In the Fermentor: Scottish Wee Heavy

It's amazing how some of the best commercial beers have a really straightforward list of ingredients. A beer doesn't have to be made of seven grains and five hop varieties to be excellent. My attempt at a Wee Heavy follows this theme by mimicking the excellent, yet deceivingly simple Traquair House Ale. Because the physical ingredient list is so simple, the real key ingredient is the boiling process. It's very time consuming, but the payoff should be worth it.

To make a proper Wee Heavy, I need to heavily caramelize the wort. My (and many other people's) way of doing this is to take a gallon of the first-running of wort, put it in a second pot and boil it until there's only about two pints of thick liquid left. For this beer, 90 minutes of a vigorous rolling boil turned the wort into a nice syrup.

As the liquid gets thicker, I reduce the heat and stir continuously to avoid scorching. The resulting caramelized syrup is mixed back into the rest of the wort, which is then boiled for an additional 90 minutes. When all is said and done, five to six hours is spent brewing. Hopefully the results are worth all that time and effort. We'll all know in about three months.

Here's the five gallon recipe:

Grains:
15 lbs Simpsons Golden Promise
5 oz Crisp Roasted Barley

Hops:
0.625 oz Newport (9.8% a.a.): 60 min
1 oz Fuggles (4.3% a.a.): 5 min

Total Boil Time:
180 min

Yeast:
Wyeast 1728 - Scottish Ale

Mash Schedule:
Saccharification Rest: 152F for 75 min (add Roasted Barley for final 15 min)
Mashout: 168F for 15 minutes

Original Gravity:
1.095
Estimated Final Gravity:
1.020

IBU: 25
SRM Color: 16

Fermentation Schedule:
2 Weeks Primary
2 Months Secondary
2 Weeks Bottle Conditioning

Cost: $18 per case
Commercial Equivalent: Great Divide Claymore: $36
Savings: $18

Comments

Birthday Brewing: Dark Session Saison

I've been asked to brew all of the beer for my friend's Birthday. It's in mid-August, so I have to get everything going right now . There will be five beers in all: Dunkelweiss, Wit, Saison, Dark Saison and Kölsch. Rather than post all of the recipes at once, I'm going to spread them out into separate posts. My Session Saison and SMaSH Kölsch were already underway before I was asked to brew the other beers. The Dark Saison below is an extension of the Session Saison. I've expanded the original recipe to make a darker beer. CaraMunich Malt adds a little caramel sweetness, while Carafa II brings a light dark chocolate edge to the brew. The rest of the beer is as it was before, with the same hops and yeast. Adding extra grains does push the alcohol content up a bit, but the beer still shouldn't break the 5% ABV mark. I'm anxious to try my two Saisons out side by side and taste the difference that two extra grains can make. For five gallons: Grai...

In the Fermentor: Wood Aged Quadrupel-Imperial-Doppel-Barley-Weizen-Wee-Sour

Who says you can't have everything? Well, I'm doing just that by creating a beer that combines the best aspects of eight big beer styles: Quadrupel, Imperial Stout, Doppelbock, Barleywine, Weizenbock and Wee Heavy. But wait, there's more! The beer will be aged for year with everyone's favorite bacterias to make a Sour. On top of that, Sherry infused oak cubes will provide that little extra something. A massive grain-bill, plus a healthy dollop of Candi Sugar should push the alcohol content up over 11%. Compensating for the strength is a biting combination of Noble, English and American hops. A Decoction Mash gives the beer an extra bit of German character. Heavily caramelizing the First Runnings provides more depth of flavor than a standard boil. For that extra push over the cliff, 11 malts are working to make the beer one louder. I'm giving this one at least a year of fermentation before I even touch it. Here's the five gallon recipe: Grains: 4 ...

In the Fermentor: Flaming Pumpkin

I'll admit that I'm not a huge Pumpkin Beer fan. I didn't have one on my brewing calendar for this year and didn't have my sights set on one for next Fall either. Then my niece came along and threw down the gauntlet. She asked me to brew her a pumpkin beer and I accepted the challenge. I did a lot of reading to see how to best go about using pumpkin in beer. Some people mash it with the grains. Others add it to the brew kettle during the boil. Some add it to the primary or secondary fermentor. The consensus from professional brewers appears to be adding it to the mash, so I took the same approach. The pumpkin was cooked ahead of time by my girlfriend to soften it, convert some of the starch and help release some of its sugars. It then joined the grains in the mash. I really want the pumpkin pie effect here, so I've thrown in all of the requisite spices toward the end of the boil. I've also gone with just enough bitterness to balance the sweetness of the ...

Colorado Kitchen Brew

Search This Blog