7 Grain ESB

[mashani]

I'm brewing this later. 2.5 gallon target.

This is only "advanced" because it has the last of my "wit juice" that I step mashed and froze in it.

So that would be about this by quantity in this beer if not pre-made:

4oz White Wheat
2oz 6 Row
2oz Flaked Rye
2oz Flaked Oats
2oz Flaked Barley

Why is it in this beer? Because I had it. And there is a history of lots of adjunct grains being used in English beers during the wars. So it's not totally whacked as a concept.

To be added to that:

1/2# Simpsons Medium Crystal (steeped)
3# Maris Otter LME (MoreBeer)
- During the wars this would have likely been more 6 row from 'Merica, and more flaked grains with only a little bit of continental malt if they had any.
- But I am not at war and poor, and I like my Maris Otter.

Hops:

1/3oz Magnum @60 (12.6%)
1/2oz Kent Goldings @20
1/2oz Willamette @20
1/2oz Kent Goldings @Flameout
1/2oz Willamette @Flameout

And I'm using WLP013 in it. (London Ale)

I'll update later with how it went, OG, etc.

EDIT: No issues, except I overshot my volume a bit. OG 1.059. Ended up with closer to 2.6 gallons. That's fine, it's actually in spec for style, where recipe was potentially slightly out of spec gravity wise.

So IBUs should be 45ish. Or so. SRM should be 13ish. Or so.

I pitched the yeast @70. My intent is to keep it around 68-70. I want the oak esters in the mix. I have a heating pad ready in case.

[Beer-lord]

Well this looks interesting!

[Whamolagan]

Most esbs have a lot going on. Kind of like a catch all for leftover grain

[mashani]

I figured it would cause no harm here and I wanted to use it up. I don't know that you will be able to pick any of that stuff out, it's mostly just going to add some mouthfeel and a touch of grainy sweetness that is different then the crystal/otter. The amount of rye is very small, it's just a tiny bit of background earthiness in everything I've used this in. That mix made really good beer in everything else I threw it in, so I figured it would work nicely here too.

Crystal is steeping now.

[mashani]

So I bottled this at 1.011. Where that level of attenuation came from, I dunno. I guess my Wit Juice is very highly fermentable, and/or that the Maris Otter extract is more fermentable then I thought. The wit juice part does make sense due to how I mashed it, and the only other stuff I used it in were Belgians and Saisons with lots of sugar and crazed yeasts, so those all ended up with really low gravity anyways, it just didn't occur to me that the Wit Juice was really also part of that.

Drank half my sample warm and half chilled down to about 50 - this will be good stuff if you like English beers. A little more bitter and dry then I intended due to that extra attenuation, seems closer to English IPA territory perception wise. But that's OK. This should age well, so I'll drink some young and keep some around for a while.

[Whamolagan]

I love me some ESB

[mashani]

So, I popped my trub bottle of this. It's very lightly carbed, which is intentional, as I carbed it even more lightly then I normally do British beers - more like a cask ale to try to counter the bitterness/extra attenuation, and let some more malt through to counter it.

And it worked. It's still bitter, but not so much apparently that it's wrong for the style. This tastes like something you could get out of a hand pulled from a barrel lugged up from a pubs basement. The slightly smoky/oaky vibe of the yeast is apparent, and blends nicely with the hops. If your into carb and head, there isn't much here because of how light I went. But if you like real English ale, then this is good beer.

[Whamolagan]

Let it sit for a good 6 to 8 weeks, There is a lot going on there, give it time to meld together, and I bet some of that bitterness will go away.