Strong Scotch Ale recipe review

Looking for input on the following recipe (before I get what I need to make it)... Right now, I'm an extract brewer. I hope to make the jump to grain (first partial, then full) within a year...

1# Amber DME
8#s Amber LME (2 cans)
6 oz Crystal Malt (20L)
5 oz Roasted Barley
4 oz Cara-Pils
5#s Wild Flower honey
1 oz Cascade hop pellets, 30 minute boil
1 oz Fuggles hop pellets, 5 minute boil
Wyeast Labs #1084 Irish Ale 'smack pack' yeast (thinking of using a starter, not 100% sure on that part yet).

Target batch size (finished) is 5 gallons.

Beer Smith gives gravity estimates at OG: 1.102, FG: 1.026; 9.99% ABV, with an estimated color of 20.0 SRM, and 21.2 IBU's...

I plan to steep the grains for 15 minutes, then starting the boil (running for 30 minutes before adding any hops). I'm looking for something that will have a good head on it (that will last), with full body, and a smooth finish (hence low IBU's). A little nutty in the flavor profile would be good too.

I'm hoping to be working before this is finished (between jobs right now) so that I can get a nitrogen setup and a couple of corny kegs. From what I've been reading, this brew could really be great under nitrogen... I'll probably end up bottling some too (I prime with honey) so that I can use smaller (2.5 or 3 gallon) corny kegs (easier to carry than the 5 gallon models)...

Thoughts?? Feedback??

I'm no expert on Scotch Ales but from what I've recently learned you want a high FG, like REALLY high. All that honey in there is going to dry it out, I wouldn't use any honey (or sugar/syrup/etc) at all.

My best Scotch Ale was made with just 2-row and a little roasted barley, but a ton of kettle caramelization. I've tried making it using a bunch of crystal malts and having compared the two, would always choose kettle caramelization in the future. I would eliminate the honey and use LDME instead and kettle caramelize it. I'd prob just use LDME for all of the extract and maybe adjust the roast barley for color.

You should most definitely make a starter. Probably stepped-up at least once. When I make big beers like this I just make a low gravity ale with the original pitch (but also making a starter for it) and then use the cake from the low grav ale to make the big beer. A Scottish 60/- or 70/- is a good 'starter' batch.

I'd also leave out the finishing hops. HTH and good luck.

When I brew with extract I tend to use pale/light/pils extracts primarily because they allow me to have more control over exactly what ingredients are going into the beer. There is nothing “wrong” amber extract (you can make fine beers with it), but if you ever want to convert your recipe to all-grain it can make things more difficult because you don’t know exactly the malts/ratios/mash the extract producer uses.

Why so much honey? You are really at braggot levels getting nearly half your fermentables from honey. Nothing wrong with that, but it will make for a pretty thin beer compared to most strong scotch ales. If you do want honey character I would wait and add it after the end of the boil (or even into primary fermentation) to avoid destroying or driving off the delicate aromatics.

Otherwise your recipe looks fine, although I might go for a darker crystal malt (some dark fruit and caramelized sugar is nice in the style) and slightly less roasted barley (you don’t want too much roast/coffee, or do you?).

A starter would be a great idea for a beer with such a high OG. Just boil ½ lb of DME with ½ gallon of water and a pinch of yeast nutrient, chill, aerate, and add the yeast. Give it a shake every time you walk by to keep the CO2 out and get some oxygen in. If you do it far enough in advance you can chill the starter after it ferments out and decant off the starter wort so you can pitch just the yeast slurry.

I held out against kegging for a long time, now I can’t imagine not doing it. Haven’t gone nitro yet, but eventually I’m planning on doing it on one tap.

Hope that helps, good luck.

P.S. I grew up in Wayland MA

DEFINITELY use a starter. Always use a starter, and especially on a beer that big and beautiful..you want everything to go right. You'll be glad you did.

Is there a reason you are using both liquid and dry amber extract? I might be easier just to buy one type. Also, make sure you are calculating the right about of IBU's you want with only a 30 minute boil.

There's a lot of honey, but everything else looks ok to me! Should be a good one.

Oldsock said:

When I brew with extract I tend to use pale/light/pils extracts primarily because they allow me to have more control over exactly what ingredients are going into the beer. There is nothing “wrong” amber extract (you can make fine beers with it), but if you ever want to convert your recipe to all-grain it can make things more difficult because you don’t know exactly the malts/ratios/mash the extract producer uses.

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Using Beer Smith, I was able to get in the color range I wanted with the combination of grains and malts...

Why so much honey? You are really at braggot levels getting nearly half your fermentables from honey. Nothing wrong with that, but it will make for a pretty thin beer compared to most strong scotch ales. If you do want honey character I would wait and add it after the end of the boil (or even into primary fermentation) to avoid destroying or driving off the delicate aromatics.

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I'll be adding the honey once the wort has cooled to under 110F, to retain as much of it's character as possible. I'm still sourcing my honey. I had placed an order for a gallon last week, but it has yet to arrive (from SW NH)... I need to get on the horn and shake the cage of those guys... Almost ready to drive up to them with my size 12 steel toe boots on... I had wanted to use some of their honey in the Vanilla Honey Porter we made last weekend, but since it wasn't here, we had to find other honey (paying more than we should have of course)...

From what I've learned, a braggot is more a 1/3 malt, 2/3 honey ratio... I don't think the 8:5 malt:honey ratio would qualify...

Otherwise your recipe looks fine, although I might go for a darker crystal malt (some dark fruit and caramelized sugar is nice in the style) and slightly less roasted barley (you don’t want too much roast/coffee, or do you?).

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I was looking to add some nut tones to the brew, hence the 2.24% Roasted Barley (5oz) in the recipe. I'm not sure which Crystal Malt will be used, since that more depends on what the LHBS I go to has in stock. I'm looking to have a nice, thick, lasting, head on this one... While my first two beers are still finishing up the carbonating phase, I'm hoping that they will have better heads than the samples we took last weekend would indicate. We opened up the partial fill bottles, after they were only carbonating for a week. I'm holding myself back from opening up any until at least tomorrow night. That will give them just about 11 days bottled, on honey...

A starter would be a great idea for a beer with such a high OG. Just boil ½ lb of DME with ½ gallon of water and a pinch of yeast nutrient, chill, aerate, and add the yeast. Give it a shake every time you walk by to keep the CO2 out and get some oxygen in. If you do it far enough in advance you can chill the starter after it ferments out and decant off the starter wort so you can pitch just the yeast slurry.

I held out against kegging for a long time, now I can’t imagine not doing it. Haven’t gone nitro yet, but eventually I’m planning on doing it on one tap.

Hope that helps, good luck.

P.S. I grew up in Wayland MA

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The starter I made for last weekend's brewing session made the yeast VERY happy... I used the same yeast I've called out here, along with a mix of 1/2 cup light DME, 8 ounces of wort (1.156 gravity) and about 8 ounces of water, in a 1.5L jar that I have on hand (need to get something else that has better seals on it... That night, post-lag phase, the solution would foam up rather nicely when given a swirl (I had aerated the solution well before pitching in the yeast)... After putting the starter into the wort (we didn't drain anything off, just added it all in) the lag phase was about 30-45 minutes. At two hours, there was a good amount of foam on top of the wort. At 7 hours, the foam was clear through the airlock and I had to install a blow-off tube for the carboy (a 6 gallon PET)... After two days, it had calmed down and I was able to install the airlock again (cleaned and sanitized of course)...

Beer Smith was off, I think, for the OG on that one, unless not everything was fully dissolved into solution (we added the honey <110F there)... I'm actually hoping that the software is correct, or close enough to make things right, for the gravities. It estimated it at 1.094, with a FG estimate of about 1.024...

As for the hops, I want a little of what Fuggles brings to the pallet, but not a lot of actual bitterness. Hence the 'short' boil of only 30 minutes with hops (total hop boil time)... From what I'm learning, that should help to offset some of the sweetness in the brew...

Not really sure what style to call this. I'm leaning towards more hybrid styles of beers, or ones that don't really fall into any. I have a recipe in the works for a monster brew (calling it TripSix for now) that could take a while to finish the fermenting stages, as well as aging...

Oh, and I'm actually trying to get out of MA... Looking to go north, to either VT, NH or ME... Of course, I'd love to move to Alaska if given the opportunity...

GaryJohn said:

DEFINITELY use a starter. Always use a starter, and especially on a beer that big and beautiful..you want everything to go right. You'll be glad you did.

Is there a reason you are using both liquid and dry amber extract? I might be easier just to buy one type. Also, make sure you are calculating the right about of IBU's you want with only a 30 minute boil.

There's a lot of honey, but everything else looks ok to me! Should be a good one.

Click to expand...

Thinking that I'll need to get more blow-off tubing before I start this one... The correct size to go directly into the carboy this time (I only had tubing that would fit into the bung's hole last time [usually for an airlock], for the PET carboy)... I'm hoping that using the starter will not only help the yeast get happy faster, but also let them go longer, or ferment more...

I'm trying to get to a desired color as well as everything else. Hence using the light and amber malt extracts (LME and DME)...

Beer Smith calculates the IBU's, so I don't need to crunch the numbers there. I'm not someone that goes for high hoppiness in my brews (either what I'm making, or drink when out)... Although I might go a little longer on this, if that's what it will take to get the right balance (not have it too malty/sweet)...

The OG is in the range for the style (style OG range is 1.070-1.130) as is the FG... Color is also within the range (14-25 SRM), towards the lighter side of the spectrum at 17.9. ABV is close to the top end for the style too (6.5-10%) at 9.73%...

My first brew, a Honey Porter, had originally called for just one pound of honey, plus one pound of DME (on top of the LME)... I added an extra pound of honey and DME to the boil (before I learned to not boil/cook honey )... I added another pound of honey when I racked it to secondary, since it didn't have the character I was looking for. When I sampled it later (as well as brought some to the LHBS I shop at) it was agreed that it was good (and a little 'hot' but still very good)... Since bottling it, also with honey instead of priming sugar, it's smoothed out nicely. You still know you're drinking something with 'nads, but it goes down really nicely. The kick hits about ten minutes into it, or after you have a good 4-6 ounces of the brew...

I'll probably take a bottle to the LHBS tomorrow, or Thursday, so we can evaluate it... I told them I would, after it was bottled, so I need to... I also need to get more honey for brewing/fermenting... Love what it brings to brews/beers...

Oh, and I have four batches of mead going right now, but I don't expect any of them to be close to drinkable for months (might have one ready come summer, but doubt it) if not a year (or longer) from now... I'm looking to brew more beers, still using at least some honey in them, over the coming months/years... Just because not a lot of people do it like I plan, won't stop me from doing it.

It'll probably make a good beer, but it's not going to be a wee heavy. The late hop character, excessive roast and large amount of honey are all innapropriate for a strong scotch ale.

maskednegator said:

It'll probably make a good beer, but it's not going to be a wee heavy. The late hop character, excessive roast and large amount of honey are all innapropriate for a strong scotch ale.

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What would you classify it as then??? I'm finding, more and more, that most of what I think up (in my twisted mind) doesn't fall within any regular style parameters... :rockin:

A good reason to home brew if there ever was one...

maskednegator said:

It'll probably make a good beer, but it's not going to be a wee heavy. The late hop character, excessive roast and large amount of honey are all innapropriate for a strong scotch ale.

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That's what I was thinking.

But why does it have to fall into a category. If it's what you want to drink, go for it.

Calder said:

That's what I was thinking.

But why does it have to fall into a category. If it's what you want to drink, go for it.

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I'm getting to that opinion too... Especially after making modifications to other recipe's and having them turn out really good.

Historically, I don't usually go with light brews (in color, never a 'lite' beer/brew). I also like it when they have a good kick to them (I consider anything under 4.5% ABV to have a light rating). I enjoy a good Guinness as often as I can get them. I'm also a little disappointed with what Sam Adams is doing/producing these days. I'm not one to go for a bitter brew, or one with a higher IBU rating.

I'm trying to get into the process of making sure that I'll have enough brews finishing, and in bottles, before the previous batch (or batches) have run out.

I've changed the style for the brew I posted here to "Specialty" since that seems more like the 'open' class for brewing... I'm making ales for now, since I'm not comfortable with making larger's just yet. Perhaps next fall I'll get into making those too, once I'm in a better position to let them ferment at their desired temperatures. I'm looking to pick up a couple of used chest freezers for fermenting cooler as well as storing brews for longer.