Comments on the Fullers ESB Show

[Elbone]

Two things:

1. Are we sure the Crystal 150 the brewer refers to is 150 ECB? He never specifies in the interview and Chad uses Crystal 80L and misses the color by an apparently large margin. In another part of the interview the brewer states that he can never seem to remember ECB, does this mean he is more accustomed to and more likely to use Lovibond? In any case, I cannot make the color work out (targeting 13L from 32 ECB) in my brewing software with Crystal 80L but I can with Crystal 150L. Is it possible they're using the Simpson's Extra Dark Crystal in the ESB?

2. Either the recipe has changed recently (since 2005) or we're not getting the whole story. The head brewer at Fullers states in this article that the recipe for ESB is "91.5% pale ale malt (optic barley variety), 3.5% crystal malt and 5% flaked maize" I'm not suggesting subterfuge but did want to point it out.

[Hoppocrates]

I emailed Fuller's and the brewer confirmed that they use C75, which is C150 in EBC. i.e. Get the Simpson's Dark Crystal:

http://www.brewmasterswarehouse.com/pro ... rk-crystal

[TimmyR]

Regarding the Crystal 150 or Crystal 80. It sounded like the the recipe called for Crystal 150 (150 degrees lovibond). It seemed like when they started discussing EBC versus lovibond they began to reference the ingredients or grains but I am not sure they meant to say the recipe calls for Crystal 80.

It probably needs to be clarified.

[Hoppocrates]

I clarified it just before your post =D

[TimmyR]

I clarified it just before your post =D

I swear your reply was not there when I posted....ironic my avatar is from my Fuller's tour. Planning to brew the ESB and maybe the Pride near the end of the summer if I can. I'd love to parti-gyle it off of my 10-gal system into two batches.

[Dirk McLargeHuge]

Is there an echo in here?

[ncarmich]

Did they brew the clone as a Parti-gyle? I didn't get that from the podcast. That may account for the difference. This beer should only be the first runnings, which might give is a little more color.

[Jimmeh]

It wasn't cloned because they didn't use most of the same ingredients! I'm not sure why they even bothered until they could get the correct ingredients.