John's House ESB: First attempt.

When I brewed my Kentucky Common, I was struck that, if I tweeked the recipe a bit, and changed the yeast / fermenting temperature, I might have the start of a nice house bitter of some kind. So, I played around with the grist in Brewer's Friend, and came up with the following. The main changes were the switch from Vienna to Munich, dropping the block malt, and using dark as well as normal crystal malt. I also dropped the maize. So, the result was;

Title: John's House ESB
Brew Method: All Grain
Style Name: Strong Bitter
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 20 liters (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 26.4 liters
Boil Gravity: 1.041
Efficiency: 70% (brew house)
STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.055
Final Gravity: 1.013
ABV (standard): 5.4%
IBU (tinseth): 49.1
SRM (morey): 12.67
FERMENTABLES:
4 kg - United Kingdom - Maris Otter Pale (80%)
0.5 kg - German - Munich Light (10%)
200 g - United Kingdom - Crystal 60L (4%)
100 g - Flaked Barley (2%)
200 g - United Kingdom - Extra Dark Crystal 120L (4%)
HOPS:
20 g - Challenger, Type: Pellet, AA: 8.5, Use: Boil for 60 min, IBU: 23.3
25 g - Challenger, Type: Pellet, AA: 8.5, Use: Boil for 30 min, IBU: 22.39
25 g - East Kent Goldings, Type: Pellet, AA: 5, Use: Boil for 5 min, IBU: 3.42
MASH GUIDELINES:
1) Infusion, Temp: 68 C, Time: 90 min, Amount: 15 L
2) Sparge, Temp: 72 C, Time: 15 min, Amount: 18.4 L
Starting Mash Thickness: 3 L/kg
YEAST:
Mangrove Jack - Liberty Bell Ale M36
Fermentation Temp: 22.5 degrees.

All went well, and I ended up with exactly 20L in the FV  at exactly 1055. I managed to get the wort down to the low 30's with the immersion chiller, then sat it in the fermenting fridge to cool it the rest of the way. Yeast sprinkled on the foam on top of the wort at around 28, by which time it was cooling rapidly so by the time it will have rehydrated it was down near 23. It's now sat at 22.5 +/- 0.5 on the inkbird. Fermenting away already, which isn't unusual for this yeast.

If this turns out ok, I'll start playing with different yeasts and making the odd small change until I have a house bitter I'm happy with. Updates to follow!