Youngs Harvest Scottish Heavy

[Lesinge]

74th brew Harvest Scottish heavy bought for £7.50 in the Tesco Sale. 18/06/15. This is a single 1.5kg kit but uses 1.5kg of "sugar" to make a stronger than average beer. I dissolved 500g of Demerara sugar in some boiled water and let it cool, then added this to 1kg of youngs beer enhancer in the bucket. The wort in the can was darker than the usual stuff you get and had a different, almost spicy smell about it so it will be interesting to see how this beer tastes. I pitched at around 23 degrees to 21 litres (the instructions said 40 pints of 5 gallons - don't know why they only do it in imperial) as I didn't read them until checking, so it might be slightly weaker than intended. OG is 1050/52 so it will be around 5.3%. Smell at brew, not strong but faintly malty as expected...taste at brew, very sweet, light and smooth. Kind of very light creamy, no lingering bitterness at all. Similar taste to a cold sweet weak milky tea or even a bit weak cold sweet coffee. This will be interesting to taste after fermentation

 

[ManseMasher]

Sounds nice. I've not done a kit - do they try and replicate the yeast used by the brewer, or is it just a 'beer' yeast? Only asking because I'm looking at harvesting/splitting yeasts to build up stocks for different brews.

 

[clibit]

Sounds nice. I've not done a kit - do they try and replicate the yeast used by the brewer, or is it just a 'beer' yeast? Only asking because I'm looking at harvesting/splitting yeasts to build up stocks for different brews.

Guess! :twisted:

 

[ManseMasher]

Guess! :twisted:

That's what I thought!

 

[clibit]

That's what I thought!

You thought right!

 

[Lesinge]

Sounds nice. I've not done a kit - do they try and replicate the yeast used by the brewer, or is it just a 'beer' yeast? Only asking because I'm looking at harvesting/splitting yeasts to build up stocks for different brews.

A couple of extract brews I have done have given me a choice of yeast but generally it's either Gervin or a standard Muntons yeast which I understand is Nottingham? The problem with the Muntons one is that it tends to stick on the double can kits at around 1020 which can cause issues. I sometimes replace the yeast in the kits, for example I used Windsor yeast for a Wherry to get it through fermentation and also to play with the taste. The GerHerBrewed extract kits come with Gervin.

 

[clibit]

Gervin is Nottingham. Muntons is just Muntons, I think.

 

[Lesinge]

Gervin is Nottingham. Muntons is just Muntons, I think.

Thanks! Do you know what Ritchies use? Their brews such as Simply or Burton Bridge go off like a train!

 

[clibit]

I don't sorry.

Possibly Mauribrew Ale yeast. If so, a good dried yeast.

 

[Lesinge]

I don't sorry.

Possibly Mauribrew Ale yeast. If so, a good dried yeast.

Thanks for that.

 

[Lesinge]

Bottled 04/07/15 - 16 days. No hop additions as I want to see this style as it is intended - was really cloudy which might be due to hot weather. Put it straight in the garage rather than in house for secondary fermentation as it is very warm here at the moment. Taste at bottling, high alcohol taste but not much else. 1010 final gravity which make it around 5.5%.

07/07/15 - after three days in garage this has cleared. Tried one for experiments sake even though it is still really green. Smooth and has good carbonation although with a Homebrew twang at this stage. Quite pale like Simply Bitter. Looking forward to see how this develops.

 

[Bevvied]

Hi Lesinge. what do you think of it now?
I've got one of these kits but I'm undecided as to what to use instead of 1.5KG of sugar. I've lots of BKE so thinking a bag and a half of that.

 

[LarryF]

Lesinge/Bevvied, I'd love to hear how it turned out too, being the lickpenny pinchfist that I am I love the idea of taking a cheap kit, that's in a sale and tweaking it to make a nice beer. Your idea of not adding any hop additions to gauge the base flavour is really good, I'm afraid I just can't help myself and have to reach for the scales and hop bag on all my kits.

 

[Bevvied]

Had my first homebrewing disaster today.
Prepared everything, all going smoothly, emptied this can into FV. Filled can with hot water, poured into FV, stirred the bugger like crazy and in the process, smacked draining board with my elbow. Up went flying a washing up brush (used for dog bowls) out of wifeys storage thingy, splash! Yep, landed straight in the FV.
Needless to say, the air went bluer than chubbie brown outtakes.

 

[Bevvied]

Gonna calm down and get a John Bull Trad Ale on the go.

 

[Slid]

Sounds nice. I've not done a kit - do they try and replicate the yeast used by the brewer, or is it just a 'beer' yeast? Only asking because I'm looking at harvesting/splitting yeasts to build up stocks for different brews.

I am guessing here, but have sort of got the idea that there are two general approaches on this.

The commercial brewers approach is to top crop indefinitely - and that does mean until the brewery closes.

My approach, used on my new go-to US05, Belle Saison and even the Coopers yeast is to use the trub. Rack so as to leave a pretty generous amount of "green" beer in the bottom, give it a good swirl and make up as many as available starter bottles of 250ml PET "bottles that once held lemonade", via a 2L jug, PET bottle or whatever. Maximum sanitation! I once did 11 little bottles from a single US05 brew. Used them all, but would not go much beyond half that sort of number again.

Added the next day - whooph! Added a few weeks or months later, they do the job. The thing about this approach is that you have not selected the "best" yeast, but the second best. So possibly just one generation down from the "mother" brew makes sense to a homebrewer. Even if you can divide the cost of a yeast over 5 brews, that makes it sound much better!

 

[wfr42]

Hi Lesinge. what do you think of it now?
I've got one of these kits but I'm undecided as to what to use instead of 1.5KG of sugar. I've lots of BKE so thinking a bag and a half of that.

I did my two kits with 1kg of BKE and 500g of dark DME each.

I added a can of treacle and a 50g phoenix dry hop to one.

Gave a couple of each to a mate - he was raving about the "straight" kit, where as I prefer the kit with my tweaks.

Sorry you had a disaster, assuming you just chucked it rather than risk a dog bowl "enhancement".

 

[Lesinge]

Lesinge/Bevvied, I'd love to hear how it turned out too, being the lickpenny pinchfist that I am I love the idea of taking a cheap kit, that's in a sale and tweaking it to make a nice beer. Your idea of not adding any hop additions to gauge the base flavour is really good, I'm afraid I just can't help myself and have to reach for the scales and hop bag on all my kits.

Hi there went back to my notes but found I hadn't done any tasting notes beyond the first few days. I don't remember it being a waste of time such as Wilkco hoppy copper or a un-tweaked Geordies a winter warmer so it must have been ok, not amazing but I think it was one i thought that I would do again. However, since then I have gone AG so am unlikely to but I liked the style of beer. Seem to remember that it was nice and clear and smooth.

 

[Bevvied]

Thanks wfr/Lesinge. Yeah, the lot went down the drain. I do fancy trying this again though, so thanks for getting back to us, with positive thoughts.

 

[louis macneice]

This is what I did with a Scottish Heavy kit back at the start of October:

Brewed to 23 lts: 1 Scottish Heavy kit + 1 Hoppy Copper kit + 1kg Youngs BE.

20g Belma Hops steeped in 3.5l of boiled water + BE

Pitched with slurry from White Labs 007 yeast.​

After two weeks in the fermenter cold crashed for a couple of days outside, then barrelled with 85gms of priming sugar.

By mid November this is what I had to say about it:

Pours very bright, shiny chestnut, with a think creamy head which lasts for a few mins. Light carbonation
Aroma is mostly sweet, almost 'flat' (i.e. one dimensional). Really needs some extra hop or grain complexity.
The taste is sweet up front with a nice bitter edge coming in quite quickly. There is a toffee/boiled sweet quality which is really nice and goes well with the full mouth feel.
Really like this but it is too strong and missing the extra depth of a partial mash.​

I did this as an experiment with both the kits and the BE being on offer; the hops were also the last of a cheap order. I wouldn't do it again, although I would use the Youngs Scottish Heavy kit as the base for a partial mash and probably just use the kit yeast as I would cut back on the strength.

Cheers - Louis MacNeice