Ralph's Old Time 90 Shilling Ale

Beer Recipes
1

I read a while back that Scottish ales were originally brewed by taking a part of the first runnings and boiling them down to caramelize them. This was done instead of using caramel malt and black roasted malt for the caramel flavor and color. So I gave it a try. I used Marris Otter, I took 1 gallon of the first runnings and boiled it hard for 45 minutes. I could smell the caramel and the stuff looked like maple syrup. I then threw an ounce of fuggle hops in and took the rest of my runnings. The stuff didn’t darken up as much as I had hoped but looking at a picture of my hydrometer sample next to the glass in beersmith adjusted to minimum color I think this beer is still within style. And wow can I taste the caramel. It is nice.

screenshot of 9 RSM which is minimum for the style

My hydrometer sample.
Does this look like it is minimum color for the style? I was contemplating steeping a couple ounces of black roasted barley in a cup of water, bringing it to a boil, putting it in my keg and racking on top of it to get the color. Though I am not entering any contests so it really doesn’t matter as long as I like the beer.

The recipe was 9 pounds of Marris Otter
1 oz fuggles
S 04 yeast.
FWH with the ounce of Fuggles and boiled for an hour
boiled 1 gallon of first runnings for 45 minutes added the rest along with the hops

2

That’s the way to go. I add a couple ounces of black patent or carafa for color but other than that it’s more of less what I do

Hard to say on the color but I wouldn’t wort about that especially if I wasn’t entering it.

3

AFAIK, they weren’t originally brewed like that.  As far as I can tell, it’s a recent technique.  If anyone has evidence to the contrary, I’d love to hear it.

4

I remember a thread where Phil Lamb was talking with some high and mighty at traquair house and she would neither confirm nor deny the first runnings thing. Second or third hand and even if they do now there is no saying the DID then.

5

Unfortunately I don’t remember where I read about this. It has been a couple of years. I had always wanted to try it since then and just now finally did.

6

The way I always heard was that the boiling down technique was a homebrew method of recreating the caramelized flavor of Scottish ales. It was supposed to be equivalent to when the brewers used to super heat the copper kettles before adding the extract, and the sugars would caramelize before being dissolved back into the beer as more wort was added.