Scotch Ale / Wee Heavy

It's brew day in our household. Hurray!

Here's what i've got cooking up for today, a Scotch Wee Heavy for my brew club competition. I decided to use a partial mash kit for it with some extra fermentables and adjuncts to bump the kit up to style from a Scottish ale to a Wee Heavy. Here's what i've done:

Bag O' Pipes Wee Heavy

Water:

1.5 gallons Jacksonville, FL tap water (hard) (in boil)
1.0 gallons distilled water (in boil)

1 gallon Jacksonville tap (at flameout)
2 gallons Distilled (top off for fermenter)

Grain bill:

4 oz. British Crystal 60 L Malt
4 oz. British Chocolate Malt
4 oz. Smoked Malt
1 oz. Roasted Barley

3.3 lbs. Munton Amber malt extract
3.3 lbs. Munton Extra Light malt extract
1 lb. Amber DME
3 lbs. Light DME

Hops schedule:

.5 oz. Cascade 6.4% alpha (60 mins)
.5 oz. Cascade 5.0% alpha (60 mins)
1.5 oz. Bramling Cross 5.0% alpha (60 mins)
.5 oz. Bramling Cross 5.0% alpha (20 mins)

Adjuncts:

1 tsp. Irish moss (15 mins)
1 oz. small chopped American light toast oak chips soaked in 100 ml of Johnnie Walker black label Scotch whiskey (added to primary 1 week prior to bottling).

Yeast:

Danstar Windsor yeast

Procedure:

Mashed out grains at 154-156 * f for 20 minutes, no sparging equipment so I just did a few swishes and dunks on the grain bag from time to time during the steep, then a thorough gravity drain.

Boiled at 215 * f, reached hot break at 12 mins @ 215 * f, added aroma hops at 20 mins & Irish moss @ 15 mins. Added last of the tap water just prior to flameout at about 5 mins (made sure it reached 165 * f then flame out).

Ice cooled the wort in the sink in ice bath with saltwater. Pitched reconstituted yeast per instructions on danstar packet at 80 * f. Now in primary fermenter at 60 degrees f. Estimating 3 weeks fermentation on yeast. Will add the whiskey soaked oak chips in final week prior to kegging & bottling.

Est. OG: 1.081
Est. FG: 1.022
SRM: 23
Bitterness: 21 IBU
Est. ABV: 7.6%
Measured OG: 1.075
Measured FG: (unknown)

Yum Scotch barrel Wee Heavy. I might have to try somehting like that.

Added the scotch whiskey soaked light toast oak chips this past tuesday. FG measured out to 1.026. A little higher than I would have liked, but it's probably due to the Windsor yeast being a poor attinuator.

Bottled & kegged it up yesterday. I cold crashed it for about a week prior to bottling/kegging it at 40 degrees F just to floc out the Windsor yeast. I found Windsor to be a very lazy yeast and probably won't use it in the future for anything unless it requires poor attinuation in the style.

Taste testing the flat beer showed potential. Granted, it was tasted around 45 degrees F so it will have more depth and profile when it warms up but:

Wet and malty on the front end with just a bit of hops bitter.
Silk smooth.
Definite underpinnings of roasted & smokey goodness in the middle.
No hops aroma (to style).
Very soft oak and whiskey notes on the backend.
No detectable off flavors.

It turned out very good and one i'll be proud to brew again, even if I don't win any compeitions with it.