My ESB

[bzwyatt]

My ESB round 2.

4 lb 2-row
4 lb Maris Otter
½ lb British crystal 70L
½ lb British crystal 135L
½ lb Vienna
½ lb biscuit

1oz Target 60min
1/2oz Fuggle 20 min
1 1/2oz Styrian Goldings 10min

Fermenting with Wyeast 1275 at 68°F.

I made an ESB a few months ago and picked this yeast mostly because I like the word ‘Thames’. It made a great beer, in my opinion, and I harvested the slurry, so I’m using it again. I’m fermenting at a little higher temp to allow more yeast character, especially because I had a decent sized starter so plenty of healthy cells, and I want to see how it is compared to my last recipe where I fermented at 65°F. I know my crystal ratio is on the high side, but I wanted a lot of color, similar to Fuller’s, even though that isn’t really in style. I think it is pretty though; I want it on the dark side. I might have used all Maris Otter, but for this one I was broke and used half. I think the other malts will give it enough complexity.
The wort tasted great, really bready, which I like. So with the dark color, rich malt flavor, and hopefully a good flavor complexity added from the fermentation, it’ll be good.

Any comments welcome, or thoughts on ESB in general.

 

[BigEd]

IMO you are over-thinking things here and winding up with an over-complicated recipe. Ditch the domestic malt and use all UK pale malt as a base. Pick one crystal malt. If you want an intermediate color then use a malt in that Lovibond range. The Vienna and Biscuit would be unnecessary if you used all MO. The traditional British bitters use a 90 minute boil with two hop additions. After dicking around for years with all kinds of malt and hop schedules I finally tried the old time method and found it works great. Try it see what you think.