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

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