ESB

[time01]

looking to brew my first ESB and not massively familiar with the style, anyone have a solid recipe or tips on yeast etc.?

I am an AG BIAB, No chill brewer.

 

[geneabovill]

Take a gander at the BJCP style guidelineshttp://www.bjcp.org for an idea.

That'll at least tell you what to aim for. Also, a load of great reading material out there. Brewing Classic Styles for starters.

 

[manticle]

Keep it simple. Good UK base malt, good UK crystal (don't overdo the crystal).
I like to add in a touch of toasty malt like biscuit or aromatic - be subtle if you use it.

Good liquid UK yeast - I love 1469, 1275 and 1335. 1187 is another good choice as is 1026 but it's only available seasonally(1026 not 1187). 1028 is a lovely yeast but can be a pain. I ferment towards the lower end of the range, bump it up a tad towards the end.

Obviously UK hops - EKG and challenger are both great. Styrians are not UK but work very well in a bitter - either solo or playing with others.

They really shine when the yeast drops right out but they still have freshness.

 

[Spiesy]

I have a really nice one on tap right now, and I don't usually dig this style.

94% TF Maris Otter.
6% Simpsons Medium Crystal.

32 IBU of EK Goldings at 60mins.
30g EK Goldings at flame out.

67-degree mash for 60 mins.

21 litre batch.
1054 OG. 1016 FG.

WLP005 for 10-days.

 

[Yeastfridge]

I think I might brew one this week. I often pull my recipes out of my arse, and for this I'll do something like:
88% Maris Otter/Golden Promise
6% amber/victory
5% medium crystal
1% chocolate malt or roasted barley.

Enough for an OG of 1.050-1.055.

1 tsp calcium carbonate
2 tsp calcium sulfate
(I use Sydney tap water)

Infusion mash 66 'C.

EKG or Target hops to 45 IBU
30G EKG or Styrian Golding cube hopped (I have an immersion chiller so will probably do this as flameout addition, so maybe adjust your IBU calculations).

I'll use WLP005 because I've got some and it came out very nicely in my ordinary bitter.
Curious to hear what other people reckon about yeast.

Unlike hopped up US styles, in my humble opinion ESBs are a great no chill brew. I'm also a BIABer, and just stopped no-chilling.

 

[manticle]

Recipe looks good but I question the carbonate addition. What's it for?

Also not sure how big your teaspoons are and whether or not you heap them but I reckon a couple of my teaspoons averagely heaped might be more gypsum than I'd usually aim for.

 

[Judanero]

Here's a recipe I've done multiple times and rather enjoy.

5.45Kg Pale ale (Bairds UK)

19g East Kent Goldings (5.2%AA) @90
35g Fuggles (4.5%AA)@90
5g Magnum (14%AA)@90

17g East Kent Goldings (5.2%AA)@10
Brewbrite@ 10

1 tsp yeast nutrient @ flameout

Mash in 60, 66 for 90, 72 for 10, 78 for 10

90 min boil
Wyeast Ringwood Ale 1187 ferment @ 19 (I actually prefer this over 1469 which I also love, but prefer 1187 for this recipe)

Total vol=~25L


IMO best bottle conditioned, but good in the keg after ~2 weeks.

:beer:

 

[pk.sax]

I've been using the wlp005 British ale yeast as well, very good results. Very yummy.

I've got the wyeast version - ringwood ale yeast for my next try though.

Btw, EKG and Styrian goldings are a fairly different hop to each other. I don't mind EKG but the fuggles family (fuggles, Styrian goldings and willamette) I absolutely love. The floral smooth earthy bitterness is great. A nice crystal sort of hides the earthiness very well too. It isn't necessary to dry hop the ESB if the kettle additions were good enough

Wrt uk crystals, try a bit of caraaroma instead, I think it's a more all round crystal. Personal choice there though. I haven't seen 200 grams of any crystal make the difference 200g of caraaroma does.

 

[manticle]

I fell in love with simpsons heritage crystal which unfortunately is no longer available. I have found an equal blend of simpsons light, medium and dark comes pretty close.

 

[Andy_Chil]

I have a really nice one on tap right now, and I don't usually dig this style.

94% TF Maris Otter.
6% Simpsons Medium Crystal.

32 IBU of EK Goldings at 60mins.
30g EK Goldings at flame out.

67-degree mash for 60 mins.

21 litre batch.
1054 OG. 1016 FG.

WLP005 for 10-days

I'm not sure if this is a dumb question...how do I calculate the grain weights based on the above percentages? A batch figure of 21litres is given so I think I can work out the hop weight based on IBU. I wouldn't mind giving this recipe a go o the BM.

 

[geneabovill]

You can punch the percentages into BeerSmith or some other software to dial in the actual numbers for your system.

 

[Spiesy]

Yep, as Ruckus has suggested - if you use brewing software, enter in 94g of TF Maris Otter and 6g of Simpsons Crystal for your malt bill - then scale the recipe up in volume so that you hit 1054OG for your particular batch size and brewery efficiency.

 

[spog]

A good read/reference is this book, Brewing Beers like Those You Buy.
Heaps of English beer recipes.

ISBN 1-85486-125-5
First published 1978 but has been upgraded and many times since.
Cheers....spog...

 

[Andy_Chil]

Thanks Gents,

Slowly getting my head around beersmith. Did not know it could do that.
Could I indulge you to have a look at this recipe file and let me know if I have got it vaguely correct? I scaled it to 20 litres for 19 litres in keg with 1 litre fermenter loss. Thanks.

View attachment Spiesy ESB.bsmx

 

[Spiesy]

Thanks Gents,

Slowly getting my head around beersmith. Did not know it could do that.
Could I indulge you to have a look at this recipe file and let me know if I have got it vaguely correct? I scaled it to 20 litres for 19 litres in keg with 1 litre fermenter loss. Thanks.

Spiesy ESB.bsmx

Would if I could, but I don't run BeerSmith, sorry.

 

[Wilkensone]

Hoping I could get a couple opinions on an ESB I want to brew.

Ingredients
4.25 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC) Grain 1 85.0 %
0.50 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (118.2 EBC) Grain 2 10.0 %
0.25 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (236.4 EBC) Grain 3 5.0 %
50.00 g East Kent Goldings (EKG) [5.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 4 30.6 IBUs
0.50 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 5 -
30.00 g East Kent Goldings (EKG) [5.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 6 9.1 IBUs
1.0 pkg London ESB Ale (Wyeast Labs #1968) [124.21 ml] Yeast 7 -

I'm no chilling so hops will be 60min and cube hop, mashing at 67.

I've not brewed this style (I'm newb anyway!) but I've tried to keep it simple.

Wilkens

Edit: formatting

 

[sponge]

I'd be looking at halving the crystal additions or so. 15% crystal is quite a bit, although not unheard of.

Possibly try more 150g of both light and dark xtal? I often find 95/5 base/xtal a pretty good starting point.

 

[Wilkensone]

I'd be looking at halving the crystal additions or so. 15% crystal is quite a bit, although not unheard of.

Possibly try more 150g of both light and dark xtal? I often find 95/5 base/xtal a pretty good starting point.

Yeah fair point, thanks sponge, I'll look to get about 5% xtal.

I'm not sure if I have fuggles still but if I do was thinking to use fuggle to bitter and keep the EKG for cube.

Also any Wyeast recommendations?

 

[manticle]

Definitely cut back on the crystal. I used to use 500g with around 5 kg base and while I enjoyed it, many found it a touch too toffee like and I've found I prefer around 250g now. I blend light, medium and dark from simpsons in equal amounts.

A hint of toasty malt never goes astray - victory, biscuit, etc although you will get some of that character from maris on its own. Looks good but that yeast can need some assistance as it tends to slow and sometimes stall near the end.

 

[Bribie G]

I ran the recipe through BrewMate and assuming it's for 23 litres, it would come out a bit too weak on alcohol and very dark and caramelly. I'd personally up the base malt to 5 kg and cut back on the crystals as suggested. I usually put around 200g of sugar in as well, boil it up with some citric acid till it goes dark caramel but not burning.

A great bittering hop that also imparts complex flavours is Challenger, I invariably use it as my basic hop in ESBs.

Good yeast would be Wyeast 1968 London ESB, but it can stall so keep it agitated and oxygenate well before pitching.

edit: yup saw the 1968 ... as Manticle says. You can still get 1768 that gives a cleaner finish, it's currently October stock from Craftbrewer but mine swelled up after 3 days and fired up no worries, I've got two more on the way before it disappears for two years.