Scottish Heavy - a la Kevvy

[Kevin Falconer]

So I decided to get my Young's Scottish Heavy underway today. Only a kit so not much to worry about. Only my second brew, but the first was a success...

Rookie mistake... I assumed the process would be the same as the Coopers Dark I just did. Armed with my kg of brew enhancer, everything was underway when I glanced at the instructions and saw I needed 1.5kg of sugar for this one.

Now I have some priming brew sugar lying around so made use of this. Then in order to make up the difference I used some old demarara sugar I found in the back of the cupboard.

Not sure how this will turn out. But keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[LarryF]

That should be fine.

 

[Kevin Falconer]

OG 1.048. Instructions say FG should be 1.000 or 1.002. Hoping this goes well and will turn out 6-6.5%

 

[Kevin Falconer]

I'm looking to bottle my Scottish Heavy in a couple of weeks. Any thoughts about using finings? My Coopers Dark turned out fine without. Just wondered if finings might reduce secondary fermentation/carbonation.

 

[Clint]

That's a low fg for an ale......

 

[marshbrewer]

No need for finings with a kit, you'll be fine without.

 

[Kevin Falconer]

That's a low fg for an ale......

We'll see how she blows. 1 to 1.002 is what the instructions say.

 

[marshbrewer]

Fair enough - its a fair amount of simple sugars, so could ferment down quite low , but I still can't see it fermenting much below 1005/6. That would still give you the best part of 5.8% though!

Hope all goes well.

 

[Kevin Falconer]

Well, this has been quite underwhelming. My Scottish Heavy turned out a bit light. At 1.010 FG it will be at 5%. I don't mind that too much though. It looked really cloudy when I was bottling though, so wasn't sure it was going to be too good. Concerned the yeast was all dead I primed the bottles anyway but didn't expect much. A week later and the bottles are all clear and seem to have pressurised a bit so now I'm feeling a bit more confident. It'll have at least another two weeks bedore I try it, but now thinking that it might be OK

 

[Cwrw666]

Personally I would have thought 1010 would have been spot on for a kit like this. More proof that kit instructions are fairly unbelievable.

 

[Kevin Falconer]

Personally I would have thought 1010 would have been spot on for a kit like this. More proof that kit instructions are fairly unbelievable.

Agreed. With a little more investigation it sounds like that is standard. Considering it's about 79% apparent attenuation and most yeasties seem to work to 80% I guess the key will be higher OG to get a stronger brew. That was the philosophy behind the treacle stout I am now cooking.