Just Tasted my Wee Heavy Scotch Ale!

My First original recipe for a Wee Heavy!!!! The ABV clocked in at 7.8%. Mind you, this is a taste pre-bottling, but OMG!!! So light with a nice subtle sweetness. Just a babies breath of smoke from the peated malt. I can't wait to bottle this bad boy tomorrow! This is easily my best brew, and I thank all of you for walking me through the process.

ONLY saying this because I am entering a Scottish80 into a competition. No peated malt can be in a Scottish ale.


ANYWAY. Congrats Sounds great.

Cosmicbrew said:

My First original recipe for a Wee Heavy!!!! The ABV clocked in at 7.8%. Mind you, this is a taste pre-bottling, but OMG!!! So light with a nice subtle sweetness. Just a babies breath of smoke from the peated malt. I can't wait to bottle this bad boy tomorrow! This is easily my best brew, and I thank all of you for walking me through the process.

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And yet, you're not sharing your recipie. That's how High School girls get that nasty name. I'm looking to do a wee heavy next time around. Care to share?

Grinder12000 said:

ONLY saying this because I am entering a Scottish80 into a competition. No peated malt can be in a Scottish ale.


ANYWAY. Congrats Sounds great.

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9E. Strong Scotch Ale

Aroma: Deeply malty, with caramel often apparent. Peaty, earthy and/or smoky secondary aromas may also be present, adding complexity.

From the BJCP style guidelines.

Congrats man! I've had my wee heavy sitting in bottles for about five months. Tried one the other day and it is awesome! Yours will be great with a little aging. Cheers!

What kind of aging do beers this big need? I have a Strong Imperial Blonde Ale bottled for 21 days now at 7.8% ABV...it still tastes green and strong of alcohol...does it need several months to mellow?

How does one determine how long a batch should be bottled before enjoying? Is there a simple rule as the more ABV the longer it should sit?

Does it make a difference if it sits bottled in/outside a fridge?

MrSmug said:

How does one determine how long a batch should be bottled before enjoying? Is there a simple rule as the more ABV the longer it should sit?

Does it make a difference if it sits bottled in/outside a fridge?

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As I understand it the yeast need to be in their working temperature range in the bottles in order to carbonate and then clean up any off flavors that may still be present...once they do that job then you want to age them under refrigeration. So the question is how long do you leave the bottles at room temperature? I think the answer is no less than 3 weeks and big beers could take 2 months or more!

I will post up the recipe when I get home from work. Stay tuned...

amc22 said:

9E. Strong Scotch Ale

Aroma: Deeply malty, with caramel often apparent. Peaty, earthy and/or smoky secondary aromas may also be present, adding complexity.

From the BJCP style guidelines.

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It was my understanding that the Smokey and peat flavors are the result of other malts and the fermentation-use of actual peated malt is due to a misconception from the flavors of the finished beer.

It's still acceptable according to BJCP guidelines, so saying putting peated malt in it makes it not a "real" scotch ale is wrong.

The readings I have done describe a process of caramelizing a portion of the wort by boiling it down (from say 1 gallon to 1 qt) to acheive the smokey flavor in scotch ale. I did a smoked porter ( brewers best kit) that used 8 OZ smoked malt and tasted like burnt rubber for w2 months. Reminded me of Saturday evening with my first car

Those smoky aromas are not from smoked additions but should be from natural causes and yeast. I'll go with what Jamil says.


I'll stand by my statement. A good judge will mark you down for adding peat or smoke to a Scottish ale. And as above carmelization will add that aroma.

Actually if you read the BJCP it says no peat malt should be used in a Scottish

Grinder12000 said:

Actually if you read the BJCP it says no peat malt should be used in a Scottish

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This is correct. This is the quote from 2008 BJCP:

"The optional peaty, earthy and/or smoky character comes from the traditional yeast and from the local malt and water rather than using smoked malts."

Congrats! Scotch ales are a great beer. I did put peated malt in mine and I love it. In fact I finished my first keg last night and now I am on the way to get more supplies for a second batch due to popularity. Best of luck. Slante.

Funny this should come up.
I just tasted my wee heavy yesterday after taking my first gravity reading at 6 days in the primary. I don't normally take a gravity reading for at least two weeks but I really wanted to see how it was going. It is scary good right now. Scary because it seems like it cant get better than this.
Not noticing a peat or smoky flavor yet buy maybe it will develop. Still a couple of points off of my hoped for 1.020 at a1.022. Started at. 1.083
Wanted super simple recipe.
20 lbs marris otter
.5 roasted barley
2.5 oz williamette at 60 minutes
Wyeast scotch ale yeast
Started with about 11 gallons water
BIAB.
Mashed at 154 for 90 minutes.
1 gallon of wort taken at 60 minutes mashing and boiled down to syrup.
2 hour boil.
Ended up with 6 gallons into the fermenter. Pitched at 65 degrees and brough it down to 60 the next day.