ESB Recipe Advice

[btrots87]

So I'm thinking of doing an ESB with the ingredients I have on hand and was hoping for some advice regarding the hop schedule. Recipe at the moment looks like this:

21L batch
~30IBU

1.5kg munich LME
1.25 LDME
0.25kg dextrose
0.2kg caraaroma

10g magnum at 60 min
20g fuggles at 30 min
20g EKG at 30 min
20g fuggles at 10 min
20g EKG at 10 min

Wyeast 1968 London ale.

I also have about 30g of challenger hops that have been in the freezer about 6 months. Would they be better as my 60 min addition? Any other thoughts? Extract/grain bill doesn't have much room to move as I'm basically throwing all my remaining ingredients in the brew, although I could drop the dex for a bit more LDME.

I've never done an ESB before so any help would be great.

 

[Judanero]

Drop the dex for the LDME, keep magnum as the bittering and add the challenger at 10 mins (with the ekg and fug). Swapping out Challenger for Magnum is also a win though, I am partial to Challenger for bittering UK ales.

 

[danestead]

In my limited english bitter experience the hop schedule looks probably ok, but on the high end of what I have done. Generally I have done about 1g per litre at about 15 minutes and the rest at 60 minutes to kake up the ibus. Id say yours would be nice but quite a bit hoppier tasting than my versions.

 

[btrots87]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I might drop back the hops a bit,I want it to be hoppy but not overpowering the malt. I'll also drop the dex for another 250g of LDME instead, and I think I'll go with the challenger for bittering. How does this look:

1.5kg munich LME
1.5kg LDME
0.2kg caraaroma

35g challenger at 60 min
20g fuggles and 20g EKG at 20 min.

Should still be around 30 IBU but a bit mellower hop flavor.

 

[jyo]

Chuck in a small amount of Challenger at flameout. It's delicious!

 

[rude]

Challenger :icon_drool2: yum
If youre kegging throws some in there

 

[btrots87]

The 35g in the 60 min addition is all the challenger I have. Although if it's this highly recommended I might just have to brew another beer with late challenger and fuggles.

More beer is always good.

 

[btrots87]

Hey guys, so I made the brew from post 4 last weekend, pitched a 2L starter of wyeast 1968 and set the temperature to 20C.Ferment kicked off real quick, had a good thick krausen that's now dropped away. I checked the SG after 4 days and it was at 1.020 which seemed pretty much on track, however when I checked it again after a further two days today its still sitting at 1.020 and seemed to have stopped. I'm aware that the yeast doesn't have great attenuation but 58% attenuation seems really low for it to have stopped already, especially with a big starter.

I'm not planning on bottling for another few weeks anyway, I've raised the temperature a couple of degrees and given the fermenter a swirl to keep the yeast in suspension but if this doesn't work is it worth pitching some US05 to get the job finished? The beer is still really sweet and not what I was after when I was brewing it.

 

[Reman]

I had this problem, I checked my hydrometer and it was out by 0.004, so my stall at 1.020 was actually on target at 1.016.

 

[btrots87]

Thanks for the suggestion, I just checked my hydrometer then but it's reading fine in water.

 

[danestead]

1968, is that the lomdon esb yeast? High flocculator. I just brewed a special bitter with it and it got down to 1.011 but considering its a high flocculator it may be worth a gentle swirl of the fermenter.

 

[btrots87]

Yeah that's the one. I have been swirling the fermenter a bit each day. Hopefully it will kick off again with a bit of a temperature rise and another swirl.

If I don't have any luck with it can anyone see any problems work pitching some us05 to finish it off? Should I make a starter to get the yeast active or just chuck it in?

 

[Barge]

Worth a go. Had some S-04 stall on me once at a similar stage. 05 got me down to 1.015 I think. I would just sprinkle it on.

 

[manticle]

If adding new yeast to a stalled ferment, you are better off making an active starter first.
I'd do a fast/forced ferment test first to see where you can expect it to get to.

 

[btrots87]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. Does this plan seem reasonable? Boil 100g DME in 1L water, let it cool and throw about 800mL into the fermenter. Pitch a pack of US05 into the other 200mL and get it on the stirplate until I can see some activity, then add that to the brew as well.

I've got a fast ferment test going as well, should I add fresh yeast to that too?

 

[danestead]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. Does this plan seem reasonable? Boil 100g DME in 1L water, let it cool and throw about 800mL into the fermenter. Pitch a pack of US05 into the other 200mL and get it on the stirplate until I can see some activity, then add that to the brew as well.

I've got a fast ferment test going as well, should I add fresh yeast to that too?

What are you trying to achieve by pouring 800mL of dme wort into the fermenter?

Id be doing the 1L starter and pitching it at high krausen.

 

[btrots87]

Yeah that's what I ended up doing. Not sure where the other idea came from, I read it somewhere but I thought about it and realized it doesn't make much sense.

 

[manticle]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. Does this plan seem reasonable? Boil 100g DME in 1L water, let it cool and throw about 800mL into the fermenter. Pitch a pack of US05 into the other 200mL and get it on the stirplate until I can see some activity, then add that to the brew as well.
I've got a fast ferment test going as well, should I add fresh yeast to that too?

Two ways you can do it.

1. Take a sample, warm and shake, no extra yeast. This will show if the yeast present has just stalled and has a way to go on its own.

2. Take a sample, add fresh yeast. This will indicate if that particular yeast strain can take it further.

Could do either or both.