Scottish ale

[sven945]

Tomorrow's plan is to do a Scottish ale. I've made a 1 litre starter of WLP028 Edinburgh ale, which will be plenty of cells. I've got my grains milled.

2.5kg golden promise
30g roasted barley.

I'm aiming for about 12 litres, give or take (volume is my downfall. I kind of wing it and always end up, give or take, getting away with it. Even if I have to water down with boiled and cooled water at the end.

I plan to take about four litres of the initial mash water and put it in a wok to boil it right down while I do my sparging. I'm going to try and get it down to at least 1 litre, if not less than that. It depends how thick it gets and how scared I get (I've read lots of things saying boil it down MUCH more than feels right).

I'm going to bitter at the start of the boil with 25g goldings for about 23IBUs, and probably that'll be it.

Anyone ever done one like this before? Many recipes suggest a more complex grain bill, but I want to try and emulate that with caramelising the wort instead. It'll be an experiment anyway.

I'm aiming for 1.048 OG, but we'll see. I'll mash high, maybe 68º.

 

[wfr42]

I did quite a complex first stove top brew (and mashed to high) and ended up with "60/-"

Will be interested in caramelising the wort.

Enjoy the experiment!

 

[chthon]

There's no such thing as Scottish Ale.

 

[chthon]

http://www.lulu.com/shop/ronald-pattinson/scotland-vol-2/paperback/product-23090497.html

 

[sven945]

There's no such thing as Scottish Ale.

It's definitely going to be an ale, and I'll be brewing it in my flat in Edinburgh, so I'm not sure what else it'll be!

But slightly more seriously, I'm aiming for something like an 80/-, but I don't really know how much darker caramelising the wort will make it, so it could end up being anything really.

 

[MyQul]

There's no such thing as Scottish Ale.

@sven945 you'd better call your beer Scotch mist then :lol:

 

[sven945]

Och eye!

 

[sven945]

Well today I did this, whatever it is. It's cooling in the bath right now.

I boiled down 2 litres (I just took the grain bag out of the wort and drained it over a wok, then batch sparged through a colander over the pot). I boiled it down to less than a quarter, and it had the consistency of treacle before adding it back to the boil. There's a slight burned taste, but I hope that won't overpower things.

 

[chthon]

Let's just say that the Scots didn't brew beer with long boils, low fermentation temperature and not much hops. And certainly not by boiling treacle from wort. If they needed sugar or caramel, they bought it.

I suppose the name should really be 'Scottish beer as imagined by American homebrewers, in a time when there weren't many good sources, so we just write something that sounds good'-beer.

Won't say that you won't brew something decent, but it certainly is historically not Scottish. You know who did long boils? The Belgian and French farmers which are at the origin of saison-beers.

 

[sven945]

Well I suppose I've just brewed a Scottish Saison!

(I'm being slightly obtuse. I'm grateful for the historical perspective).