Festive Wee Heavy

Beer Recipes
1

Peepz,

I’ll be brewing a wee heavy which is to be ready by September 18th.

The occasion is a ceilidh, celebrating the Scottish roots of Da Missus’ side of the family. Ages 4 till 94. Last year I brewed an 8% scotch which went down well, but was not festive enough to my taste. I’ll dig up the recipe as soon as I can.

I want it to be malty, bordering on chewy. Stately, but drinkable. Best case scenario, we’ll have thirsty octogenarians sitting in the sun all afternoon. Worst case they’ll be sitting inside bitching about the weather.
Either way, I want to keep them occupied with beer to keep them from continuously pinching the greatgrandchildren’s cheeks all afternoon.

Couple of choices I need to make, and for which I’d like your advice.

Firstly: a wee heavy or a wee heavy?
Former case would be something like an Old Chub style brew, OG around 1.100 and about 10% ABV. That should cover both “festive” and “stately”, as well as shut’m all up after a few rounds.

Latter case would a in the ballpark of Traquair House ale, OG around 1.080 and 7-8% ABV. Still far from sessionable, this would be more congruent with what most Belgians consider a normal festive beer. Plus, given the size restrictions of my rig, it’ll also mean more beer. 25 liters would make me very happy.

Grist would be (off the cuff)
80% Maris Otter
10% Munich
5% CaraMunich2
3% roasted barley
2% melanoidin

About a liter of the first runnings of this would be boiled separately to a thick syrup, to bring our the caramel, and then boiled together with the rest of the wort. 90’ boil, with about 20-30 IBU’s worth of EKG/Fuggles. Mostly early additions.

Ferment with Wyeast 1728 in a big beefy starter.

Advice and comments on the recipe would be much appreciated also :slight_smile:

I have some oak chips which I’ve infused with Arran whisky which I’d been meaning to add as a throwback to the clan’s geographic origins. That’s right you lot: if a plane crashed on the right crowd, I could end up as the next owner of Brodick Castle.
Any other Scottisch ingredients or techniques which may be relevant, I’d be glad to hear about them.

2

Way off…much too complex.  Golden Promise and an oz. of roasted barley for color are all you need.  Just leave out the mushrooms and this is pretty much the Traquair House recipe…Site Not Found .  Ferment at 55F with WY1728

3

I have yet to try this recipe and plan on doing it soon. I understand how grain bills can become over-muddled with too many malts in the way, yet almost every year the winning gold medal recipe for NHC is a Strong Scotch Ale with many malts.  Any thoughts on that?

4

Al I can say is try this recipe than see if you think you need more malts.

5

Good call. I will.

6

It depends on whether you want a good beer to drink or one that will score well in the NHC.

7

I would like both. But sure wouldn’t mind a national medal to hang on my bedpost… :wink:

8

Awww now you’ve gone’n’done it.
How can I resist a shroom beer?

9

Because it’s damn expensive if you have to but them!  I’m lucky in that I can pick my own.

10

Since the small amount of roast barley is for color would it make any problem to use caraffa, or midnight wheat, or Blackprinz?

11

Nope.  I’ve done swaps before.

12

Good to know as I sometimes have other dark grains on hand and if I can use something I already have it’s a money saver.

13

Brewed this today. Starter awaits first signs of life as the wort cools to ambient (I don’t trust my plate cooler at the moment). That caramelised reduced first wort is damn strong stuff!
Subbed EKG for Nothern Brewer and upped the theoretical IBUs a bit since my EKG is a mix from 2014-2015’s harvests. The resulting wort tasted promising.

14

Awesome!  Please keep us posted as it ages.

15

First update is not a happy one.
My Scottish Ale yeast never saw life. Smack did not bloat (that’s 3 out of three for me now) and the starter into which I pitched it (1040, shaken not stirred) is still as a puddle, with a thin layer of sediment which I hazard to be dead yeast. No way I’m pitching that into my wort.

Wort which, unfortunately has to see some yeast unless I’m willing to brew a sour caramelly whatever. Which I’m not.

So bugger all that. I pitched some second hand Westmalle yeast I still had lying about the place and which has recently been used in an experimental small batch.

Not a wee heavy then, but something else. A scottish monk of sorts. Suggestions as to the name of this revolutionary new beer style are welcome.

16

I only have my shelf to blame?

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17

My south-oriented black letterbox more likely.

18

Right, primary’s ongoing. Short of campden-bombing it, do I have any way to make WLP530 bail out before it reaches 80% attenuation?

19

I don’t think I’d want to. You’re essentially brewing a Belgian Dark Strong Ale at this point, so you might as well roll with it. I’d think that the fruity Belgian esters would make for a cloying beer if it is underattenuated. I’d go the opposite direction and make sure it attenuates as completely as possible.

20

Makes sense. It’s steadily puffing away at room temp. Precisely the opposite fermentation from the one I had in mind for the wee but we’ll see where this baby’s headed.