Esb recipe

[Hops4life]

I I am going to play around with this tonight but I am planning to do a "simple" all grain ESB over the long weekend. I am wondering on the hop schedule. I am planning on using EKG & progress.

5 gallon recipe.
My base profile is 5# ea 2 row and Maris otter 2 lb of 10L and a pound of 20L.

Initially I'm thinking an ounce of EKG at 60 min with a 1/2 oz of each at 20-10-flame out. But this seems like a lot.

Gladly take suggestions!!

 

[3PegBrew]

ESB recipes are pretty simple if you stick to the English ale. It's straight up MO, you could add possibly a pound of Crystal to put a bit of color and body into the ale as well. EKG works, or Fuggle. The key to ESB is that it is a Bitter. You want it to be BITTER. So Stick with adding majority of hops at 60. I used 2oz @ 60 and 1/2 oz @5 minutes for aroma. You don't want to take flavor away from the malt, so adding anything at 20-30 will negate that part of the ale.

I'd like to add that with mine, I used 9#MO and 1# crystal 10, and I am thinking I should have gone a bit darker for the profile. Perhaps 20-40.

 

[3PegBrew]

Here is a BYO article by Jamil on ESB profile http://byo.com/stories/item/600-esb-style-profile

 

[Hops4life]

Thanks for the link. I will check that out tonight as I tinker with the schedule

 

[BlackGoat]

3lbs of crystal is a ton for an ESB, I'd cut your crystal amounts down to roughly 10-15% of the total grain bill.

 

[3PegBrew]

NP. My target ABV was 5.8%, I believe I hit 5.7 with my grain bill and mash schedule.

 

[BlackGoat]

...also there is a TON of outstanding info (probably more than you want to know) about ESB recipe formulation in this thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f64/common-room-esb-83878/

 

[Hops4life]

Thanks for the feedback and info everyone. I plugged my recipe into beer smith last night and looks like for style it works "ok". The ibu are on the upper range and the Abv is too high but overall it seems ok. Think I am going to roll with it and see how she turns out. Can always adjust the nest batch more.