I’ve got a few ounces of extra Target hops and was thinking of brewing up an ESB. I know most ESB recipes use East Kent Goldings. Would substituting in Target hops work? My concern is that the Targets have approximately double the AAs as the EKGs so it will end up hoppier, more rough around the edges, and won’t be as balanced.
Just adjust your additions to meet the required ibu 's to meet the style. Should be fine. If you want to use them all, then maybe make a pale ale or something more bitter.
Here’s the recipe I was thinking of using:
5 gallon batch / 2.5 gallon boil
6.9 lbs Light/Pale Liquid Malt Extract
1.0 lbs Crystal 15L
.5 lbs Crystal 120L
60 min - 1.5 oz Target pellets
1 min - .5 Target pellets
Wyeast London ESB Ale (1968)
OG = 1.055
FG = 1.017
5.1% ABV
Color = 12° SRM
Bitterness = 37.4 IBU
The only area outside of style guidelines is FG (should be < 1.016) which I’m fine with, but I’m definitely open to any suggestions or tweaks if anyone has them.
Target is used for bittering in many Bitters. It’ll be good. It’s not used for flavor or aroma as much but it will work for that too.
My next brew planned is a ordinary bitter using target to bitter and finishing off with WGV.
This recipe was initially done to clear out the miscellaneous quantities of ingredients/hops I have in the pantry so it’s a little off of “traditional” style. I think I may add some EKG hops at 30 mins (0.5 oz) and 10 mins (0.5 oz) to help with the flavor and aroma profiles though. IBUs will be bumped up to 43.7.
Target in the ESB will be fine.
After a few decades of brewing and often having to sub out ingredients (especially when ingredient availability was less consistent than it is these days), I can pretty much attest that you can usually sub out any hop with any other…just calculate your AAUs/IBUs accordingly based on the hops used/substituted.
Will there be differences? Sure there will …you may wind up with a similar bittering profile but sometimes with a different overall character, and other times, the differences will be negligible.
In any case, I will say that I’ve never “ruined” a batch of a favorite recipe just because I had to substitute hop varieties (even varieties with dramatically different AAUs than my preferred choice may have had). A few times, tasting the results even prompted a permanent switch.
Sometimes, different can actually be better (even for an old-fart-set-in-his-ways like me) :mrgreen:
Thanks for all the help, suggestions, and advice folks. Here’s the recipe I’m going to go with:
5 gallon batch / 2.5 gallon boil
6 lbs 10 oz Light/Pale Liquid Malt Extract
1 lbs Crystal 20L
.5 lbs Crystal 120L
.5 lbs Flaked Corn
1 oz black patent malt
60 min - 1.5 oz Target pellets
15 min - .5 Target pellets
5 min - .5 oz East Kent Goldings pellets
1 min - .5 oz East Kent Goldings pellets
Wyeast London ESB Ale (1968)
OG = 1.059
Est. FG = 1.018
5.5% ABV
Color = 15° SRM
Bitterness = 41.4 IBU
I played around with some ESB recipes using the same base, but adjustig the hop varieties. The first recipe, I bittered with 2 oz. of northdown and used 2 oz. of Bramling Cross for late additions. The next batch, I bittered with 2 oz. of First Gold and 2 oz. of Fuggles for late additions. I would agree that as long as you’re in your IBU range, you’ll be okay.
[quote=“Lawbadger”]Thanks for all the help, suggestions, and advice folks. Here’s the recipe I’m going to go with:
5 gallon batch / 2.5 gallon boil
6 lbs 10 oz Light/Pale Liquid Malt Extract
1 lbs Crystal 20L
.5 lbs Crystal 120L
.5 lbs Flaked Corn
1 oz black patent malt
60 min - 1.5 oz Target pellets
15 min - .5 Target pellets
5 min - .5 oz East Kent Goldings pellets
1 min - .5 oz East Kent Goldings pellets
Wyeast London ESB Ale (1968)
OG = 1.059
Est. FG = 1.018
5.5% ABV
Color = 15° SRM
Bitterness = 41.4 IBU[/quote]
That doesn’t look right. I use more like .8 or .9 oz Target pellets in my ESB for 35-37 IBUs. The AA on my targets are usually in the 10% range.
I actually caught that too Wahoo. I was using Hopville for my calculations and their Target hop default is 13% AA whereas mine were actually 10.7% AA. After reconfiguring my recipe and playing around with hop and late boil extract additions, I’m coming out at about 42.8 IBUs.
Thanks for everyone’s help.
