Drakelow Cellars Extra Special Bitter

This beer is a British Extra Special Bitter made in the traditional style with Burton on Trent water chemistry and a Burton Ale/Thames Valley yeast strain. The beer is a rich red color with a white head, and a nice hop character and a slight bite of hops up front from the high sulfate content. There is a nice malt sweetness with a little bit of nutty flavor, followed by a good but not overpowering berry, apple and pear finish from the yeast esters. Then there is a lasting earthy hop flavor that lingers. It is not a modern commercial ESB clone. It is a complex mix of flavors and hops are not the dominant taste as in an IPA or some modern bitters. It is best left in the bottle or keg to age for several weeks post packaging.

Water adjusted to Burton on Trent:
6.12 grams gypsum
1.91 grams NaCl
1.01 grams Epsom salt

25 liters of water for mash
After mash in pH adjusted to 5.4 with about 15 ml of lactic acid

sparge with 3 liters of water at 55 degrees....

Preboil gravity = 45 Oe, 1.042 g/ml...volume was about 23-24 liters.


5 minutes before end of boil add 1/2 whirl floc tablet, 2.2 grams of yeast nutrient and 1 gram of ascorbic acid.

Post boil gravity = 57.5 Oe, 1.054 g /ml

Post boil volume = approx 20 liters, slightly under, but very close, adjusted to 20 L with water, adding about 1 liter.

starting gravity when it goes into the fermenter is

SG = 1.052 g /ml at room temp and final volume
Tilt reading at 65F was 1.055 g/ml

19L app into fermenter, leaving behind moss whirlpool.

Cool to 30C indicated on mash thermometer, transfer to glycol fermenter and bring to 64 degrees F.

Pitch one pack of White labs Burton Ale Yeast (new 7 billion cell pack) at 64 degrees. Alternative yeast Wyeast Thames Valley 1275. Expect a slow start for these yeast, with no krausen for 24-36 hours. (I've also used a mix of these two strains in the past with good result. They seem very similar in flavors and growth).

After 24 hours, raised temp on fermenter to 69 degrees and held. Roused yeast with a stir.

This yeast produces a lot of thick krausen, even with a low alcohol grain bill, so be prepared for a potential need for a blow off if you use smaller buckets or other vessels with low headroom.


Ferment at 69 degrees for 4-5 days until gravity is 95% (1.015 or so), then warm to 72 for 3 days to clean up any acetylaldehyde. It should finish around 1.011 g/ml.

Cool to 37 degrees to cold crash and gelatin fine for 72 hours hours, then bottle or keg and age at cellar temp for a long time. Best to age at a minimum of 2 weeks, and ideally 4 weeks before drinking. Cellar temps are fine for storage. If bottling, add an extra gram of ascorbic acid to the beer before packaging.


Revised recipe:

25 liter of starting water, 3 liter sparge of grain.

Used a 1.5L starter of Burton Ale Yeast from a White labs pack...3 days of culture for the pitch. 150 grams helles DME in 1.5 liters of water.

Fermentation straight away at 69 degrees F.

Lowered mash temp by 1 degree to 66 C.

Increased corn sugar by 100 grams to 350 grams total

SG of new recipe was 1.060, with a full 20 liters. In fermenter 2, glycol chilled to 69F. May 3.