ESB-Extract with some issues.

[markus2982]

So my bro-in-law and I worked on a an ESB recipe. This was our first time playing around with a recipe. Just wanted to get a little feed back. FYI...I am going to post the original recipe. The guy the the LHBS convinced that we should LME sold us 6.6 lbs of LME which was not enough. Oh well. Live and learn.

6 lbs Pilsen DME
1 lb Golden Light DME
8 oz American Crystal 20L
8 oz American Crystal 40L
2 oz Roasted Barley
1 oz Target(UK) hops-60 min
.50 oz East Kent Golding-20 min
.50 oz Fuggles -20 min
.50 oz East Kent Golding-flameout
.50 Fuggles-flameout
Wyeast London ESB Ale 196

On top of the DME issue we added too much water in the Carboy so the OG ended up at 1.035 instead of our projected 1.064(7 lbs DME)Oh well...it will still be beer.

 

[sptaylor70]

My brother hates LME and always uses DME for his extract, no matter how much is required. LME stales much faster than DME, so unless you know that it's fresh, he says, DME is the safer bet.

Pilsen extract has a distinctive flavor that might not be your best choice for an English style beer. I prefer to go with mostly light extract, with a little bit of amber extract just to add a layer of flavor. If you adjusted your recipe to, say, 5 lbs. of light and 2 lbs. of amber, it wouldn't darken your beer much, but might make the flavor slightly more complex. Your roasted barley looks like the right amount to give flavor, but not so much that it overwhelms. You might also try, in future, swapping the roasted barley out for biscuit.

A 20L difference between your crystal malts will be fairly subtle. You might consider going with C20L and C60L in your next batch, just to see whether that gives you something that you like better.

Your choice of hops and bittering level looks right on. You could try first wort hopping with the EKG, again to see whether that gives you something that you like better.

All of this is just details, though. Your overall recipe, other than using Pilsen extract, is pretty well right down the line for an ESB. As I tell my students, there's no end to the tinkering you can do with your recipes, so brew them several times, and see what you can do and how much you like it. And post how it turns out.

 

[markus2982]

Not sure if it makes a huge difference but I typed the recipe on here wrong. It was 6 lbs Golden Light and 1 lb Pilsen.