Finest ESB Recipe (25 L)

A malt-forward British ESB with Maris Otter, dark crystal malts, Challenger hops and classic English ale yeast.

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This ESB recipe combines a rich British malt bill with firm Challenger bitterness and S-04 yeast for a classic, malt-forward strong bitter.

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Glass of ESB beer against dark bakground
Finest

Finest ESB

A malt-forward British strong bitter with layered crystal malt, firm Challenger bitterness and classic English ale character.
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Batch: 25 L
Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients
  

Malt Bill
  • 5.5 kg Crisp Maris Otter 90.2%
  • 0.4 kg Crisp Crystal Dark 6.6%
  • 0.1 kg Thomas Fawcett Amber Malt 1.6%
  • 0.1 kg Crisp Crystal Extra Dark 1.6%
Hops
  • 50 g Challenger 7.5% AA · Boil · 60 min
  • 20 g Challenger 7.5% AA · Boil · 15 min
  • 20 g Challenger 7.5% AA · Dry Hop · 7 days
Yeast
  • 2 pkg Fermentis SafAle English Ale Dry · 15–20 °C
Water
  • 18.26 L Mash water
  • 16.5 L Sparge water

Equipment

  • Grainfather G30

Method
 

Mash
  1. Mash at 67 °C for 60 minutes.
  2. Mash out at 78 °C for 5 minutes.
  3. Sparge with 16.5 L of water. Target pre-boil volume is approximately 31.13 L.
Boil
  1. Boil for 60 minutes.
  2. At the start of the boil, add 50 g Challenger.
  3. With 15 minutes remaining, add 20 g Challenger.
Fermentation
  1. Primary at 19 °C for 14 days.
  2. Dry hop with 20 g Challenger for 7 days.

Notes

Brew Specs
  • Batch Size: 25 L
  • OG: 1.057
  • FG: 1.015
  • ABV: 5.5%
  • IBU: 41
  • Color: 24 EBC
  • Carbonation: 2 vol CO₂

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About This Recipe

Finest ESB is built around Maris Otter with small additions of dark crystal and amber malts for extra colour and malt depth. Challenger handles all the hopping, including a small dry hop, while S-04 keeps the fermentation firmly in the English ale camp.

Brewing Notes

I first brewed this as batch #27 in March 2024. The recipe targets an OG of 1.057 and 5.51% ABV, while this batch reached a measured OG of 1.050 and a recorded ABV of 4.9%.

Measured brewhouse efficiency was 59.79%, below the recipe target, while measured mash efficiency was 72.16%. The recipe card above keeps the original recipe targets rather than replacing them with results from this particular brew.

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