80/-

[Good Ed]

I'm planning on doing my first Scottish brew, an 80/- , Edinburgh Gold Tankard, from John Alexander's book.

I usually get my malt from the MM, and will Maris Otter be ok, or should I try and source some Scottish malt? or alter the recipe? also I'm going to be using the Scottish Borders yeast from Brewlab and I read somewhere to ferment Scottish ales at lower temperatures, is this correct?

Thanks in advance :thumb:

 

[phettebs]

I use Golden Promise on mine and ferment as low as I can get the ale yeast to go. I follow fermentation with a period of cold conditioning in secondary. It works well for me. Also, I mash at a higher temp for a more dextrinous wort.

 

[Good Ed]

Thanks Baz :thumb: , I'll do a bit of research on the malt

 

[BigYin]

Interesting thought on the malt, but I've never really contemplated that - I've bought malt locally, in Edinburgh (although never really queried where the shop was buying the malt), and I've bought malt from a few different online retailers, based in England, and am currently of the opinion that malt is malt - the only variations being the skills of the various maltsters.... and they supply all across the country...

 

[phettebs]

I notice a difference in the flavour between Golden Promise and Maris Otter but I don't notice a big difference between the various Maris Otters I've tried.

There is a HUGE difference in American 2 row and UK malts. IMO, the UK malts have a much richer flavour in the resulting beer. It's fine to use the 2 row if you have a massive hop presence or many adjunct malts. But if I did the same beer with the same hops and yeast but one using 2 row and one using MO, the MO based beer would win hands down for me. Just my opinion though.

Baz