Scottish Wee Heavy

Beer Recipes
1

I don’t typically go for big beers. But I love a good Wee Heavy. I few years ago I brewed the Northern Brewer extract one and it came out great. Tasted just like the one The Great Divide brews. Now I am developing a recipe for an all grain one. I thought about even using the original method of taking a gallon of the first runnings, boiling it down to half a gallon before adding the rest of the runnings to carmelize it and add the color. But then I decided to just use caramel grain and black patent to get the sweetness and color. In my recipe below I listed a package of S04 for the yeast. But what I am really going to do is drop the yeast out from under the amber ale I am currently doing and dump that into my wee heavy.

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Recipe: Wee Heavy
Brewer: Roger
Asst Brewer: Ralph the Wonderdog
Style: Strong Scotch Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications

Boil Size: 5.70 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.20 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal 
Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.086 SG
Estimated Color: 16.0 SRM
Estimated IBU: 24.8 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 72.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:

Amt                  Name                                    Type          #        %/IBU       
15 lbs                Maris Otter (Crisp) (4.0 SRM)            Grain        1        94.5 %       
8.0 oz                Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM)    Grain        2        3.1 %       
4.0 oz                Victory Malt (25.0 SRM)                  Grain        3        1.6 %       
2.0 oz                Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM)          Grain        4        0.8 %       
1.00 oz              Sterling [7.50 %] - First Wort 60.0 min  Hop          5        24.8 IBUs   
1.0 pkg              SafAle English Ale (DCL/Fermentis #S-04) Yeast        6        -

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 15 lbs 14.0 oz

Name              Description                            Step Temperat Step Time   
Mash In          Add 20.84 qt of water at 167.5 F        152.0 F      60 min

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun , 2.98gal) of 168.0 F water
Notes:

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2

Looks good. Caramel malt will not give you the flavor profile of caramelizing the first runnings, but it will still result in a good beer. You might also want to add a bit of honey malt if you want to come closer to that caramelized runnings flavor. I also think if you’re already using 15lbs of Maris Otter, then I don’t think there is much need for the Victory.

And I think S-04 is a solid choice for a Wee Heavy if you don’t have a big pitch of Scottish Ale yeast ready to go.

3

Way too complicated.  Use Skotrat’s Traquair House recipe, found here…Site Not Found .  There is not a better wee heavy homebrew recipe around.

4

+1.  Not even a close one.

5

I was just throwing the victory in there because I am sitting on 4oz of it. I guess I will save it for another beer.

6

What’s up with the mushrooms in that recipe?

7

Leave them out, and it is a wee heavy. Put them in and it is Denny’s beer.

8

Unless I buy another 5 pounds of Marris Otter I will be just using 15lbs, according to that recipe Denny pointed to all I need to do is toss in a couple ounces of Black Patent and I am good to go. I do have plenty of 2 row on hand I suppose I could use that to make up the difference?

9

They make an incredibly delicious beer!  Of course, leave them out for a “normal” wee heavy.

10

What to sub for roasted barley? I have black patent and chocolate and carafa II special and pale chocolate

11

There is so little of it in there that I doubt you get any flavor from it. It is there for color I think. Any of those would probably work.

12

Chocolate malt is probably the closest in terms of flavor and color.

13

I’d go for the carafa.

BTW, the one I made last week is giving me blowoff with 1728 at 52F!

14

OK this was the recipe I brewed yesterday. I would have prefered kent goldings for the hops but I didn’t have any on hand. I think Sterling is a nice “neutral” hop for general purpose use as a bittering hop. Just my opinion.

BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Ralph’s Lift Your Leg and Wee Heavy
Brewer: Roger
Asst Brewer: Ralph the Wonderdog
Style: Strong Scotch Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications

Boil Size: 5.70 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.20 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal 
Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.085 SG
Estimated Color: 16.5 SRM
Estimated IBU: 20.1 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 72.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:

Amt                  Name                                    Type          #        %/IBU       
15 lbs                Maris Otter (Crisp) (4.0 SRM)            Grain        1        95.6 %       
8.0 oz                Honey Malt (25.0 SRM)                    Grain        2        3.2 %       
3.0 oz                Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM)          Grain        3        1.2 %       
0.70 oz              Sterling [8.60 %] - First Wort 60.0 min  Hop          4        20.1 IBUs   
1.0 pkg              SafAle English Ale (DCL/Fermentis #S-04) Yeast        5        -

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 15 lbs 11.0 oz

Name              Description                            Step Temperat Step Time   
Mash In          Add 20.61 qt of water at 167.5 F        152.0 F      60 min

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun , 2.97gal) of 168.0 F water
Notes: