First proper brew & ESB advice shop!

[dean_wales]

Hi there,

So I made a lot of kit beers as a teenager, had a lot of good times taking my pressure barrels to parties but mostly it tasted like pond water.

Now in my late twenties - My dad convinced me to do an all grain brew or two last year and it was relatively succesfull. He used to brew great all grain homebrew back in the days on our small holding. Between his past knowledge and an old brewing book the beers were good but not great.

This time I want to actually have a proper go.

I have some great quality cheap grains from themaltmiller.co.uk and am ready to go. I want to follow a reciepe fairly closely as most things were done by eye and guesstimation previously.

We both love Fullers ESB and that is the target. As close to a clone as possible without being petty.

This is the recipe I have cobbled together from various sources:

NB: BATCH SIZE WILL BE 5 GALLONS

Ingredients

Fermentables

Pale Ale Malt 10.0 lb
Flaked Maize 1.0 lb
Crystal Malt 1.0 lb
Brown Sugar 0.50 lb

Hops

Target 0.5 oz 90 Min From End
Challenger 0.5 oz 15 Min From End
Northern Brewer 0.5 oz 15 Min From End
Goldings 0.5 oz 15 Min From End
Goldings 0.5 oz Dry-Hopped

Other Ingredients

Protofloc / Irish Moss in Boil
Safle s-04 Dried Yeast in FV

I am aiming to have a DIY coolbox mash tun and electric kettle bucket boiler sorted in time. The pots are a real pain as I ont have a big enough one.

I gather that for a full body beer such as this I want to mash slightly at a higher temp? Suggestions of ideal temperature welcome!

Also any other tips and advice.

I live in Pembrokeshire UK. Do I really need to adjust the water minerals/pH. The water round here tends to be very soft.

Thanks in advance,

Dean.

[dave-o]

I'd be surprised if ESB had flaked maize in it. But perhaps!

Difficult to comment with imperial measurements.

[gnorwebthgimi]

The recipe looks fine, but I may make a couple of suggestions:

If you want a good body on the brew you may be better off with a bit more malt rather than the sugar, unless you want a particular taste from a dark sugar.

I've never used flaked maize, I assume you are putting it in for a reason, if not maybe leave it out (it's just another variable to contend with otherwise).

That's an ambitions amount of hops for a first brew. but that's fine. You may want to provide the alpha acids so someone can work out the approximate IBU's of the beer.

I recommend a mash at about 66'c (to be safe) and you check how accurate your thermometer is (mine is out 8'c at 100'c, it reads 108'c but is correct at 0'c). You should still get a decent amount of body to the beer, but if you are a few degrees above then you will get a much higher gravity beer.

Good luck with your first AG brew!

[steve_flack]

I'd be surprised if ESB had flaked maize in it. But perhaps!

It used to. Doesn't anymore - it's pale, crystal and possibly some colouring extract made from chocolate malt.

[Brotherton Lad]

It's a perfectly sensible recipe for an English bitter, though I don't know how much it will approximate to ESB. I'm not familiar with your water, either, but I'd certainly have no problems brewing it.

[Spud395]

From what I've read your hops are spot on regarding the varieties.
I was told around 35 IBU, putting your figures into BE ( using the default AA% ) you seem to be coming out at 48 IBU.

[Blackjack]

Nice recipe, quite close to GW's version, same comment on flaked maize as others, OK as is or could swap for another 1/2 lb of pale malt. Brown sugar not really necessary but it will make it a touch drier, and stronger still
A wee bit of hop overkill, you could knock back some of the 15 min. hops. but not too far back

I would aim for 66C to 67C and remember you have a lot of grain there and it could be tight in the mash tun which will make a stiff mash with a lower ratio of liquor to grain so the liquor will need to be a degree or two hotter to compensate.

Very nice
JP

[raiderman]

Despite what Stella say maize isn't necessary. If you can still get hold of Colt .45 try it and and find out why! As with the sugar its just cheap alcohol without any real impact. In those quantities they won't really affect flavour. You could add some crystal to compensate for any colour loss from the sugar and to replace the flavour it may have been intended to give

For hops go for an equivalent EBU to the original in the first brew. I find I like my homebrews more bitter, but its best to work up over a series of brews to the level you prefer. Theres a thread elsewhere about beer engine, which is a gift from the brewing gods and is great for formulating and tweaking recpies or just getting bitterness right. If you down load it you can adjust the hop loading very easilly. I've cutnpasted the begining of the thread below.


Wheeler's Beer Engine
by Graham » Mon Nov 03, 2008 7:47 pm

I know it is always a mistake to allow unfinished software to get away from you, but I have not been able to spend much time on my infamous Beer Engine software lately, because I've been bogged down with other things.

However, if anyone wishes to play with the story so far, it can be downloaded here:
http://www.practicalbrewing.co.uk/BeerEngineSetUp.exe

It is an exe, so you will have to trust me, and there is 4 megabyte of it. It will bring up a standard installation screen. It does not mess unnecessarily with the registry and it uninstalls cleanly.

[dean_wales]

Thank you for the flurry of very useful replies. There is a lot of knowledge round here.

The flaked maize was in most of the reciepes I saw. I have it now so will kind of have to use it now even though i am not sure what exactly it does? I think it is there to boost the sugar gravity/alcohol content?

The dark brown sugar was added after seeing it mentioned elsewhere again. This is open to change. Would this be a good way of adding the deep reddy brown colouring that is typical of ESB?

What percentage would you guys expect that reciepe to turn out at? Based on moderate efficiency of course. I would like it around the 6 percent abv.

Hops wise it doesnt seem that much to me. I have done 5galls before and put 4oz thinking that was the correct amount! I do like high gravity full bodied beer with a good hop bite. But in this case i am aiming to match ESB in taste as close as possible.

Many thanks for mashing temps. Im also curious as to whether i should be pH adjusting my water? I always allow the chlorine to evaporate overnight though.

Thanks again in advance.

Dean.

[dave-o]

I have it now so will kind of have to use it now even though i am not sure what exactly it does? I think it is there to boost the sugar gravity/alcohol content?

I would recommend saving it for another brew. Maize tends to be used in light beers and lager. ESB is a "real man's" beer and it'd be better to use pale malt.

The dark brown sugar was added after seeing it mentioned elsewhere again. This is open to change. Would this be a good way of adding the deep reddy brown colouring that is typical of ESB?

Adding sugar is a bit "dirty". I'd use a small quantity of black malt - perhaps 50-75g? Gravy browning can also be apparently used, and this is not actually as wierd as it may sound!

Hops wise it doesnt seem that much to me. I have done 5galls before and put 4oz thinking that was the correct amount!

That doesn't actually mean anything, as it is all about the AA value of the hop. You could put in one ounce of Green Bullet and it would be more bitter than 4 ounces of Hallertauer H!

IMO you really need some brewing software if you want to hit specific gravities and IBUs with complex recipes.

[Brotherton Lad]

'Adding sugar is a bit "dirty". I'd use a small quantity of black malt - perhaps 50-75g? Gravy browning can also be apparently used, and this is not actually as wierd as it may sound!'

Gravy browning, in it's simplest form, is just caramelised sugar thickened up with a bit of starch.

[dave-o]

...which is essentially the same thing Fuller's use to add colour to to some of their beers, right?

Hence why i said it's not as weird as it sounds.