Schlafly ESB (2009 winter seasonal) clone...any ideas?

[chirs]

I'm so hooked on Schlafly's ESB this year. Incredibly drinkable, huge off-white head and no cloying sweetness or bitterness. Amazing!

Here is their description:

Winter ESB
October 30

This Extra Special Bitter is an amber-colored, malty ale with plenty of hops to balance the flavor. Rye flakes add a distinctive flavor, as well as extra body.

ABV:6.2%
OG: 15
IBU: 45



Any ideas as to hops and grain bill?
Can't wait to take a shot at this.

 

[dragon99]

I'd love to see a clone of this also. I was in St Louis a couple years ago and got to try this one and enjoyed it immensely. Also really enjoy their Grand Cru.

 

[chirs]

For starters I'm thinking of tweaking biermuncher's ESB, but replacing the 1# of Cara with 2# rye flakes. Then balance out the malts (and hops, in turn) to hit ~6.5% ABV.

 

[dragon99]

I emailed Schlafly's for advice and got this back. I'll work up a recipe later tonight.

Hello Dan,

I can’t give you the recipe outright, but I can suggest that you use equal amounts of Munich malt, 40L, and Rye, in addition to your base malt, of course. Our IBUs are right around 50, and the hops we use have changed a lot over the years, so do some experimenting. An English ale yeast would be appropriate, although we used to use an American strain. Let the malt and hops do most of the talking, but an English-type yeast would be a good idea. Our original head brewer was Dave Miller, so consulting his books would perhaps get you close, too.

Happy Brewing!

Stephen

 

[dragon99]

Forgive the crummy formatting. I haven't really looked into how to format a recipe in a post. Pretty close to their posted stats for OG and based on the brewers recommendations for malts and IBU's. I used 2-row instead of a British malt because I'm guessing that like alot of American craft brewers they use 2-row for everything.

Batch size: 11.0 gallons

Original Gravity
1.060
(1.053 to 1.062)
Final Gravity
1.015
(1.013 to 1.016)
Color
6° SRM
(Yellow to Gold)
Mash Efficiency
70%
Bitterness
33.0 HBU
53.2 IBU
ƒ: Average
BU:GU
0.89

malt and fermentables
% LB OZ Malt or Fermentable ppg °L
83% 22 0 American Two-row Pale info 37 1
6% 1 8 American Crystal 40L info 34 40
6% 1 8 Munich Malt - 10L info 35 10
6% 1 8 Rye, Flaked info 36 2
26 8

hops
use time oz variety form aa
Boil 60 mins 3.0 Target info pellet 11.0
Boil 20 mins 1.0 Goldings, East Kent info pellet 5.0
Boil 1 min 1.0 Goldings, East Kent info pellet 5.0
Boil: 12.0 avg gallons for 60 minutes

yeast
White Labs Dry English Ale (WLP007) info
ale yeast in liquid form with medium to high flocculation


Alcohol
6.0% A.B.V.
4.7% A.B.W.
Calories
198 per 12 oz.

 

[chirs]

awesome! thanks for looking into that Dan!
His description of the malt bill seems pretty right on (although I was initially thinking Carapils was contributing to the foamy head...i guess it could be the rye). Entering this into beer alch. the color is coming up a little light. I think just an ounce or 2 of chocolate should bring the color up and add a bit of complexity.
As far as hops go, I'm drinking a Goose Island Winter Mild right now and the aroma is spot on with the Schlafly, albeit a little masked by the malts. GI uses tetnanger and willamette.
Here's what I came up with:

 

[smakudwn]

I would be interested to see how this turns out. Had a 6er of this over the weekend and i really enjoyed it, the rye added something extra to it.

 

[Poobah58]

Interesting! I just made a very similar Rye ESB and tapped it this past weekend. It's quite spicy but is a nice holiday beer and was enjoyed by all. I've never had Schlafly's but if you replace 1# of the rye with more MO it might be quite similar:

6 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) 53.33 %
2 lbs Rye Malt (3.0 SRM) 17.78 %
1 lbs Caramunich II (45.0 SRM) 8.89 %
1 lbs Munich Malt (10.0 SRM) 8.89 %
4.0 oz Extra Dark Crystal (150.0 SRM) 2.22 %
8.0 oz Corn, Flaked (1.3 SRM) 4.44 %
8.0 oz Lyle's Golden Syrup (0.0 SRM) 4.44 %
0.50 oz Fuggles [5.20 %] (60 min) (FWH) 9.4 IBU
0.75 oz Target [11.90 %] (60 min) 36.0 IBU
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (2 min) 3.4 IBU
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (DH 14 days)
1 Pkg English Ale (White Labs #WLP002)

 

[chirs]

FWIW, finished another 12 pack of schlafly esb this week... definitely going to go with dragon99's reco. on using the WL dry english ale yeast. There really is very little residual sweetness in this.

 

[chirs]

Brewed this last weekend...hit a slightly lower gravity then expected (I still tend to mess up my water calculations). Super fast fermentation! Used a blow off tube and ended up with very highly flocculated, beautiful ruby-brown beer. Tasted the hydro sample and it was delicious. Slightly noticeable alcohol burn, nice rye spice, excellent balance between base malts and caramel. I'll probably dry hop the keg with a 1/4 oz Golding or Tettnang since I forgot to add my last hop addition during the boil.
sg 1.053. racked to keg yesterday, fg 1.013.

 

[smakudwn]

im very interested on this as i too love this beer, let me know how the finished product tunes out!

 

[chirs]

Highly recommended!

 

[smakudwn]

so would you call the clone attempt a success?

 

[chirs]

I think so. I forgot my last hop addition...I think the Schlafly has a bit more of a spicy aroma balanced with very subtle chocolate. If anything, I would make 1% of the grain bill chocolate and I'll remember my last addition of tetnang next time.
BTW this has only been conditioning for 2 weeks, so far...

 

[smakudwn]

sweet, ima put this on my to-brew list

 

[dragon99]

I ordered grains to brew it this week. I'm looking forward to this one.