The How My Averagely Perfect ESB Turned Out Thread

So, I'm about halfway through the keg, and gotta say I am enjoying this beer. It hits the notes that I was hoping for an ESB. It looks pretty, with an almost orange hue to it, which I tend to get with maris otter heavy grain builds, plus the darker caramels I'm sure. It has a slight haze to it, I actually thought it would drop clear, but I'm fine with that. The flavor is well balanced with that biscuity maris otter note backing up the caramel sweetness quite well. I can't say for sure which hop is more forward in the aroma/flavor but there is definitely a piney character with a hint of earthy oranges? Mossy oranges? Musty oranges? Something like that lol. The bitterness is right on for my tastes. Just enough to balance out the caramel but without leaving a lingering bitterness on the palate. Not much in the way of ester profile, though I have found the West Yorkshire to ferment cleaner than other English yeast strains, so not too surprising. I can pretty easily down 3-4 pints no problem.

 

Thought you guys might be interested to know that I submitted my version of this beer to NHC and it advanced to 2nd round. I had to make a couple slight modifications because my LHBS was out of some stuff. The changes were: 4% Muntons 150 (60L), 4% Dingemans Cara45, and I used extra invert sugar (about 6%). Everything else was the same.