Scottish Ale

[agro]

Hi all,

I want to start moving away from standard 'kits', the first beer I want to make on pure extracts is a Scottish Ale recipe. The original recipe is US based, but I need some help verifying the substitute products - and some advice on the 'liquid smoke extract'.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Scottish Heavy Ale - Bag the Pipes Scottish Heavy
Adapted from Home Brewing for Dummines, Page 163.

Original Recipe

Malt Extract:
5lbs. English Pale Extract
Specialty Grain:
1lb. 60-L crystal malt

Bittering Hops:
1.5oz. 60-L Willamette

Flavouring Hops:
0.5oz. Fuggles

Yeast:
Wyeast # 1318

Misc flavouring ingredients:
2Tbsp. Wright's liquid smoke (at boiling)

Primary:
5 days @ 65 F

Secondary:
8 days @ 65 F


Translation to equivalent products available in Australia



Malt Extract:
2.26Kg Unhopped Pale Malt

Specialty Grain:
450g. 60-L crystal malt

Bittering Hops:
42.52g. 60-L Willamette (45 mins)

Flavouring Hops:
14g. Fuggles (20 mins)

Yeast:
WLP017

Misc flavouring ingredients:
2Tbsp. Wright's liquid smoke (at boiling)

Primary:
5 days @ 18C

Secondary:
8 days @ 18C



===

*EDITED* - corrected the measure of bittering hops.

 

[Duff]

Hi all,

I want to start moving away from standard 'kits', the first beer I want to make on pure extracts is a Scottish Ale recipe. The original recipe is US based, but I need some help verifying the substitute products - and some advice on the 'liquid smoke extract'.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Scottish Heavy Ale - Bag the Pipes Scottish Heavy
Adapted from Home Brewing for Dummines, Page 163.

Original Recipe

Malt Extract:
5lbs. English Pale Extract
Specialty Grain:
1lb. 60-L crystal malt

Bittering Hops:
1lb. 60-L Willamette

Flavouring Hops:
0.5oz. Fuggles

Yeast:
Wyeast # 1318

Misc flavouring ingredients:
2Tbsp. Wright's liquid smoke (at boiling)

Primary:
5 days @ 65 F

Secondary:
8 days @ 65 F


Translation to equivalent products available in Australia



Malt Extract:
2.26Kg Unhopped Pale Malt

Specialty Grain:
450g. 60-L crystal malt

Bittering Hops:
450g. 60-L Willamette (45 mins)

Flavouring Hops:
14g. Fuggles (20 mins)

Yeast:
WLP017

Misc flavouring ingredients:
2Tbsp. Wright's liquid smoke (at boiling)

Primary:
5 days @ 18C

Secondary:
8 days @ 18C

[post="98099"][/post]​

450gm of hops is not right. You will need to check the IBU suggested for the beer in the book, and find out what AA% the Willamette is that you are using. Lovibond ratings only apply to malts. Scottish beers are more malt driven, so the IBU's can be as low as between 10/15 up to 30/35.

Do another check and let us know.

 

[agro]

heh heh - your right. Got the units mixed up. I didn't think it sounded right.

For a scottish heavy IBU's 12-20 (apparently)

The above should have read:

1.5oz 60-L Willamette (42.52g)

If I can I will correct the original post.

 

[jayse]

the liquid smoke I believe is stuff which you add to a marinade for cooking meat on a BBQ and so forth, I'd be leaving that stuff out but do remember reading on brewboard at one time or another there was a discusion on using it in beer.
Can't remember the conversion though and what the consensus is on the flavour it adds. I think it may be a hickory smoke. Anyway I'd leave that bit out myself.
For the hop amounts is going to depend on you boil size and aa% of the hops.

for the crystal malt used anything around the same colour( which is around 120-160 or there abouts)

I'd do a bit of searching and look at a couple more scotch ale recipes before you go ahead a brew your first. Get some software such as promash so you can type your recipe into it and get the correct OG, IBU and colour and so forth.
You can get the trial version for free.

Might aswell just go for the same hop at both additions, so get either willamette or fuggles, EKG will work lovely aswell.

Jayse

 

[dickTed]

Agro

This will turn out more like a pale ale than a Scotch ale.

Presumably the extract is syrup, since you mentioned "unhopped".
Calculator says 4.1% alc. for 23 lt. Scotch ales are twice that.

However, if you do intend to make strong ales, there are some little hidden problems that will piss you off. For example, they take longer to ferment, probably due to alcohol presence, and can require rousing. Bottles take longer to carbonate, which you may overcome by kegging, but it won't help head retention.

Overcoming these things is good experience I suppose.

Etcetera...

 

[berapnopod]

Yeast:
Wyeast # 1318

Misc flavouring ingredients:
2Tbsp. Wright's liquid smoke (at boiling)

I think using a London Ale yeast and then adding liquid smoke is the wrong way to go about this. The subtle smoky flavour of scottish beers more often comes from the type
of yeast you use, rather than using peateed malt or adding smoke extract.

Another reason to use a scottish yeast is that scottish ales are typically less attenuated the english ones. If you use the 1318 london ale, it may turn out too dry.

The simple solution is to forget about the liquid smoke and the english yeast and use a scottish yeast. For WYeast, #1728 is good (comes from McEwan's) and I have had good results with White Labs #028, which is probably the same strain as WYeast 1728 anyway.

Berp.

 

[wee stu]

Dickted, lets not get too confused between Scottish and Scotch ale :blink:

Scottish ales - are generally pretty low in alcohol, like most british beers, and 4% is by no means out of the ball park for a heavy or 70 shilling ale. My latest, a 60/- is only a tad over 3% by alcohol, but none the worse for that.

Scotch ales, by contrast, are the higher alcohol end of the spectrum. Often also known as 90 shilling ales or wee heavies.

Like Jayse, I would stick to a single hopping regime to start with - my preference would be fuggles followed by EKG - with willamette and styrian goldings also viable alternatives.

I would also ditch the smoke. The americans seem to love it in a Scottish styled ale, but it is not really necessary IMHO. I suspect it would be very easy to overpower the beer with a liquid smoke extract. Enjoy the malt character to begin with and build up the smoke for later brews if you think it needs it.

I'd second berapnopod's yeast suggestions also. 1728 is quite a forgiving yeast, and a great one to use in all the Scottish styles. Not used WLP 028 personally yet, but it is going into my next Scottish, when I get round to it.


awrabest, lang may yir lum reek, stu

 

[colinw]

In my opinion use of smoked malt or liquid smoke in Scottish ales seems to be one of those homebrew myths the yanks put around. The smoked character (if any) comes from the yeast - Wyeast 1728 gives this character when fermented long and cool. Some "northern" base malts seem to have a slightly peaty flavour, eg. I recently made a pale ale with Fawcett's floor malted Halcyon which has a slight peat character utterly unlike the richness of a Maris Otter beer.

If you did want a smoke character in a Scottish ale, I'd suggest using a very tiny amount of peated malt if you can get it, or rauchmalz (but being birch smoked it has a quite different character).

Most of all, use the right yeast and an appropriate grain bill, being mainly English or Scottish pale malt, 2 to 3% roasted barley, bare hints of amber or crystal malt, and a little bit of sugar in the kettle. Hops should be english varieties but primarily for bittering with little or none in the flavour & aroma additions - a good Scottish yeast tends to enhance hops flavour anyway.

I have a smack pack of 1728 in the fridge now - one of my first batches of the new year will be an 80/-.

cheers,
Colin