I've only had a couple of commercial examples of an ESB, but I brewed this and it is bordline drinkable vs tossing it. Disclaimer, I changed the hops to Northdown and Progress, but I followed the grain bill to the letter. Fermented at 68-70 with S-04 for about 9 days, reached 1.016 and kegged. After a week or so of carbing up, it has an extremely nutty taste up front, almost like that of a peanut husk with that is harsh. It fades as you make your way through the glass, but I've never experienced this in a beer. I've been brewing 2.5 years and feel my process is down, but very disappointed in the way it came out and figure it has to be something wrong on my end. My other concerns is I wonder if my LHBS got some of the malts mixed up....