I have it set at 66? So I opened the lid this morning and am currently letting it come back up to temp.