Barking Dog Scottish Ale by Jeff Niggemeyer

this is my first brew!


this is a recipe i got out of a recent zymurgy magazine. it was a gabf gold medal winning scottish ale brewed by jeff niggemeyer. he called it "barking dog scottish ale".

these are the ingredients i used. i followed his recipe exactly (except i added a handful of oats)....

7.25 lbs unhopped light male extract (i used 4 lbs mountmellick and 3.25 lbs muntons)

steeping grains......
4 oz weyermann smoked malt L 1.3-2.3
8 oz muntons dark crystal malt L 146-165
2 oz roasted barley
handful of oats

1.75 oz uk fuggles alpha 4.0%

wyeast 1098 brit ale

1/4 tsp irish moss


i steeped the grains at 154 degrees for 30 minutes in 2 gallons of spring water. over the course of the 30 minutes, the temperature dropped to 148 degrees. i killed the heat and sparged the grains with about 1/2 gallon of 170 degree water. i added the liquid malt extract and stirred it in well. cranked up the heat. i didn't get a hot break until i added the hops. i boiled for 60 minutes and then transferred into an ice bath for 15 minutes. i added about a 1/2 gallon of refrigerator cold water into the wort about 10 minutes into the cooling process. i transferred the wort into the primary adding refrigerator cold water until i got to 5 gallons.

OG 1.052

photos below.

i'll update the thread with photos and info as the process goes.

thanks for looking.

Looks like a winner. Good to see you starting the young ones off right in life.

A little manual labor never hurt anyone.

38 hours after pitching yeast. lots of activity.

Looking sweet!

barefootbrewer said:

Looking sweet!

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i gave you some props over in the beginner brewer forum!

this is going to secondary tomorrow. i'll post another picture then. of course i have no idea what it will end up like, but it sure looks nice and like it's supposed to. we shall see....

racked to secondary....




tasted it as well.... it tastes like beer!!!!! very clean tasting.

bumped the temp down to 60 degrees as per the instructions.

thanks for looking!

i bottled this beer two weeks ago this past wednesday and popped the first one open last night. it carbonated very nicely. the taste was very clean and a bit sweet without being cloying.

an update on this beer.....

i bottled it about three weeks ago. i drank the first one about a week ago and it carbonated very nicely. carbonation has continued to improve i've noticed over the past few bottles.

the beer is slightly sweet and carmelized with a bit of smokiness. there is a touch of nuttiness to it as well. the hop character is VERY faint, but not non-existant.

overall, this beer seems to be getting better everyday. i'll post some more notes after i drink a few more.

i think this would make a very nice session beer and would pair very well with summery cookout type foods.

nice work! recipe looks simple & tasty.

any chance we can get a shot of the beer in a pint glass? Seeing a thick brown head on a dark beer like this basically equates to beer porn for me.

again - nice work. especially for your first brew.

Mathematics said:

nice work! recipe looks simple & tasty.

any chance we can get a shot of the beer in a pint glass? Seeing a thick brown head on a dark beer like this basically equates to beer porn for me.

again - nice work. especially for your first brew.

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thanks man! it's a very tasty beer. i'll open one tonight and post a picture of it poured!

Well, I was really hoping to see a picture of the poured beer.