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London Pub Ale (Extra Special Bitter Ale) - 5 Gal All Grain Kit
London Pub Ale (Extra Special Bitter Ale) - 5 Gal All Grain Kit
 
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Our Price: $26.40

Quantity in Stock:15

Product Code: AGKIT_ESB


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Description
 
ESB, otherwise known as a strong bitter is a distinctly English beer. You can grab a pint of this in any pub in London for instance. The name "strong bitter" is a little misleading because it's only about 5% ABV but it's the strongest version of this particular style. It's also not particularly bitter in the range of beer styles out there but it was definitely more assertive in hops than the common regional Porters.

Bottom line, this is highly drinkable beer with a moderate malt and hop flavor along with the fruity ester character that comes from English yeast fermented at "room temp".


This kit includes all imported British malts and hops. We list all the acceptable yeast options as accessories on the right. One pack of OMEGA, Whitelabs, or dry varieties will be fine. Note that the batches of this recipe that have won awards used the Omega liquid yeast and we confirmed in side by side testing that the Nottingham dry yeast option usually dries out leaving less malt character. It's not a bad beer, but the Omega strain is subjectively better.

For emphasis: This kit does not include yeast, priming sugar or bottle caps, they must be selected from the accessories list on the right.

Assuming 70% efficiency into the boil kettle:
Est Original Gravity: 1.055 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5 %
Bitterness: 32 IBUs
Est Color: 11 SRM
Mash at 152F


Acceptable modifications to this recipe:
  • Add one extra pound of Maris Otter malt to boost ABV by .5%

Accessories
Priming Sugar Corn Sugar Dextrose 5 oz Omega Yeast Extra Special - formerly British Ale VIII (OYL-016) (compares to WLP-002 or WY1968) 150ml Liquid Slurry* Lallemand Nottingham Dry Yeast 11 g
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Priming Sugar Corn Sugar Dextrose 5 oz Omega Yeast Extra Special - formerly British Ale VIII (OYL-016) (compares to WLP-002 or WY1968) 150ml Liquid Slurry* Lallemand Nottingham Dry Yeast 11 g

Average Rating: Average Rating: 3 of 5 3 of 5 Total Reviews: 2 Click Here to Write a Review »

  0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 
1 of 5 Malt flavor extremely low. No hop flavor...Bland April 6, 2026
Reviewer: Chip from Mass  
Very disappointed in this kit. There is essentially little to no malt flavor and hardly any hop flavor at all. BJCP guidelines of "medium to medium high bitterness" this has none of that with the included EKG hops. With regards to malt flavor guidelines BJCP states "bready, biscuity, nutty, or lightly toasty, and optionally has a moderately low to moderate caramel or toffee flavor". Again, not picking up on any of that. No flavor at all. I'm an experienced home brewer using stainless hop conical and zero O2 exposure, but have not brewed an ESB before but this recipe is as basic as it gets. And my local brewpub specializes in ESB and I used to drink it in Scotland so I know the style. This isn't even close. Not sure why. I used Nottingham for a clean profile with a slightly fruity ester. After the fact I made a hop juice and added which helped a bit, but wouldn't buy this kit again. Maybe the malt ingredients weren't fresh is my best guest? Too bad. Likely the first batch I'll dump.

BrewHardware.com response: I've engaged with the customer to try to figure out how it went wrong. Definitely fresh ingredients. We turn over grain easily a year before its BBD. The hops in this case were 2024 (2025 Nobles are not shipping at the time of this writing but they will be changing over soon). I personally brew out of this ingredient inventory and would never sell perishable ingredients that I wouldn't use myself. It is true that the recipe is basic, as ESB generally is. It has Crisp Floor Malted Maris Otter, Simpson's Crystal Malt, and Briess Special Roast. the only speculation is that I really prefer the Omega Fuller's strain on this and we list Nottingham as the next best if dry yeast is desired. I just don't have experience with that exacts yeast in this recipe. Knowing that it attenuates more means it could have gotten thinned out too much. The customer suggested I could delete this review but if one star is the experience, that's going to stand here.

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  0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 
5 of 5 Great beer September 20, 2025
Reviewer: Scott from Maine  
This is a great beer. Everyone loved it

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