Wee Heavy Recipe Check Please

[newguy]

Next up on my schedule is a wee heavy. I'm aiming for an OG of 1.100 and I plan to freeze half the batch to create an eis wee heavy. To hit gravities over about 1.080 or so, I always use a FWK as part of my strike "water" and I've selected a dark German lager kit for the purpose. The kit can be counted as a roughly 25/25/50 munich/vienna/pale 2 row malt split with a negligible IBU contribution.

7.5% munich (from the kit)
7.5% vienna (from the kit)
1% roasted barley
4% dark crystal 120L
5% biscuit malt (contributes nuttiness, toastiness - think of it as a poor man's way of turning ordinary 2 row into something resembling more expensive European malts)
75% ordinary domestic pale 2 row (15% from the kit)

I'm not planning to do an extended boil to caramelise the wort, so that's why I'm including the crystal. The kit is fixed as I've already bought it and I've used it in a barleywine and a Russian imperial stout with great success. I'm planning for one boil addition of hops to hit 25-30 IBU. I don't want any flavour or aroma hops at all.

I'm contemplating a very small (1-2%) addition of peated malt, but I'm not sure it would taste all that good.

Opinions?

 

[brettprevans]

peat or smokes malt will be great as part of a wee heavy. crystal addds a nice sweetness even with an extended boil. I did one a while ago (recipe in my sig block). great stuff.

agree with no hop aroma. technically any hop aroma present is a flaw in this style.

love the idea of a FWK as part of stricke water. esp vienna and munich. yum.

you've got to post the final recipe details and let us know how it comes out.

 

[Swinging Beef]

I like it!
I reckon skip the peated anything at this stage and check again after you are drinking it to see if that is a flavour you would like added to the brew for next time.

What yeast?

Have you tried the Grand Ridge "Moonshine" it bills itself as a Scottish Heavy and is quite suprising. Very yeast and malt driven like a Belgian Dubbel.

 

[jayse]

biscuit is toasted pale malt is it not and as such should be mashed with pale malt.
you might get some flavour out of it but in such a big beer that you would keep you don't want starch in the bottles.
anyway a little mini mash would be good

 

[fraser_john]

The use of peated malt will typically render the beer out of style, any smokey flavour is meant to be derived from the yeast strain used. I seem to remember reading that in a style guide AND on one of Jamils shows about scotch heavies.

However, that has not stopped me from using it in a heavy scotch ale before, I cannot remember the grain bill, but 200gms in a 44 litre batch was too much. It softened after three months of aging, but was still too noticeable. If I make it again, I am going to cut back to 80gms in 44 litres, just to provide a hint.

John

 

[mike004]

I did a very successfull Wee Heavy last year (extract + grains).

The most import factors are:

* Yeast -- I used the Edinburgh Ale liquid yeast from Wyeast. The smell and taste were spot on.
* Time -- Give it plenty of time to mature and mellow. I left it for over 3 months before even thinking of cracking one open...

Mike

 

[schooey]

Wee Heavy

A ProMash Recipe Report

Recipe Specifics
----------------

Batch Size (L): 30.00 Wort Size (L): 30.00
Total Grain (kg): 10.00
Anticipated OG: 1.076 Plato: 18.43
Anticipated SRM: 16.5
Anticipated IBU: 34.9
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75 %
Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes


Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
70.0 7.00 kg. TF Maris Otter Pale Ale Malt UK 1.037 3
15.0 1.50 kg. Weyermann Carared Germany 1.036 24
12.0 1.20 kg. TF Caramalt UK 1.034 19
1.0 0.10 kg. Scottish Peated Malt 1.038 5
0.5 0.05 kg. JWM Roast Barley Australia 1.036 711
1.5 0.15 kg. Flaked Oats America 1.033 2

Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.


Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
50.00 g. Goldings - E.K. Pellet 4.75 23.0 60 min.
50.00 g. Goldings - E.K. Pellet 4.75 7.8 20 min.
45.00 g. Goldings - E.K. Pellet 4.75 4.1 10 min.


Yeast
-----
2L Starter WY1728



This was my NSW Xmas case swap beer... Those that didn't recieve an infected bottle gave very good feedback...

yeah !!!

looky there.. 27% Cara malts and it tasted nothing like cordial. I invite you to go read the independant review provided by Muggus, whose opinion I value, without him seeing the recipe... Anyway, as I always say, each to their own...

 

[newguy]

Thanks for the opinions. I brewed it today and I got about 40l into the fermenters.

Grist:
12.61kg pale 2 row
741g biscuit malt
610g dark crystal 120L
179g roasted barley
1 Brewhouse Dark Munich Lager Kit (counted as 30% of total fermentables and is roughly equivalent to a 50/50 split between munich & vienna malt)

Dark Munich Lager kit + water became my strike "water". Mashed @ 63C (146F) for 60 minutes.

2 hour boil.

Hops:
62g Magnum pellets (13.1%) 90 minutes - contributes 32 IBU. The kit is spec'd for 20 IBU, and taking into account the extra water I used it contributed another 5 IBU.

Pitched onto a 3rd generation white labs WLP028 Edinburgh Ale yeast cake. Supposedly the same as wyeast 1728. I've used both and as far as I'm concerned they're the same strain. The yeast cake has fermented a Scottish 70/ and 80/ already. Pitching temp = 15C/59F. Will ferment @ about 15-17C over the next 2-3 weeks. The wort was a beautiful deep coppery red. I'm looking forward to this one.

OG 1.107 - was shooting for 1.100 but I won't complain. I shot for a slightly higher IBU level and mashed at a pretty low temperature because I really don't want this beer to be so syrupy sweet that I'll need insulin injections just to drink it. I pitched the yeast about 4 hours ago and there is already a huge frothy krausen. Gotta love pure oxygen - I gave each carboy a 60 sec shot.

I'm still planning to freeze half the batch to produce an eis-wee heavy. :icon_drool2: I can't wait until a year from now. It should age nicely.

 

[newguy]

Woke up to find this. It was chugging along nicely when I went to bed, but this is what I like to see. :super:

 

[Kai]

The use of peated malt will typically render the beer out of style, any smokey flavour is meant to be derived from the yeast strain used. I seem to remember reading that in a style guide AND on one of Jamils shows about scotch heavies.

However, that has not stopped me from using it in a heavy scotch ale before, I cannot remember the grain bill, but 200gms in a 44 litre batch was too much. It softened after three months of aging, but was still too noticeable. If I make it again, I am going to cut back to 80gms in 44 litres, just to provide a hint.

John

I reckon a little peated malt may also extend the shelf life of the beer a bit, and not just because you don't wanna drink it when it's young.

 

[newguy]

Just checked the gravity on this beast, and it's down to 1.028. I'm very happy about that as I brewed a barleywine once with the same OG (1.107) but it ended at 1.030. It's actually still fermenting quite well; I'm curious where it will end.

 

[Fourstar]

wow 3 weeks fermentation newguy. Is that the usual turnaround for such a high gravity ale? Getting into lager times there.

 

[newguy]

It's not out of the ordinary. I typically leave my beers until the yeast drops out more or less completely - and that hasn't happened yet. I've had ordinary gravity beers take 3 weeks before. I imagine this one will go for 1-2 weeks yet at least.

Edit: My basement temperature probably has something to do with it as well, approx 16-17C.