Wee heavy recipes

[uDicko]

Fancy getting one on the go for Christmas. Not had one before (that I know of) but sounds delicious.

Anyone got a good recipe they have brewed before they can share?

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Old Jock
6000g Maris Otter
400g Crystal malt
100g Melanoidin
50g Roasted Barley
300g Brown sugar
20g Target @ 60 minutes
20g EKG @ 15 minutes
CML Beoir yeast
OG 1069

 

[uDicko]

What batch size? Any sparge? Any water profile you worked to?

Assume this is one you have made? Any comments on taste, Aroma etc

Thanks appreciated

 

[Cheshire Cat]

21 litre, batch sparge, Warrington tap water. I brewed it for my Scottish son-in-law and he really likes it . Very malty and easy drinking despite being 6.5-6.8% ABV. Best bottled and left for a couple of months if you can.

 

[uDicko]

Boom, great thank you

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Skull Splitter
6000g Maris Otter
300g Crystal
300g Peated Malt
150g Torrefied wheat
100g Chocolate malt
100g Melanoidin
500g Brown Sugar
60 minutes mash @ 60C, batch sparge
75 minutes boil.
45g EKG @ 75minutes, 20g EKG @ 15 & 3 minutes.
CML Beoir yeast
OG 1080

 

[prog99]

This one is excellent.
https://scottishcraftbrewers.org/?p=1968

 

[Cheshire Cat]

This one is excellent.
https://scottishcraftbrewers.org/?p=1968

Looks good I'll have a go.

 

[prog99]

Looks good I'll have a go.

It is, I’ve a keg that’s been maturing.
i also slightly tweaked it with some caramunich.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Like all Scottish beers, peat has no place in it except in the fantasies of US brewers. It's one of those styles that's based on a single beer, the legendary Fowler's 12 Guineas (ie 252/-), which in the 19th century had an OG of 1.159 and finished at 1.068! But by the 1950s it was starting at 1.068 and going down to 1.017 for 6.7%.

Ron Pattinson has written bits about it, and the comments in the earliest of those posts are helpful. InBev contracted it out to Heriot and then Belhaven; when they gave it up in 2005 Belhaven contined brewing a version which may be regarded as the carrier of the flame. It's just pale and black malt, with Challenger and Goldings - homebrewers always overcomplicate things. Presumably you should be able to get hold of it from anywhere that carries Greene King stuff.

From the comments of a brewer at Heriot in the above thread :
"Fowlers was brewed as a parti-gyle with Redcap - a low gravity beer....At Heriot we used bulk ale and lager malt from the Bass Maltings at Alloa and from maltsters for sale. In addition we used some crystal malt in bags. Adjuncts were Brumore [wheat] flour in the mash tun plus liquid cane sugar and Flo Sweet wort syrup in the coppers. Liquid caramel would have been used in the copper and for in FV colour adjustment if needed."

 

[Zephyr259]

This recipe is quite well thought of, as @Northern_Brewer said, it's just pale and a bit of roast barley for colour. It also recommends boiling down some of the first runnings, I've done this on a few beers and it seems to add an extra malty character as all those beers have a similar flavour I can detect, but I could be imagining it.

I've had some bottles of the Traquair House ale, it's a nice beer, not as sweet as Belhaven 90/- which I also really like. I'd stay far away from smoked malt, especially peated for this style.

 

[Hanglow]

Just bought some some traquair house ale today from waitrose, it's a great beer and a good example of keeping things simple.

 

[Kveik Freak]

Peated malt tastes *rank* in beers. Rauchmalt seems to be the way to go if you want smokiness. Not that it's expected in this style.

 

[prog99]

Peated malt tastes *rank* in beers. Rauchmalt seems to be the way to go if you want smokiness. Not that it's expected in this style.

I have had a beer made with it and it was very good. it was however made by someone who knew what they were doing.

 

[Kveik Freak]

I have had a beer made with it and it was very good. it was however made by someone who knew what they were doing.

Good for them, that'll have taken some work and fine tuning.

 

[strange-steve]

Jamil talks a little about peated malt (or lack of it) wrt Scottish ales in BCS:

 

[JonBrew]

This is Jamil's recipe for a Wee Heavy from BYO. I think the BCS version is a little different but I don't have it to hand.

McZainasheff’s Wee
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.099 FG = 1.026 IBU = 28 SRM = 20 ABV = 9.7%

Ingredients
17.8 lbs. (8.1 kg) British pale ale malt
17.6 oz. (0.5 kg) crystal malt (45 °L)
14.1 oz. (0.4 kg) Munich malt (8 °L)
7 oz. (0.2 kg) crystal malt (120°L)
1.8 oz. (50 g) roasted barley (500 °L)
6.5 AAU Kent Golding hops (60 min.) (1.3 oz./37 g at 5% alpha acids)
2 AAU Kent Golding hops (10 min.) (0.4 oz./11 g at 5% alpha acids)
1 tsp Irish moss (optional)
White Labs WLP028 (Edinburgh Ale) or Wyeast 1728 (Scottish Ale) yeast

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Another example is here, from a book published in 1822 in London but containing letters written in the 1720s ascribed to Edward Burt. He says plain as day that Scottish common ale was smoky from use of peat, turf, or furze to prepare the malt. The way he writes, it is clear that by then English ale did not have the taste – he notes the Scottish taste as something unusual and acquired due to custom.

 

[prog99]

Good for them, that'll have taken some work and fine tuning.

Yes, I think they were a frequent award winner with their home-brew and may have gone commercial.

 

[peebee]

Another example is here, from a book published in 1822 in London but containing letters written in the 1720s ascribed to Edward Burt. He says plain as day that Scottish common ale was smoky from use of peat, turf, or furze to prepare the malt. The way he writes, it is clear that by then English ale did not have the taste – he notes the Scottish taste as something unusual and acquired due to custom.

I've used a similar argument for Porter. Some will suggest Porter never had a smoky twang because the maltsters were too proud to make smoky malt which people didn't like, so used hornbeam faggots for kilning and drying that have very little smokiness. (Actually, I later find out hornbeam was common around London back then).

Rubbish! People used what they could get - cheaply! So I'd believe any old wood would be used for porter malt, and peat dried malt would get used in Scotland. That's not suggesting people liked it! (Peat smoked malt in beer … ).