Doing my first AG, any suggestion

Doing my 1st AG, shooting for a Scottish style ale. Here is what I'm thinking

10 lb domestic 2 row
2 lbs carmel/crystal 60L
1 lb brown sugar during boil
2 0z fuggles, 1oz 60 min, 1 oz 30 min
1 oz Cascade 5 min
Wyeast 1720 scottish ale

I figure 75 min mash with 13(3.25 gallons @ 153
Sparge with 4.25 gallons at 170 degrees

Any improvements or things that I could do better. Any advise is greatly appreciated

I'll give it a shot.

If you want Scottish style, easiest thing you can do is leave the Cascade addition out. I think the Fuggles are good, you could probably omit the second addition and use 1.5oz @ 60 min to get the bitterness without hop notes for the big Scotch malt bomb.

I would personally do away with the brown sugar. Brown sugar is just cane sugar with molasses added -- neither of which really belong in a scotch ale.

Instead of just loading up on crystal, I'd cut it in half, then add back in some chocolate malt and a little roasted barley. Maybe some biscuit malt or toasted malt if you wanted.

Here's what I'd do for an 80 /- Export @ 75% eff:

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  Then again, if you don't have chocolate malt and roasted barley and don't feel like going out and getting it, I might try to make an extra special bitter type of beer with what you got there. 10lb 2-row, 8 oz crystal 60l, ditch the sugar, add all the hops @ 60min (or 90 min for really bitter -- YEAH!)
• 8 lb 2-row pale
• 1 lb toasted malt (350F in the oven for 15 min)
• 8 oz crystal 60l
• 2 oz chocolate malt
• 2 oz roasted barley

Or to bump it up to a strong scotch ale @ 75% eff:

• 11 lb 2-row
• 1.5 lb toasted malt
• 12 oz crystal 60l
• 4 oz chocolate malt
• 2 oz roasted barley
• 2 oz fuggles@60 min (assuming low aa ~ 4%)

Another option would be something like an Extra Special Bitter.
10 lb 2-row
8 oz crystal 60l
add all your hops at 60 min, or 90 min for really bitter (okay you can save a half ounce out for 15 min addition if you like)

BrewsterT said:

Doing my 1st AG, shooting for a Scottish style ale. Here is what I'm thinking

10 lb domestic 2 row
2 lbs carmel/crystal 60L
1 lb brown sugar during boil
2 0z fuggles, 1oz 60 min, 1 oz 30 min
1 oz Cascade 5 min
Wyeast 1720 scottish ale

I figure 75 min mash with 13(3.25 gallons @ 153
Sparge with 4.25 gallons at 170 degrees

Any improvements or things that I could do better. Any advise is greatly appreciated

Click to expand...

Well, if you're going for a Scotch Ale you have way too much fuggles. You want about 15 IBU's for this category, it's just not a hoppy style, quite the opposite - she's a mighty malty brew. Choices are light 60, a heavy 70 or an export 80. Then you get into Irish red's and Strong Scotch Ales. So a couple of suggestions. First, don't hesitate to make the beer you have listed (I don't really know crap but I've brewed this style a few times before so I have a little exp. with it.) Suggestions:
1. Use English malt.
2. Use Less hops, about 1 Fuggles at around 5% should do.

Also people suggest mashing at a higher temp so you end up with more residual sweetness.. Here is a recipe with about the same amount of grist you intend to use for a Scottish Heavy 80

9.5# English Pale Ale Malt
.5# Munich Malt
1# Crystal 40L
.5# Honey Malt
.25# Crystal 120
3 oz Pale Chocolate Malt (200-250L)
6 gallon batch
1 oz Kent Goldings (Fuggle is fine too here, same amount) for 60 min.


Mash at 158F for 60 min ... This is Jamil Zainasheff 4x gold medal winning recipe. He suggests using a starter or 2 packages of Wyeast 1056 (yep, American Ale Yeast) or a starter of White Labs California Ale WLP001 ... He experimented with many different recipes and yeast combinations and found these to be the best to bring out the maltiness of the style.

I hope this helps!

Thanks for all the advise guys, I think I'll go for the ESB this time and go Scottish style next time. This is the first recipie I've tried to get together on my own so the input was very helpful

Netflyer said:

Well, if you're going for a Scotch Ale you have way too much fuggles. You want about 15 IBU's for this category, it's just not a hoppy style, quite the opposite - she's a mighty malty brew. Choices are light 60, a heavy 70 or an export 80. Then you get into Irish red's and Strong Scotch Ales. So a couple of suggestions. First, don't hesitate to make the beer you have listed (I don't really know crap but I've brewed this style a few times before so I have a little exp. with it.) Suggestions:
1. Use English malt.
2. Use Less hops, about 1 Fuggles at around 5% should do.

Also people suggest mashing at a higher temp so you end up with more residual sweetness.. Here is a recipe with about the same amount of grist you intend to use for a Scottish Heavy 80

9.5# English Pale Ale Malt
.5# Munich Malt
1# Crystal 40L
.5# Honey Malt
.25# Crystal 120
3 oz Pale Chocolate Malt (200-250L)
6 gallon batch
1 oz Kent Goldings (Fuggle is fine too here, same amount) for 60 min.


Mash at 158F for 60 min ... This is Jamil Zainasheff 4x gold medal winning recipe. He suggests using a starter or 2 packages of Wyeast 1056 (yep, American Ale Yeast) or a starter of White Labs California Ale WLP001 ... He experimented with many different recipes and yeast combinations and found these to be the best to bring out the maltiness of the style.

I hope this helps!

Click to expand...

Thanks, I think I will give this recepie a go for my next AG, sounds tasty