I carbonated the ESB last week and wanted to follow up again. I sampled it yesterday. It turned well. Not much in the way of hops, but a lot of malt aroma.
It has way more body and malt flavor than the beers I've been drinking. I just finished off several kegs of pale ale that I made in September (which made room in the keezer for the ESB). This beer is really different from those PAs, which were thin and quite hoppy.
I've never been a fan of really malty beers. Still, this ESB is quite drinkable. It has a nice deep copper color. I think I'll make this again, but cut the Crystal 60 and Carapils in half, and add slightly more bittering hops. Something more along the lines of the recipe below. Perhaps as a cask ale for a Super Bowl Party!
Batch size: 5.25
70 min boil
Grain:
Maris Otter 8.5 lbs
Amber 1.0 lbs
Crystal 60 0.50 lbs
Carapils 0.25 lbs
Hops
Sonnet Golding 1.5 oz 4.1% 60 min
Tettnanger 1 oz 5.3% 20 min
Sonnet Golding 1 oz 4.1% 5 min
60 min mash at 154 F
WLP002 1.2 Liter starter