Refining a recipe for an ESB-style bitter

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richbon

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Hi folks -
Appreciate some feedback on a Fullers ESB-inspired bitter I made recently, which was my first after taking many years off from brewing. The beer is solid, has the appropriate amount of alcohol and hop character, but has some overall flavor issues holding it back I think. It's a little "malty" to me compared to my target brew and just has a "homebrew" taste that I can't describe easily. I love the clean, bright, toasty commercial beer taste that I'm missing. I generally don't like malt forward/roasted malt beers and I think I may be tasting the roasted crystal malt and 20% was just too much for the recipe. I also didn't adjust minerals.

2 gallon BIAB batch made with:

Maris Otter (80%) and Crystal malt 50-60L (20%)
Challenger for my bittering hop and EKG for aroma
Wyeast ESB 1968.
Water was fridge filtered tap water in the metro Washington DC area (a little hard, but mostly neutral in terms of minerals present) and I added no minerals - which might have been a mistake.
Had active fermentation and attenuation (1.060 og/1.020 fg), fermented at fall basement temps (68F/20C) for 17 days and bottled.

I'm planning to brew this again in 2024 and will use less (if any) of the 60L crystal malt and will add minerals to get closer to Burton-on-Trent levels. Appreciate any other feedback or suggestions or refinements to clean up the taste. Thanks in advance!
 
Yeah I agree with you, Too much crystal but otherwise looks great. Reducing the crystal will probably get you here but some gypsum may brighten it up As well. You don’t need to go full Burton.

welcome to the forum!
 
richbon said:
Hi folks -
Appreciate some feedback on a Fullers ESB-inspired bitter I made recently, which was my first after taking many years off from brewing. The beer is solid, has the appropriate amount of alcohol and hop character, but has some overall flavor issues holding it back I think. It's a little "malty" to me compared to my target brew and just has a "homebrew" taste that I can't describe easily. I love the clean, bright, toasty commercial beer taste that I'm missing. I generally don't like malt forward/roasted malt beers and I think I may be tasting the roasted crystal malt and 20% was just too much for the recipe. I also didn't adjust minerals.

2 gallon BIAB batch made with:

Maris Otter (80%) and Crystal malt 50-60L (20%)
Challenger for my bittering hop and EKG for aroma
Wyeast ESB 1968.
Water was fridge filtered tap water in the metro Washington DC area (a little hard, but mostly neutral in terms of minerals present) and I added no minerals - which might have been a mistake.
Had active fermentation and attenuation (1.060 og/1.020 fg), fermented at fall basement temps (68F/20C) for 17 days and bottled.

I'm planning to brew this again in 2024 and will use less (if any) of the 60L crystal malt and will add minerals to get closer to Burton-on-Trent levels. Appreciate any other feedback or suggestions or refinements to clean up the taste. Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
not sure what "homebrew" flavour is, lol. but just a few things that can cause off flavors. if you are using city water. are you using a camden tablet to get rid of chlorine/chloramine? do you have temp control?

I agree that you dont need that much crystal. 5-8% at most. maybe add some carared or red X malt.
 
You don't need 20% Crystal. That is likely the problem. 1lb English SRM 70 Crystal is enough in 5 gallons (It happened to be just under 8% Crystal in my case). An ESB is a balance between the malt and hops. My recipe used 2 3/4 ounces of hops between the 60 and 30 minute additions, but they were low alpha hops. (East Kent, Fuggle). It looks like 44 IBUs according to my notes. It came out tasty.
The water is supposed to be fairly hard, but Publix spring water worked well in my case.
 
Also, the actual Fullers recipe is online somewhere, and I think they use a tiny bit of Chocolate malt to darken it up.
I think simple is better, so that is why I only went with one Crystal malt. I saw people with all kinds of different SRM Crystal malt combinations, and I thought, "This is stupid. Why not split the difference and add one Crystal malt."
I was bottling at the time and added a small amount of white wheat for head retention. I tried a tiny amount of Victory, but I think I would leave it out the next time. Keep it simple, keep your yeast, limit your crystal, and you might have something.
 
Definitely too much crystal in there.
Here are the details on my ESB, which is actually not "my" ESB, it is based on a recipe from David Heath.
The DME is because I brew partial mash.
David swears by Lyle's Golden Syrup, which seems to me to just be corn syrup.
I actually have this one spunding in the fermenter currently.

1704203206805.png

Hops
1704203227215.png

Last brew
1704203339262.png
 
Like @Craigerrr, my ESB is based David Heath's video. The Lyle's Golden Syrup has a caramel/butterscotch flavor to it and adds a nice subtle flavor to the beer. So far my favorite yeast for an ESB is Imperial's Pub A09, although I have not tried WYeast 1968 in it yet.
 
BarbarianBrewer said:
Like @Craigerrr, my ESB is based David Heath's video. The Lyle's Golden Syrup has a caramel/butterscotch flavor to it and adds a nice subtle flavor to the beer. So far my favorite yeast for an ESB is Imperial's Pub A09, although I have not tried WYeast 1968 in it yet.
Click to expand...
I use S-04
 
BarbarianBrewer said:
Like @Craigerrr, my ESB is based David Heath's video. The Lyle's Golden Syrup has a caramel/butterscotch flavor to it and adds a nice subtle flavor to the beer. So far my favorite yeast for an ESB is Imperial's Pub A09, although I have not tried WYeast 1968 in it yet.
Click to expand...
1968 is subtly different than 1098, which is my goto for English ales
 
Thanks for the all the detailed feedback and discussion - really appreciate it. You have given me a lot to think about. I'm motivated to try again (especially since you can't get Fuller's ESB in the US in a bottle since the pandemic). My next attempt will dial back the crystal malt and I'll probably add some gypsum. I've got some decisions to make on the next ESB recipe attempt in terms of the grain bill and whether to try a more complex approach a la David Heath's recipe, or to keep it relatively simple with 2-3 grains/2 hops. I'll probably try both eventually - cheers.
 
Control Freak said:
For what it's worth, an interview with the Head Brewer from Fullers:
95% British Pale Malt - Muntons
5% Crystal 75L
Hops - Target, Challenger, Northdown, Goldings
English Ale Yeast
Click to expand...
That is what I do when I make it. Just maybe a touch more crystal since I needed it with my results. The goldings are a dry hop in the ESB. Lower gravity and fewer hops to hit came ibu, and no Golding dry hop for the Pride
 
I used WLP 002 which I think is the same thing as 1968. It does not atrenuate well, and I fogot that I also added a little bit of brown sugar because of that. That yeast makes it quite tasty. S04 makes decent beer, but I'm not as sure about using it in an ESB. It is fun running through different recipes ideas on the forum, and I love that style.
 
richbon said:
Hi folks -
Appreciate some feedback on a Fullers ESB-inspired bitter I made recently, which was my first after taking many years off from brewing. The beer is solid, has the appropriate amount of alcohol and hop character, but has some overall flavor issues holding it back I think. It's a little "malty" to me compared to my target brew and just has a "homebrew" taste that I can't describe easily. I love the clean, bright, toasty commercial beer taste that I'm missing. I generally don't like malt forward/roasted malt beers and I think I may be tasting the roasted crystal malt and 20% was just too much for the recipe. I also didn't adjust minerals.

2 gallon BIAB batch made with:

Maris Otter (80%) and Crystal malt 50-60L (20%)
Challenger for my bittering hop and EKG for aroma
Wyeast ESB 1968.
Water was fridge filtered tap water in the metro Washington DC area (a little hard, but mostly neutral in terms of minerals present) and I added no minerals - which might have been a mistake.
Had active fermentation and attenuation (1.060 og/1.020 fg) le bouillon republique, fermented at fall basement temps (68F/20C) for 17 days and bottled.

I'm planning to brew this again in 2024 and will use less (if any) of the 60L crystal malt and will add minerals to get closer to Burton-on-Trent levels. Appreciate any other feedback or suggestions or refinements to clean up the taste. Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
I am a fan of Sharp's Sea Fury so I thought I'd give it a go, so using your comments in the Forum, I cobbled together the recipe below, and no doubt with some beginnner's luck came up with a brew that's quite close to the real thing:
Malts: Mash at 66C for 1 hour
4 kg Maris Otter
1 kg Special B
0.5kg Cara Munich 111
0.5kg Dark Crystal Malt
Hops: Boil: 0.5oz Northdown + 0.5oz Challenger for 90 minutes, 0.3oz Target + 0.3oz East Kent Golding + Teaspoon Irish Moss 10 minutes, 0.3oz East Kent Golding 0 min
WPL 002 Yeast
 
Brewer #409343 said:
I am a fan of Sharp's Sea Fury so I thought I'd give it a go, so using your comments in the Forum, I cobbled together the recipe below, and no doubt with some beginnner's luck came up with a brew that's quite close to the real thing:
Malts: Mash at 66C for 1 hour
4 kg Maris Otter
1 kg Special B
0.5kg Cara Munich 111
0.5kg Dark Crystal Malt
Hops: Boil: 0.5oz Northdown + 0.5oz Challenger for 90 minutes, 0.3oz Target + 0.3oz East Kent Golding + Teaspoon Irish Moss 10 minutes, 0.3oz East Kent Golding 0 min
WPL 002 Yeast
Click to expand...
WOW, that is an awful LOT of Special B and caramel/crystal malt. I'm not saying it will be bad, necessarily, but whatever it is, it's not an ESB.
 
As an update, I do have another ESB-style bitter in the pipeline currently bubbling away from a batch I brewed on Sunday. Not a Fuller's Clone exactly, and I did scandalously include some American malt (7% Victory to go with the Maris Otter). WLP005 to try for something different, and I did add some gypsum and calcium chloride. I was looking to emphasize a bread-y, biscuit-y element with the Victory malt. Hopefully, it tastes as good in actual execution as it does in my head. Didn't seem to need additional grains for color - the beer in the fermentor looks dark amber.

This is my third batch this century, so I'm learning important lessons - like 7.25 pounds of grain just barely fits in my kettle with enough water for a 3 gallon batch. Thanks all for the pointers.

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/1442952/it-s-called-soccer-esb
 
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