Recipe Advice...!

[Jabhead]

Started dabbling with recipes to try to come up with some of my own original brews. Would love people's thoughts on this. Aiming for a balanced beer with a mix of chocolate/caramel/biscuity flavours.

Wondering what people thought of the balance below? I'm wondering if it should be a bit more bitter to balance out the sweeter malt flavours? I guess I'll only know once I try...


Type
All Grain
Efficiency
70.0%
Batch size
5.0 gal
Boil time
90 min
Fermentables


Maris Otter Pale Ale Malt 4.0 kg 75 %
Biscuit Malt 400.0 g 7 %
Crystal 65 350.0 g 6 %
CARAAMBER® 350.0 g 6 %
Chocolate Malt 200.0 g 3 %
Hops

NAME AMOUNT TIME USE FORM AA
First Gold Great Britain 20.0 g 90 min Boil Pellet 7.5%
First Gold Great Britain 10.0 g 15 min Boil Pellet 7.5%
Fuggle Great Britain 20.0 g 15 min Boil Pellet 4.8%
Fuggle Great Britain 20.0 g 5 min Boil Pellet 4.8%

Nottingham Ale Yeast

Predicted Stats

1.058 OG 1.013 FG 32 IBU 5.9% ABV 26 SRM 0.55 IBU/OG

[seymour]

Go for it! It all depends on what official style, if any, you're going for. But it looks like a nice strong, complex, malty ESB type thing to me.

I'd say 32 IBU is pretty good. You're right, you could go a little higher if you want. By comparison: Adnams Broadside is 33, Black Sheep Riggwelter is 39, Castle Eden Winter Royal is 36, Dartmoor Jail Ale is 30, Fullers ESB is 35.

I think it would be even better with a more distinctive English ale yeast.

Happy brewing!
-Seymour

[Matt12398]

I think creating your own recipes is one of the best ways to learn so well done.

I used 200 g of buscuit malt in a bitter and it was intense to the point that I didn't like it and it took a while to mellow out. I personally think 400 g is a lot but you could see what it comes out like.

Agree with Seymour. Nottingham is bland bland bland although he is more polite about it.

I use Ray Daniel's guide for IBU to OG ratio to give myself an idea and if we were to call this an ESB he suggests 0.73.