I have never made an ESB but what do you guys think of what I came up with?
5 gal batch
10 lbs marris otter
1 lb crystal 60L
5 oz crystal 120L
1 oz Willamette at 60 mins
.5 oz mosaic at 15 mins
.5 mosaic at 0 mins
white lab californian ale
I will also use phosphoric acid because our ph is about 7 and i will use super moss and yeast nutriance
I possibly will make a yeast starter too. Iv never used gelatin for finings in the secondary but im thinking about trying that too.
Are you intending this to be an Americanized version? The hop schedule isn’t really what an ESB would be. In general they have a larger bittering addition and would use a British hop(s), as well as yeast. I’m guessing the crystal malts are also American?
To make it really English, I would skip all the crystal malts and go with just pale ale malt. American brewers attempting English beers use a lot of crystal because all the imports they’ve tried are heavily oxidized (stale) and crystal sort of imitates those flavors (and colors.) Fresh beer in England is entirely different, and they almost never use crystal malts (except in dark beers like brown ale.) Use a large amount of bittering hops (as much as you care for) and about 1/3 as much of Goldings or another English aroma hop at 15 minutes, nothing later. Don’t dry hop. Windsor should be fine. This will get you a very English beer, which may not be what you expect!
I’d scrap the 60L crystal, and up the 120 amount to get you to whatever color you want.
Some modern British bitters use American hops, so why not do the same? Trooper has Cascade as a late addition, or at least it did. I think it included a second American hop but I don’t remember which off the top of my head.
They use crystal, just differently from how we do. Usually lower amounts and darker varieties, from what I’ve learned. Many of the recipes in CAMRA’s “Brew Your Own British Real Ale” call for crystal malt. (It’s a good book, very insightful to see home brewing from a completely different perspective. For example, the book calls for conditioning in a cask, then bottling from that.)
I first started brewing in England, and brewed bitters for many years before my lager fetish took over. I’ll have to check out that book, Phil. Maybe time for a revisit. True, very tiny amounts of dark crystal may be used, but for color adjustment, like invert. The flavor shouldn’t be noticeable.
To me, the darker British crystals come across with more of a slight toffee/butterscotch flavor than the usual toasted syrup sweetness of lighter American crystals. I’ve also had issues with overestimating the amount of dark or extra dark crystal malt need, to the point that bitters became browns on several occasions.
I’ve not been to England, so you may know more of this than I. My “gauge” is Pratt Street Alehouse in Baltimore, I’ve been told it’s one of the best places to get a British style pint on this side of the pond.
Honestly, the Brits I know personally all prefer American IPAs and Pale Ales to their own country’s styles.
Yeah, my experience comes from when CAMRA was just saving traditional British beer, before American craft changed the scene and their advocacy became more cosmopolitan. My advice above was decidedly old school, assuming the OP was thinking traditional English style.
True in general. But you know the story, they were in real danger, as corporate brewing consolidated, of having nothing left but one brand of adjunct lager. Like we did back then. To their credit they advocate for any beer worth trying now, without hangups over definitions based on ownership structure and such.
My guidelines above will get you a traditional English beer. As Phil_M notes you can add a little dark crystal or even black malt to get extra color, but it should be based on pale ale malt without other flavors intruding. The traditional English approach should suit your taste as I take your comment on hoppiness: stronger beers should be maltier, not dry and hoppy, because that would make them dangerously drinkable! So let’s walk through formulating it:
You want ~11lbs malt. That should be your Maris Otter. Your 120 will get you a bit more color, keep it.
How much bitterness do you want? (I’m guessing you want a gravity in the 50s, so aim for a bitterness in the 30s to start.) Find a calculator and get that IBU level from an English type bittering hop like Northern Brewer, Target, or actually anything not too aggressively in the style of contemporary, fruity and tropical American IPA hops. See what you have available. The Brits have always imported some US hops for bittering.
Then add about 1/3 as much by weight of an English aroma type (Goldings, Challenger, etc or even Styrians or US Willamette) at 15 min.
Brew it, try it, and then adjust the recipe from there for your next batch to suit your taste. The principles of traditional British pale ale brewing lie in that outline of grist formulation and hop schedule. Make it your own from there. You are the brewer and the consumer!
(I know you asked for a recipe, but really an approach you can apply will serve you better, I think!)
The Sept-Oct 2008 has an article by John Keeling, Head brewer at Fullers, on how to brew Fullers ESB.
Malt is 95% pale, 5% crystal with a touch of chocolate for color.
Hops are target in the boil for bittering, Northdown and Challenger as late boil, Golding and Target in the fermenter (!), and Goldings as dry hops. No amounts given.
Water is Burtonized.
I have read that Fullers has evolved over the years, the hops in fermentation and cask being added as tastes have changed! I remember it being quite malt focused on cask in the 80s. Cloying almost.
It bears remembering that this started as a Winter warmer in the late 60s, rebranded with the name “ESB” when it was added to the year round lineup. Fullers switched from cones to all pellets in 1970, the year before ESB went year round; that may have begun a shift in character, though not as much as the later changes in hopping.
Elsewhere the recipe has been given as 90% pale, 3% crystal and 7% flaked maize. No doubt the grist has evolved too.
Right, I don’t recall when they abandoned dropping, but the switch to conicals may have dried out the character a bit. The question becomes, what iteration of whose beer is your model – or, better, what do you want your beer to be like?
I have a good nod to FESB using what Jeff referenced as a guide a home, except sans chocolate. I’ll try to remember to post it later on. I like how it turns out.
I just made it again a few weeks ago except with 1450 just cause. I imagine I will like that better because I prefer American amber to English bitter, but obviously its not traditional.
I used to make one, based on a much older interview with Keeling, using the maize. Can’t say I can tell the difference in either, but then again I never made them both together to judge.
I’ve been trying to find a English Bitter recipe off and on for a while. One i can call my own, sort of. My next brew day I’m giving it one more go. This time I’m trying APA methods with English ingredients.
1.060
93% Simpson Golden Promise
7% Tom Faucet C45
30g Target at 60
20g Challenger 20g Styrian Golding at 170F whirlpool
Wy1469 at 65F for days then 68F
No dry hops