Pike Kilt Lifter Ruby Ale

What is it I'm tasting in this beer and how do I get it? I just had a glass of it and I love the flavor, but can't even describe what I'm tasting in it. Anyone know what it is?

Peated malt? Is that what it was?

I love me some Kilt Lifter. Was at the brewery this last weekend and had some on tap. Delicious!

As for what is in it... I haven't got a clue.

Send a dozen bottles down this way and I'll try to figure it out for you

Their website says it uses peated, pale, crystal, and munich. I'm guessing its the peated that is new to you. I regret not putting any peated in my Scottish Ale, but I certainly will be next time around!

MBasile said:

Their website says it uses peated, pale, crystal, and munich. I'm guessing its the peated that is new to you.

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That's gotta be it. I never gave peated malt much though. Peat is what you store european mummies in. It's bog muck. Never sounded appealing to me in beer, but I may have to take a second look.

It's not real heavy in the beer either. Just adds a nice background note to it.

I would be interested if you managed to come up with a recipe.

Hmmm....

Pale malt base.
Enough Munich to add some color.
Crystal malt
A touch of peated malt.

Crystal 90? They call it a "ruby ale" after all. Half pound?
About 4oz of peated malt?

Waddya think so far?

My opinion is that 4 oz of peated malt is a bit high. I have used 2oz before and had a really smokey beer.

It also could be that I was too sensitive to it. However, I do like the smoked porters I have had, and love the Full Sail Keelhauler ale. My Scottish ale with 2oz seemed much stronger than those commercial beers.

I didn't like the Alaskan Smoked Porter I tried a while back, but I loved the Kilt Lifter. More research may be in order.

From what I understand is that peat can be real strong and it is not really strong in the beer. I would start with 1oz and work my way up to 2oz. It will be much easier to drink your mistake if the peat flavor is weaker then stronger.

Playing around in Beersmith....

8.75 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 73.72 %
2.00 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 16.85 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 8.42 %
0.12 lb Peat Smoked Malt (2.8 SRM) Grain 1.01 %
0.50 oz Magnum [14.00 %] (60 min) Hops 22.9 IBU
0.25 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (20 min) Hops 2.5 IBU
0.25 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (10 min) Hops 1.5 IBU

Beer Profile Estimated Original Gravity: 1.064 SG
Estimated Final Gravity: 1.016 SG
Estimated Color: 13.5 SRM
Bitterness: 26.8 IBU
Alpha Acid Units: 8.3 AAU
Estimated Alcohol by Volume: 6.19%

If you make one, let me know how it turns out. It'll be a while before I'm able to do a Scottish Ale again.

ChshreCat said:

Peat is what you use to make proper single malt Scotch.

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Fixed.............

What yeast were you thinking about using?

Beernip said:

What yeast were you thinking about using?

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Wyeast 1728 or something along those lines.

You ever make this beer?

I haven't. Haven't been able to brew since before this thread started. Gotta wait until I move to the new house.

Well that doesn't help me live vicariously through your brewing now. I need to find some time to brew but every day just seems to get sucked up.

I am interested in how this turns out though. If you brew it keep us posted. Thanks.

I agree go sparingly with the peat, I used 1oz in a 5 gallon batch and that is enough.

I ended up brewing a spin of this today. I ended up swapping the Munich and Crystal amounts as they list the ingredients on their site by quantity used so I think that it has more Crystal in it. Next time I may put in equal amounts of both. I also used Target instead of Magnum because.. Well I have a butt load of Target I need to use up.

9.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 73.72 %
2.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 75L (80.0 SRM) Grain 8.42 %
1.50 lb Munich Malt II (9.0 SRM) Grain 16.85 %
0.07 lb Peat Smoked Malt (2.8 SRM) Grain 1.01 %
0.30 oz Target [8.60 %] (90 min)
0.50 oz Target [8.60 %] (60 min)
0.25 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (20 min)
0.25 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (10 min)

Beer Profile Estimated Original Gravity: 1.064 SG
Estimated Final Gravity: 1.018 SG
Bitterness: 28.0 IBU
Wyeast 1728

Ended up hitting the OG exactly and the color looks fantastic. With only 1 oz of peat in the grain bill I am not tasting a lot of it just a hint from the sample. I think it will come out more once it ferments out. The picture doesn't to it justice for how red it was.

Fantastic. Looking forward to hearing how it turns out. I still haven't gotten a chance to try brewing it.

Kegged this on Saturday and is carbing up and chilling now. With only 1 oz of peat in the batch it is still very prominent. Much more than I remember from Kilt Lifter. That had only a slight taste of it. Next time I would reduce to .5 or .75 of peat. Will take a picture later.

Really quite tasty. I'd drop the peat from .7 to .5 next time. I'm going to see if I can find some real Kilt Lifter to compare the two side by side.


Very easy drinking. Great ruby color to it. Nice malty backbone to it with a slight but pronounced peaty taste to it. On my third tonight so not sure how long the keg will last. With 2 1/2 weeks from mash to drinkable. I think another week and it will be fantastic.

Well stopped at the store last night to pick up some Kilt Lifter. Clone of the left.



Appearance: The real Kilt Lifter has a nice white head on it while the clone's head is slightly darker. The beer itself is a little darker too.

Mouthfeel: The clone is a little heavier tasting then the original but not by much.

Taste: At first taste both have the nice peat back taste but the becomes more pronounced while drinking while the original fades quickly. Both are good drinking but prefer to the original because of the peat bite.

Next time I'll drop the peat to .4 lbs and the crystal to 1.60 lbs so 50/50 on the Crystal/Munich.

this was one of my fave beers that i tasted on my recent trip to WA, thanks for posting.

I don't really know where this whole "peated malt" thing came from in scotch ales. They don't use it in Scotland. Peated malt doesn't belong in beers IMO.

harrydrez said:

I don't really know where this whole "peated malt" thing came from in scotch ales. They don't use it in Scotland. Peated malt doesn't belong in beers IMO.

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Agreed. The yeast strains, combined with cool fermentation, give some of them a smokey character, and that's only reinforced the awful practice of using peated malt.

Scotch beers don't need to add peated malts because they use unfiltered water that passes through through the peat soil to pick up the flavor. Look up scotch whiskeys to see a in-depth detail explanation. So unless you are going to run your water through some peat soil you will need to supplement with peat malt.

harrydrez said:

I don't really know where this whole "peated malt" thing came from in scotch ales. They don't use it in Scotland. Peated malt doesn't belong in beers IMO.

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You've obviously never had Pike's Kilt Lifter Scotch Style Ruby Ale!

I made this again a few weeks ago and think it is pretty spot on in taste. My mouth feel was a little thin but had issues with my mash temps and ended up mashing around 147 instead of 150. The peat is present but not over powering. Could maybe drop to .03 lbs to better match the original but I like it slightly more peaty.

My final recipe was.
Batch Size: 5 Gallons
Mash @ 150*
OG: 1.065
FG: 1.015
IBU: 27
ABV 6.5

9 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 71.8 %
1 lbs 12.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 2 14.0 %
1 lbs 12.0 oz Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 3 14.0 %
.04 lbs Peat Smoked Malt (2.8 SRM) Grain 4 0.3 %
0.60 oz Magnum [11.60 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 23.6 IBUs
0.30 oz Goldings, East Kent [4.00 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 6 2.5 IBUs
0.25 oz Goldings, East Kent [4.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 6 1.2 IBUs
1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 7 -
0.25 oz Goldings, East Kent [4.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 8 1.2 IBUs
1000ml Starter of Scottish Ale (Wyeast Labs #1728)

Thanks Beernip! I will try this sometime soon. Any tips for a relatively new brewer trying to make this?

Pretty easy fermentation on this one. Just keep it in the mid 60's and make a starter. Without a starter I can usually only make it down to 1.017-8. This yeast is a beast in the proper amounts. Had it pull a IIPA (1.092) down to 1.012 using the cake from the last batch.