One Gallon ESB Recipe
An Extra Special Bitter (ESB) is a classic English Ale that’s known for superb balance between sweet maltiness and earthy hops. The grain bill features a backbone of Maris Otter - a classic British Pale Ale malt known for its toasty malt flavors. I also use a little victory malt to add some toasty, nutty undertones and a little medium crystal malt to add color, caramel flavor and sweetness. I hop it with East Kent Goldings - a traditional variety prefect for classic British ale - that will some nice bitterness with just a hint of fruitiness. For yeast, White Lab’s English Ale Yeast (WLP002) seems perfect here - as per White Lab’s product description, “This genuinely classic ale strain originated from one of England's largest breweries. It has a rich, malty flavor with lots of good fruity esters. Use it in any beer in which you want a distinct malt flavor to come through.”
Ingredients
Grain Bill
Maris Otter - 26 oz (90%)
Victory Malt - 2 oz (7%)
Caramel Malt 60L - 1 oz (3%)
Hops
East Kent Goldings - 12 g
Yeast
White Labs English Ale Yeast (WLP002) - 1 package
Instructions
Click here to review full instructions for your brew day
Heat 0.8 gallons of water to 170 degrees F. Add grains and mash at 150-155 degrees F for 60 minutes. During the last 10 minutes of mashing, fill a second pot with 1 gallon of water and heat to 170 degrees.
After 60 minutes, heat the mash up to 170 degrees F and hold for 10 minutes. Strain the mash into a large container. Sparge the grain in the strainer with the 170 degree water until you collect about 5 quarts of wort.
Bring wort to a boil and add your first hop addition - 3 grams of East Kent Goldings. Boil for 60 minutes. Add the remaining 3 g of hops at flameout (when you turn off the heat at the end of the boil)
After boiling, cool the wort down to about 70 degrees. Pitch your yeast and let ferment at 65-70 degrees for three days with a blow-off tube. After three days (the bubbling should have subsided by now), replace the blow-off tube with an airlock and let it sit in the carboy for another 11 days (14 total days ).
Bottle or Keg and enjoy!
Optional - Water Chemistry Adjustments
Total water needed for this recipe is 1.8 gallons. To start, I measure that out into one pot and then dissolve in half of a Campden tablet and let that sit for 15 minutes
After that, I add in the following to the water:
Gypsum - 0.9 grams
Calcium Chloride - 3.4 grams
Epsom Salt - 1.6 grams
My resulting water profile looks like this:
Please note: These results are unique to my specific water profile.
After making these adjustments, then I split my water into two pots - 0.8 gallons to be used for mashing and 1 gallon to be used as sparge water.
The only other addition was about 0.25 ml of Lactic Acid added after the first 15 minutes of mashing to lower the pH to 5.45