Strong Bitter Common Room ESB

[frazier]

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.

 

[Craigvu]

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?

 

[jfr1111]

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.

 

[KingBrianI]

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?

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.

 

[bgburdman9]

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?

 

[KingBrianI]

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?

I think that would turn out really well. Let us know the results!

 

[MajorTom]

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!

 

[avibayer]

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.

 

[Beernewb]

which wyeast straij would be best for this beer/
tia.

 

[KingBrianI]

which wyeast straij would be best for this beer/
tia.

WY1469 is out right now and I think it would be fantastic with this beer.

 

[heywolfie1015]

WY1469 is out right now and I think it would be fantastic with this beer.

Another good choice is 1968, which is their standard English strain. I am also using 1469 currently--because it's out for a limited time and looks great--but 1968 is my go to strain.

 

[Beernewb]

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!!!

 

[DirtyPolock]

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.

 

[Beernewb]

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.

 

[KingBrianI]

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.

Plese let me know how it turns out with the 1469!

 

[Beernewb]

Plese let me know how it turns out with the 1469!

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.

 

[jfr1111]

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.

 

[KingBrianI]

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.

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.

 

[jfr1111]

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.

 

[mithion]

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

 

[KingBrianI]

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

All good suggestions! I've actually recommended the lower mash temp somewhere in this thread for people using 1968.

 

[ChandlerBang]

I have done a couple extract batches and have the equipment for AG. I think I would like to give this one a shot, you all have given it a ton of positive feedback. As I don't have a solid grip on what all the little things in the reciepe do, is there anything at all else that I will need in the way of ingredients other than what comes in the kit from Brewmaster?

 

[KingBrianI]

Hmm, good question.

I always use half a whirlfloc-t tablet in the last 10 minutes of the boil to facilitate protein coagulation and a clearer beer. So definitely use that. I also always throw in a half teaspoon of wyeast yeast nutrient blend at the same time. I don't know if it really helps the yeast or not but it makes me feel better. Some kind of anti-foam drops could also be helpful if you don't want to have to worry about boil-over. Camden tablets are good for adding to your water if you don't filter it (and even if you do filter it) to get rid of any chlorine and chloramine (use 1/4 tablet per 5 gallons). If you're using a liquid yeast some DME for a starter.

Oh, and this one's important: some homebrew to drink while brewing!

I think that's about it for extra stuff I use. Good luck with the brew!

Edit: oops, forgot to add that you might want some CaCl2 and CaSO4 to use to adjust your water profile. Or some 5 star 5.2 stabilizer if you're worried about mash pH and don't want to mess with adding salts.

 

[jmo88]

This grain bill is basically the same as most of the ESB I brew. I'm going to use your hop schedule for my ESB this Saturday. I've always used goldings exclusively and a full boil addition. I'm going to keep the 1000% goldings but use the FWH instead of the full boil addition. I'm hoping this brings the recipe to the next level and puts more focus on the hop flavor and aroma.

I'll let you all know how it compares. Looking forward to it.

 

[KingBrianI]

This grain bill is basically the same as most of the ESB I brew. I'm going to use your hop schedule for my ESB this Saturday. I've always used goldings exclusively and a full boil addition. I'm going to keep the 1000% goldings but use the FWH instead of the full boil addition. I'm hoping this brings the recipe to the next level and puts more focus on the hop flavor and aroma.

I'll let you all know how it compares. Looking forward to it.

Awesome. Can't wait for the review.

 

[BrewSpook]

I am using a slightly modified version of this recipe for my no boil AG experiment. I reduced the crystal just a bit and added 4oz of biscuit malt. hopefully it will work

 

[KeithMoonsLiver]

I made a partial mash version of this a month ago; replaced about half of the pale malt with extra light dme and used US crystal instead of UK. Looking forward to bottling soon; probably won't be as authentic as the original recipe is going for but the samples taste great.

 

[cuinrearview]

Brewed this up last night. I've been a member for almost three years and this is the first HBT recipe I've tried! I usually look in our database and branch off from there based on my personal likes. I was tempted to add a little victory or biscuit but figured what the hell! I've never made an ESB and every time I'm in a micro I always try one if they have one because it's usually a style that I like. Other than decreasing the MO for my system's efficiency I made no changes to the grain bill or the yeast. I did double the two (lower AA%) fuggle additions to more closely match the IBU and also because I didn't feel the need to re-seal 1/2 oz. of hops and I hate wasting them. Everything was going good until after the boil. I was ~1/4 gallon over and .003 below the target gravity. I managed to UNDER boil outside in the mid-twenties! Damn, it was looking so good. Obviously at this point I know to not sweat it but I thought I'd share what I found to be ironic. Just got home and she's singing along at ~65 degrees. Planning on serving this on Jan. 8th for our Utopias brewday so a full assesment will come after that. Thanks for the recipe!!

 

[avibayer]

I just cracked open a bottle of my second batch of this. I think it might be one of my best ever. Creamy head, fantastic lace, smooth and full bodied, with a nice bitter note towards the end. I would have been happy with more aromas up front, but it might get there with some age. I used special B instead of the extra dark, and a quarter of biscuit.

 

[KingBrianI]

Brewed this up last night. I've been a member for almost three years and this is the first HBT recipe I've tried! I usually look in our database and branch off from there based on my personal likes. I was tempted to add a little victory or biscuit but figured what the hell! I've never made an ESB and every time I'm in a micro I always try one if they have one because it's usually a style that I like. Other than decreasing the MO for my system's efficiency I made no changes to the grain bill or the yeast. I did double the two (lower AA%) fuggle additions to more closely match the IBU and also because I didn't feel the need to re-seal 1/2 oz. of hops and I hate wasting them. Everything was going good until after the boil. I was ~1/4 gallon over and .003 below the target gravity. I managed to UNDER boil outside in the mid-twenties! Damn, it was looking so good. Obviously at this point I know to not sweat it but I thought I'd share what I found to be ironic. Just got home and she's singing along at ~65 degrees. Planning on serving this on Jan. 8th for our Utopias brewday so a full assesment will come after that. Thanks for the recipe!!

Awesome, sounds like you're going to have a good brewday in January!

I just cracked open a bottle of my second batch of this. I think it might be one of my best ever. Creamy head, fantastic lace, smooth and full bodied, with a nice bitter note towards the end. I would have been happy with more aromas up front, but it might get there with some age. I used special B instead of the extra dark, and a quarter of biscuit.

Nice! Sounds good.