Strong Bitter Common Room ESB

Williams 728
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Last Sunday I brewed a 3 gal BIAB version of this recipe. 90% MO, 8% Simpson's C50-60, 2% C120. Bittered with Target and finished with a mix of Fuggles and EKG. S-04 yeast. Going to dry hop with a little Fuggles and EKG. Looking forward to drinking this one, it smells great.
 
NateW said:
Last Sunday I brewed a 3 gal BIAB version of this recipe. 90% MO, 8% Simpson's C50-60, 2% C120. Bittered with Target and finished with a mix of Fuggles and EKG. S-04 yeast. Going to dry hop with a little Fuggles and EKG. Looking forward to drinking this one, it smells great.
Click to expand...

Good idea with the Target. I have 1/2# I was wonder what I could do with.
This would mean having to use less EKG which I only have a few ounces of.
As it's a 60 min addition if I account for the difference in IBUs using Target instead of EKG shouldn't make a big difference to the flavour or am I wrong?
 
SMPress said:
matt062286,

Yours appears much darker. Did that come about from the floor malted Maris? Seems you must have added something else?

Did you use Flaked Oats, or Golden Naked?

Thanks!
Andy
Click to expand...

It looks dark in that picture, maybe because it was overcast when I took it, but it actually looks almost exactly like the KingBrianI's picture on the first page of this thread. Maybe a tad darker but the exact same color to it. Mine has an off-white head though. I used flaked oats, just some instant oatmeal from the grocery store.
 
Shenanigans said:
Good idea with the Target. I have 1/2# I was wonder what I could do with.
This would mean having to use less EKG which I only have a few ounces of.
As it's a 60 min addition if I account for the difference in IBUs using Target instead of EKG shouldn't make a big difference to the flavour or am I wrong?
Click to expand...

I tasted mine after a week in primary. I think I've hit terminal gravity and I'm not sure I like the bitterness. It's harsh and almost tannic. Pretty sure I didn't extract any tannins during my mash, unless my mash pH was off. I've never used Target hops before so I'm not sure what to expect.

For reference I did a BIAB mashed at 152 F and raised to 168 F for mashout. I pressed the grain bag to recover more wort.
 
Give it time to mellow, it's only been a week after all. Mine seem to start getting really good after 6 weeks.
 
gcdowd said:
Give it time to mellow, it's only been a week after all. Mine seem to start getting really good after 6 weeks.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm not too concerned at this point. I'm going to let it sit in primary for a few more weeks then dry hop. As we all know, patience can solve a lot of issues in homebrewing.
 
DaNewf said:
Made up a batch of this on Saturday (2014-04-05).

I had to make a couple of (hopefully) minor tweaks due to ingredient availability at my LHBS.

I added 0.25lb of biscuit as mentioned by some of the people who tried this recipe.
I used Special B instead of the dark crystal (this one bothers me the most but oh well).
I used 1 oz of EKG and 0.5 oz of Fuggles for the first (FWH) hop addition.

I wish I could say this smelled great while I was making it but I was too stuffed up in the head to smell anything. That was disappointing, I love the smells associated with brewing even if my wife and kids complain about it.

Hit expected original gravity and the S-04 was showing visible vigorous activity in about 10 hours. I'm looking forward to this one. I'll try to remember to give my impression of this beer when it's ready (7-8 weeks).
Click to expand...

The wife and I just finished a couple bottles from this batch. It passed the wife test and I enjoyed it a lot too.

This is going on the "Brew Again" list. Thanks a bunch for sharing the recipe KingBrainI.
 
Brewed this Sunday, pitched 1968 ESB yeast instead of s04.... I pitched a little soon I think and didnt have temp low enough, Guessing I pitched at 75 but I got it down to 67 by dawn. Smells a little more fruity then I would like but I guess time will tell, I gotta learn temp is really important but extremely important when it comes to these fruity English strains. Had huge amount of blow off since I cracked my 6.5 carboy and had to switch 5 gallons to my 5 gallon secondary for primary.

Once I get past the yeast fruitiness all I smell is a beautiful caramel aroma. Its only been 3 days and its starting to clear, ill give it a week before I check gravity to see if I need to rouse yeast or not.

Ill post some pics after I get it bottled up.
 
Public service announcement:

Don't set this brew down. It's so good the flies want in on the action!!!

ImageUploadedByHome Brew1402697562.551124.jpg
 
BadDeacon said:
Public service announcement:

Don't set this brew down. It's so good the flies want in on the action!!!
Click to expand...

:off: It's my favorite way to kill fruit flies. Just leave a couple cups of beer around trouble areas and the little boogers drown their sorrows (and themselves), usually overnight. Sure, you sacrifice a bottle of beer, but bug strips are gross and ugly. A pan of beer in your garden is also supposed to be good for catching/killing slugs.

It's been a few years. I think I might have to give this one another go.
 
Just got really excited!!! Was organizing beer fridge for a party tonight and found one last bottle of this.

My Precious!!!

I need to brew this again real soon.
 
Really excited about this bottled Thursday, I had to take an extra sample from the bottling bucket just due to how enjoyable it was flat and warm as hell.

Ill post of pic in 3 weeks of my first pint :)

I ended up carbing to 1.85 volumes. The chart was suggesting 1.6 I think but that seemed way to low for my tastes. 1.85 still worries me for being to flat, then again I just had a casked hand pumped ESB at wicked weed this weekend and it was pretty good at that low carb level.
 
LogicBomb said:
Pretty new to AG but I think I'll be brewing something close to this next.

Do you think it would convert to a lower ABV ordinary bitter pretty nicely with less Maris Otter? Subbing locally available ingredients it would look like:

7.7 lbs Maris otter
0.8 lb Caramunich III (roughly crystal 60)
0.3 lbs Caraaroma (closest I could find for dark crystal)
(same hop schedule and using s-04)

ABV 3.7
SRM 11.1
35.7 IBU
(According to beersmith @ 6 gallons)

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

So I brewed a batch using the above substitutions with s-04 and it has been my favorite beer to date. Super drinkable, the hop bitterness is very rounded, it's just the kind of beer you could easily drink all day.

Love the color, love the flavor. I believe I've found the first beer that will always be on tap at my place now :)
 
This will probably be my next beer.
I'm starting to get into doing split batches - two beers for about 1/3 more of the work.

I will mash enough for two 5 gallon batches. The first batch will stick to the original recipe but I'm not sure what to do with the other half. I want to use different hops and yeast so that I have a significantly different beer.

Three ideas come to mind:

1. I have some witbier yeast saved from my last batch (Belgian IPA) use this and hop it to about 20 IBUs with some nobel hops. Something like a pseudo dubbel.

2. Use the wit yeast but hop it with American hops to 60 or 70 IBUs and make a brown Belgian IPA.

3. Use US-05 with American hops and make a brown American ale.

#2 would probably turn out best because the beer the yeast comes from is a Belgian IPA hopped to 60 IBUs.

Would it work though?

I have citra, armarillo, columbus, galaxy, belma, williamette, summit, Chinook, cascade, northern brewer, nugget, mt hood.

I appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks!:mug:
 
Shenanigans said:
This will probably be my next beer.
I'm starting to get into doing split batches - two beers for about 1/3 more of the work.

I will mash enough for two 5 gallon batches. The first batch will stick to the original recipe but I'm not sure what to do with the other half. I want to use different hops and yeast so that I have a significantly different beer.

Three ideas come to mind:

1. I have some witbier yeast saved from my last batch (Belgian IPA) use this and hop it to about 20 IBUs with some nobel hops. Something like a pseudo dubbel.

2. Use the wit yeast but hop it with American hops to 60 or 70 IBUs and make a brown Belgian IPA.

3. Use US-05 with American hops and make a brown American ale.

#2 would probably turn out best because the beer the yeast comes from is a Belgian IPA hopped to 60 IBUs.

Would it work though?

I have citra, armarillo, columbus, galaxy, belma, williamette, summit, Chinook, cascade, northern brewer, nugget, mt hood.

I appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks!:mug:
Click to expand...

I like your idea 3 the best, though I think it would be more of an american amber than a brown. All amarillo hops to about 35 IBU and us-05 yeast. That would be a great beer.
 
Sorry to hijack the thread but it will be a brown Belgian IPA
I'll add some clear sugar syrup to increase the gravity and lighten it up a little to get it in the IPA zone. Bitter with nugget and two hop additions of two different hops at 15 mins and flameout/whirlpool for 20 mins. I just need to decide which two finishing hops. Any recommendations?

After this I will open a new thread for it.:fro:
 
I made this today... The lhbs only had C80 and C120 so I had to improvise on crystal. I went with 2 2/3oz 120, 12 oz C80, and .5 oz chocolate malt (to boost color). Did I totally mess this up??? I'm hoping it still comes within style.

Update- the s-04 tore through the wort very quickly. Two days and the krausen is gone and bubbling nearly stopped. Took a reading and it's at 1.015. Tasted a little and there's no chocolate and surprisingly very little diacetyl for such a short period. I'm looking forward to this one. Thanks KingBrian for the recipe!!


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Brewed this for the 3rd time today. Using mangrove jack burton union instead of us04


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Gonna do this a second time. I loved the first round.

I did the original version last time. But thought about adding biscuit this time as recommended (4oz).

I also was thinking about adding brown sugar as well. Fitgers in Duluth said they add it to theirs. Any recommendations for this????

Deacon.
 
Been thinking of doing an ESB & this looks like a winner. Can't wait to brew it!
 
Aiming at this tomorrow. 2 major changes are the hops (all Williamette). And the addition of 2# brown sugar. We'll see how it goes. Grain bill is the same as the original.ImageUploadedByHome Brew1412390433.639326.jpg
 
Day 6 and I'm a little worried about the one in the right. It's the one that got all the break material and hop sludge thrown in.ImageUploadedByHome Brew1412980120.496136.jpg
 
Brewed with some alterations--
-Target as the (FWH) bittering hop,
-only 0.5 lb C-60
-used US Fuggles, since that's what the LHBS had
-1.055 OG: had a stuck mash, so did a brew-in-a-bag type sparge & added 0.5 lb DME to compensate
FG was 1.016

Only 1 week in bottles, definitely has a similarity to Fuller's ESB. Next time will probably leave out or reduce the extra--dark crystal and go with just boiling Target rather than FWH. I will post a picture when I get back home.
 
After reviewing the recipe, I realize i doubled the 20 minute and 0 minute hops additions. Oh, and WY1968 yeast.
 
For sure my next brew!!! Great reviews fellas. Heading to the hb store this Friday to pick up the stuff. Let u know how it turns out in the end. I believe I will be using giggles and willemite for the hops. Never had them before. New to home brewing. Any recommendations? This will be my 7 th all grain. 8th overall home brew. "Rookie"!!!!
 
Brewing this one again this weekend. First time I've done a repeat of a recipe, that's how much I liked the first batch. Last time I used Warminster Floor Malted Maris Otter, Flaked Oats, and 1968 yeast. This time I'm going to try Golden Promise, 4oz of Biscuit Malt, and 1469 yeast. Still have a few bottles from the first batch that should be fun to compare to this one.
 
Ugh. Bottled 11 gal on Saturday. Bottled half w 4 oz brown sugar and all the caps are bulging now. Having to slowly release the pressure and re crimp the caps. Anyone else have this problem w brown sugar???

I need to start kegging!
 

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