Because I was asked to post this recipe here it is.
Traquair house Clone (All Grain) 11 US Gallons [ Back to the Main Recipe Page ] [ Back to the Scottish Ale recipe Page ] This Homebrew Recipe was added by Skotrat on November 12, 1997 at 19:50:39: (Please contact them if you have questions about the Recipe) Brewing Method: All Grain Yeast: Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale Yeast Starter: 1/2 US gallon at High Krausen Batch Size: 11 US Gallons Original Gravity: 1.085 Final Gravity: 1.020 Alcohol Content: 8.64 % Total Grains: 32.79 US Pounds Color: 12-22 (depending on carmelization) Extract Efficiency: 75 % Hop IBU’s: 28.6 Boiling Time: 2 hours Primary Fermentation: 10 days @ 62f Secondary Fermentation: 10 days @ 58f Additional Fermentation: 2 months in brite tanks @ 45f Grain Bill: 32.48 lb. Scottish Malting GOLDEN PROMISE PALE ALE 2 ROW (99%) .31 lb. Roast Barley (1%) Hop Bill: 1.57 oz. N. BREWER 6.9% 45 min 1.57 oz. N. BREWER 6.9% 35 min Mash Schedule: Single Step Mash: 90 minutes @ 154 10 minutes @ 168 Brewers Notes: Yeast: WYEAST Scottish Ale 1728 Scottish Ale Rich, smokey, peaty character ideally suited for scottish style ales, smoked beers and high gravity ales. Flocculation - high; apparent attenuation - 69-73%. (55-70�F) Notes: Remove two gallons of first runnings and Caramelize it (boil down to about 1 pint and add back to boil). This will give the richer taste that you find in this fine beer. Collect 15 gallons of Run-off and boil down to your 10 1/2 gallon target (the other 1/2 gallon will come from the 1/2 gallon starter of yeast slurry that you have made in advance). Add 2-3 teaspoons of Irish Moss into the boil just because. Traquair is the finest of all Scottish Ales. Their recipe is pretty easy and straight forward. 99% Pale Ale Malt, 1% Roasted Barley and 25-37 IBU’s. I have found this to be the common thread for this brew after reviewing about 30-40 recipes from Homebrewers that have cloned this brew. About 1/2 of the recipes claimed that Traquair uses East Kent Goldings as the hop and the Other claim that Northern Brewer is the Hop. I chose Northern Brewer because I am very fond of them as base hops. I hope you like the recipe and if you brew it please let me know how it turned out and any changes that you have made.
Thanks, Scott! That is one of my all time favorite recipes. I use it as the base of my Wee Shroomy (chanterelle mushrooms added) and will be serving it at NHC next year.
The clone recipe in BYO is a bit different, not sure if it’d make a huge deal:
OG = 1.075; FG = 1.019; IBU = 35; SRM = 13+; ABV = 7.2%
15 lbs/6.8kg pale malt
0.25 lb/110 g roasted barley 300*L
6 AAU Kent Goldings @ 90 mins = 1.5 oz/42g @ 4.4% α-acids
5 AAU Kent Goldings @ 30 mins = 1.25 oz/35g @ 4% α-acids
Wyeast 1728 @ 2.25qt/2.25L starter
0.75 cups corn sugar for priming
Heat 19 qts water to 163 F / 73 C; crush grains; mash in.
Hold at 152 F / 67 C for 60 minutes.
Put first gallon into heavy pot and boil it hard for 30 minutes, stirring often.
Collect a further 7 gallons of wort and start the boil, which will last about 2 hours.
When you have 6.5 gallons of wort and ±90 min left in the boil, add caramelized wort and first hop addition. Add remaining hops @ 30 mins. Cool to 68 F, aerate & pitch. Primary @ 8-10 days at 65 F, transfer to secondary and condition at 50 F for two weeks. Age in bottle for 8-10 weeks.
I completely agree that you deserved a mention, Scott. The boil down technique you came up with for that recipe not only makes the beer what it is, but a lot of homebrewers have adopted it for other beers. So, I’ll just say it here…THANK YOU for all you’ve done!
Skotrat, I was at an event last night and strangely enough the owner of Traquair, Lady Catherine Maxwell Stewart! Also her French exporter. Here’s proof - we’re drinking Jacobite ale in this one:
I mentioned to her your method of boiling down a bit of wort to get the coloring and she said “That’s a brillant idea! It still won’t get you the same results as us because we barrel age, but it’s a very neat trick.”
And here’s a youtube video I took of her explaining the brewery, etc. There’s a lot of background talking because only about 20% of the people there spoke English, and at this point people were starting to get fairly well soused.
That is amazing. I simply must get to the Castle and brewery at some point.
Interestingly enough in the early 90’s it was one of the Traq brewers that lead me down the path to the boil down method as a possibility. They were also the reason that I bought some oak casks.
Traq’s carmelization most definitely comes from their copper boiling kettle and not from their wooden fermenters. The wooden casks definitely add some flavor but I fail to see how wood carmelizes fermenting beer
I thought Traquair used old barrels wouldn’t yield much of much into the beer anyway. But yeah, a fresh barrel would also leech trehalose and other bits in that might enhance it.
