The first time I hit 8.2 abv on accident. I used all extract, got drunk and added an extra 2 lbs lme. I thought it rocked, but the hop build wasn't right and it was heavier than what I wanted. I shot right in the middle on this attempt compared to the recipes listed online.
Here's my recipe:
Grains
10.5# 2 row pale malt
0.5 # melanoiden malt
1.25# Munich malt
1# caramel 40
0.5# carapils
Hops
.5 galaxy 60
.5 centennial 60
1.0 citra 15
1.0 citra 10
1.0 citra 5
1.0 citra 1
2.0 citra dryhop after 14 days for 7
0.5 galaxy dry hop ""
Wyeast 1968 London ESB Ale
Tastes delightful. Hop bite and punch on the end. Just bottled lastnight. I'll follow up in a couple weeks to let you know. My first attempt was ALL citra hops, but it didn't taste how I wanted it to, so I threw my own take at it.