The OP’s recipe has enough caramel malt to give an adult hippo diabeetus. ESB’s need some caramel malt, but certainly not 2#. Shoot for less than 1# using British caramel or crystal malt. 5oz of Fawcett c50 and 3oz of Fawcett c150 makes a good ESB. Better than Fullers! (not that hard to do)
And using sugar in an ESB is certainly not unheard of. Contrary to previous posts, sugar isn’t automatically contraindicated when using a lot of caramel. Using a lot of caramel produces two things. Extra sweetness and extra caramel/toffee flavor.
Using sugar can reduce perceived sweetness and increase booze while preserving caramel flavor that wouldn’t have happened without the caramel malt. Think of sugar as something that gets completely fermented to booze that isn’t sweet. It cuts the sweetness. Turbinado (raw) sugar is more common than brown sugar for this type of beer. Sugar in the Raw from Costco for $1.28 a pound, FTW!
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