Thoughts on my strong bitter recipe?

I'm sure it will make a good beer, but the crystal malt and IBUs are a bit out of style if that's your question. I would back the crystal malts and hops down a bit and mash higher myself.

 

Not quite to style, as @kellyst said. But it could be a tasty beer. Still, that's a lot of crystal malt. But if you liked it in your American Amber, you might like it here too. (But it's still a lot of crystal.)

How's that for Good Cop/Bad Cop crystal policing?

 

Note that with 20% Crystal Malt and Wyeast 1968, this isn't likely to be even medium dry, in spite of 152F mash. Also, you didn't mention mash length, but longer will make it more fermentable (i.e. more dry).

 

I would go mid to upper 30s on IBUs for an ESB. Too bitter and the yeast profile won't shine.

 

The ibus are fine for a bitter of that strength, you coyld even go a touch higher if you want, but it's the vast amount of crystal that is the problem . I'd limit that to 10 % max for my taste

 

That amount of crystal reminds me of sarah huges ruby mild, which is a very good beer. If you cut the ibus to 30 or so and had little in the way of aroma hops it might be sort of like that. Not sure what bjcp category it would be in though if you wanted to enter it in competition

 

I applaud the effort at trying to duplicate your conversion and extraction, but 20% crystal malt seems like too much to me. I would consider diluting it down to a middle gravity bitter before the boil but retaining enough hops to keep the ibus up.

 

Yo dawg, you just got busted by the Caramel Police.

 

Would I make a beer with a grist like this? Probably not (again). But if you are stuck with it, then go for it. Your hops and hopping rate look fine. Any fewer IBUs and you will get something definitely on the malty side. My only advice is to mash long and low. I might even go for 2 hours on the mash just to break the starches down to the most fermentable state you can. Also, I'd make sure to pitch a healthy amount of yeast so as to finish as low as possible. Good luck!

 

@ghostinthemachine, since you are stuck with your grain bill, I would revise my advise. Ideally, if caramel malts were 10% or lower, I would mash between 154 and 157 and target 35-40 IBUs. With this high percentage of caramel malts, I would mash low and slow around 148 and bump my IBUs up around 45 to counter the residual sweetness.

I'm not sure of when you plan on making your hop additions, just keep in mind that hop flavor and aroma should be low compared to an APA. Like I mentioned before, it's a yeast showcase, but you do want some hop flavor and aroma. For British bitters/pales/esbs I usually dont ass hops after the 10 minutes left in the boil mark.

 

A lot of the perceptions of low hop aroma from bitters come from American interpretations from drinking aged bottles of imports where the hop character has faded. Ask anyone from England and they'll tell you there is plenty hop character in bitter.

 

My latest addition in a Bitter has been a 15 min steep at 160 post boil with First Gold and it came out awesome.