Scottish heavy

[DanST]

I'm quite curious about this style of beer as I tend to like the darker, less hoppy beers. I'm going to be starting BIAB brewing soon and the recipe in the Greg Hughes (? Its upstairs :p) book sounds interesting.

I was wondering if there are any easily available commercial heavies (?) I could try? Don't fancy flying the length of the country for a pint lol.

I'll probably end up knocking up a small batch just to try anyway but would be nice to know what that style should be like so if I'm not fussed I know whether it's the style or just the amateur brewing.

Any recommendations welcome!
Cheers!

 

[baggybill]

I'm quite curious about this style of beer as I tend to like the darker, less hoppy beers. I'm going to be starting BIAB brewing soon and the recipe in the Greg Hughes (? Its upstairs :p) book sounds interesting.

I was wondering if there are any easily available commercial heavies (?) I could try? Don't fancy flying the length of the country for a pint lol.

I'll probably end up knocking up a small batch just to try anyway but would be nice to know what that style should be like so if I'm not fussed I know whether it's the style or just the amateur brewing.

Any recommendations welcome!
Cheers!

Have this info from @clibit a while back, may be of use:

----------------------------------------
OK, you could do a Scottish Ale kit:

http://www.tesco.com/direct/youngs-harvest-scottish-ale-40pt/213-6222.prd

They deliver free to your nearest store.

OR you could do an extract plus steeping grains brew:

http://www.jaysbrewing.com/2012/08/01/a-must-make-scottish-beer/

Or you could do a partial mash:

https://byo.com/stories/issue/item/2160-the-brothers-reid-scottish-ale
________________________________

 

[rodabod]

Commercial examples:

Traquair House Ale (see my brew day thread)
Orkney Skull Splitter
Broughton Old Jock
Brewdog Dogma
Founders Dirty *******
Oscar Blues Old Chub
Belhaven 90/- Wee Heavy

Focus is on malt flavours and less hops. It's not just an unhoppy strong ale though. The boiled durations tend to be longer for example, so they take on the toffee-like characteristics of barley wine in some cases.

 

[TartanSpecial]

I brew an adapted MacEwans Champion clone recipe that comes out well, and this beer is available in Tesco etc...
For scottish beers I general mash at higher temp (eg 68 dec c) to get more body, segregate some of the first runnings and boil down separately in a pot to caramelize a bit. I've used Nottingham dried yeast to date but will do the next batch using WLP028 edinburgh yeast which will hopefully give an even better end product with more authentic flavours.


AG Version by Buster.

McEwan's No.1 Champion Ale

14.5 lb. Golden Promise 2-row
11 oz. Torrified Wheat
19 oz. British 55�L Crystal Malt
4 oz. British Roasted Barley
2 oz. Peated Malt

8 oz. Invert Sugar ( or 226 grams of Golden Syrup )
1/3 oz. Burton Water Salts

1.5 oz. East Kent Goldings @ 5.4% AA (6.8 HBU) (bittering)

1/4 oz Styrian Goldings (flavor)
1/4 oz Hallertau Hersbrucker (flavor)
1 tsp. Irish Moss

White Labs #WLP004 Irish Ale Yeast

Batch Size: 6 gallons
OG: 1.079
SRM: 21
IBU: 25

Extract Version.

McEwan's No.1 Champion Ale
modified from Beer Captured

11 oz. Torrified Wheat
9 oz. British 55�L Crystal Malt
2 oz. British Roasted Barley
1 oz. Peated Malt

6.00 lb. Muntons Light DME
1.75 lb. Alexanders Light LME
1.75 lb. Alexanders Amber LME
8 oz. Invert Sugar ( or 226 grams of Golden Syrup )
1/3 oz. Burton Water Salts

1.75 oz. East Kent Goldings @ 5.4% AA (6.8 HBU) - 60 min.

1/4 oz Fuggles - 15 min.
1/4 oz Hallertau - 15 min.
1 tsp. Irish Moss

White Labs #WLP004 Irish Ale Yeast

5.5 gallons.
OG: 1.079
IBU: 25

 

[rodabod]

I buy McEwans Champion occasionally. You get it in Asda too. It's very good, but there are better examples to be had.

I'm almost positive that it won't have peated malt in it. That's usually an American assumption with these ales, ie. if it tastes smoky at all, then it must contain smoked malt.

 

[DanST]

Cheers guys I'll check a few of these out next time I'm shopping.

 

[TartanSpecial]

I may omit the peated malt from the next batch I brew with WLP028 hoping the yeast will add some extra flavour dimensions. I know its not a genuine component since I used to work in the malt section of the Scottish and Newcastle Brewery Labs in Edinburgh back in the 70's and never encountered and smoked malts coming in for analysis.
Belhaven also produce some nice typically scottish beers.

 

[rodabod]

My Dad worked for Scottish and Newcastle then too. I guess a lot of people did! He told me about the beer he used to get as part of his salary.

I'm struggling to find the Belhaven Wee Heavy just now. Had their Scottish Stout (the 7% one) at the weekend which was superb.

I grabbed a few bottles of Trquair Jacobite recently too, and it is just incredibly good. Oddly, it has added coriander seed, but I can't detect it when tasting which I think is a good thing.

http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/traquair-jacobite-ale/5711/

 

[TartanSpecial]

that's right, you got a monthly allowance. I was only a student working during vacancies so I didn't get the allowance but at 4 o'clock every day a couple of crates of macewans export were delivered to the lab so the last hours work was enjoyable. was also on the taste panel and you'd get announcements over the tannoy saying ' would the taste panel go to cellar 2b' ...very civilised..:drink:...but that was 40 years ago...and sadly the Holyrood brewery closed (as well as the fountianbridge one too)

 

[rodabod]

It's very sad. I saw the Fountainbridge brewery close (which was immense as you know) and now we are going through a boom in the beer industry and people are struggling to find venues to open breweries!

I still remember smelling the boil at at certain times during the week where I lived, two miles away from the brewery....

 

[jackdaw]

I brew an adapted MacEwans Champion clone recipe that comes out well, and this beer is available in Tesco etc...
For scottish beers I general mash at higher temp (eg 68 dec c) to get more body, segregate some of the first runnings and boil down separately in a pot to caramelize a bit. I've used Nottingham dried yeast to date but will do the next batch using WLP028 edinburgh yeast which will hopefully give an even better end product with more authentic flavours.


AG Version by Buster.

McEwan's No.1 Champion Ale

14.5 lb. Golden Promise 2-row
11 oz. Torrified Wheat
19 oz. British 55�L Crystal Malt
4 oz. British Roasted Barley
2 oz. Peated Malt

8 oz. Invert Sugar ( or 226 grams of Golden Syrup )
1/3 oz. Burton Water Salts

1.5 oz. East Kent Goldings @ 5.4% AA (6.8 HBU) (bittering)

1/4 oz Styrian Goldings (flavor)
1/4 oz Hallertau Hersbrucker (flavor)
1 tsp. Irish Moss

White Labs #WLP004 Irish Ale Yeast

Batch Size: 6 gallons
OG: 1.079
SRM: 21
IBU: 25

Extract Version.

McEwan's No.1 Champion Ale
modified from Beer Captured

11 oz. Torrified Wheat
9 oz. British 55�L Crystal Malt
2 oz. British Roasted Barley
1 oz. Peated Malt

6.00 lb. Muntons Light DME
1.75 lb. Alexanders Light LME
1.75 lb. Alexanders Amber LME
8 oz. Invert Sugar ( or 226 grams of Golden Syrup )
1/3 oz. Burton Water Salts

1.75 oz. East Kent Goldings @ 5.4% AA (6.8 HBU) - 60 min.

1/4 oz Fuggles - 15 min.
1/4 oz Hallertau - 15 min.
1 tsp. Irish Moss

White Labs #WLP004 Irish Ale Yeast

5.5 gallons.
OG: 1.079
IBU: 25

Crikey I envy you haha.McEwans Champion is my favourite drink (besides Old Tom) I'm very new to making home brew so just using kits.

 

[TartanSpecial]

After you've done a few kits, think about going to all grain. you need more equipment but the beers taste so good, so quickly.

 

[Blinky]

Both my dad and father in law worked for Scottish and Newcastle in Edinburgh, guess that's where I got the brewing bug from!
Apparently the white labs Scottish yeast is the mcewans yeast strain from fountainbridge brewery

 

[Paulchef]

I’m new to AG posting here for a reference to come back to this recipe when I’m ready, Guinness is my preferred drink but I do like champion

 

[Drunkula]

I'm almost positive that it won't have peated malt in it.

After listening to Ron Pattinson on the Scottish Ales episode of the BeerSmith podcast I think you're absolutely 100% right about that.

Episode note: Ron tells us why peat was not actually a flavour associated with the vast majority of Scottish ales, both because barley was not malted in areas with peat and also because they had better alternatives for malting such as coal and coke.

33:53 into the podcast

I’m new to AG posting here for a reference to come back to this recipe when I’m ready

At the top of each thread on the right of the main column there's a bookmark option.

 

[chthon]

In addition to @Drunkula, just to summarise this fact. In Ron Pattinson's book "Scotland!", there is a map of breweries, peat fields and coal mines. Allmost all breweries were located near coal industries, which made it simple for maltings to have smokeless and efficient fuel.