Scotch Strong/Wee Heavy thoughts?

Here is my next Wee Heavy idea. Any feed back would be great.

6 Gal.
180min Boil
OG: 1.090
FG: 1.020 estimated

19# GP
5oz Black Malt
1oz Peated Malt

2oz Fuggles@90 for 29 IBU

Nottingham yeast

3 week primary @ 60
3 month secondary with heavy oak cubes

thoughts? concerns?

I would use roasted @ around 4 ounces (instead of Black), you can darken it up a little with C120 or a darker English Crystal (155L?). Mash pretty high.

Skip the smoked. 1 oz wouldnt do a whole lot anyway.

Use WLP028. Pitch alot, I mean alot of yeast to keep it as clean as possible. Ferment cold.

Fewer higher alcohols with a large pitch.

I would suggest reading page 124 from Brewing Classic Styles on how to create that slight smoky flavor without the use of smoked malt.

Thanks for the feed back. Going to switch out the black for roasted. all i have is danstar nottingham yeast. Anyone have experience with this yeast for this style? Has anyone done oak cubes in secondary? How were the results?

Usually there is a good bit of caramel in there, right? Or are you planning to reduce your first runnings? I think I'd bump up the IBUs a little, made to 50 or so. It seems like a lot, but in a 1090 beer, it isn't.

I think the 3 hr boil will give the beer a good carmel flavor without reducing first runnings and or adding caramel. I think i will up the IBU's. The aging and abv with this beer will mute the hops.....but id like them to be noticable.

Oops, I didn't notice that. You might save some time/money by just reducing the first runnings, but that would probably have a different effect on the beer. I'm sure it'll be good either way!

Has anyone ever fermented Nottingham in the low 60's?

I've done psuedo-lagers in the mid 50s. It works and is pretty clean.

Notty will rip through that recipe in the low 60s...just did one at 58

did it get any esters or tart flavors?

No...I can use Notty all winter as my basement is about 58-60. Its a beast and super clean that low. You can even ramp it up around day 4 if your worried about it not getting to the last few gravity points but its always finished with me and is as clean as 05. I've used it many times with higher OGs then you are using.

As for my wee heavy, its only a few weeks so I have not tasted or taken a reading yet.

Thanks for the info! Brew day is tomorrow and i've never used dry yeast before. I hope it all goes well and in 3 months or so i have some awesome Wee heavy to enjoy!

If you're going to ferm cold and have high gravity, pitch two packs or onto a yeast cake. 1 pack is not enough, and cold fermenting is even harder on yeast, so pitch it more like a lager.

I pitched 2 rehydrated packs. Mr. Malty called for 380 billion cells. Two packs gets me around 400 billionish. Here is a question about boil duration. I severely over sparged and ended up having a super long boil to get to my final volume/OG. It was almost 6 hours!!!! not kidding. I think my burner is about dead. Anyways....ive read post about 3-4 hour boils. What could i expect from such a long boil in terms of flavor? Is it possible that i may have burnt the wort? Is the final beer going to have any weird taste?