Kettlehouse Cold Smoke Scotch Ale Recipe?

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Hey dtwhite, beginner here that is also hooked on The Smoke. I am a bit confused on how much water to add; 4.5g, then another 4.5g, then 4 gallons to sparge? Or do you only sparge until it runs clear? And 185° for sparge temp, is that too hot if I am using an igloo cooler? Thanks.

Yeah, sorry that's a bit confusing. What I did was take 4.5 gallons and mash in at 148, then raise the temperature of that volume of water to 168, drain it, then sparge with 4 gallons. Total water volume of 8.5 gallons minus however much was absorbed by the grain.

185 is fine for sparging, it really doesn't matter too much.

Keep in mind the fact that I took down the ABV of this drink. If you want to take it from the ~5.25% I got up to the 6.5% of the actual beer, you will need to add more 2-row. I'd plug it into a calculator to get your volumes right. I could help you with a recipe if you know your normal efficiency.
 
Yeah, sorry that's a bit confusing. What I did was take 4.5 gallons and mash in at 148, then raise the temperature of that volume of water to 168, drain it, then sparge with 4 gallons. Total water volume of 8.5 gallons minus however much was absorbed by the grain.

185 is fine for sparging, it really doesn't matter too much.

Keep in mind the fact that I took down the ABV of this drink. If you want to take it from the ~5.25% I got up to the 6.5% of the actual beer, you will need to add more 2-row. I'd plug it into a calculator to get your volumes right. I could help you with a recipe if you know your normal efficiency.

Ok, thanks for the clarification. I was planning on adding 2lbs of 2-row, which on Brewtoad, gave me these numbers:

Strike grains with 4.88 gal of water at 182 °F.
Mash at 168 °F for 60 min.
Vorlauf and lauter 2.97 gal in your first runnings.
Add 4.53 gal of sparge water at 168 °F.
Vorlauf and lauter 4.53 gal in your second runnings.
Your combined runnings should be 7.5 gal.

Since I am mashing in an igloo cooler, raising the temp to 168 is not really an option. Thoughts?
 
Ok, thanks for the clarification. I was planning on adding 2lbs of 2-row, which on Brewtoad, gave me these numbers:

Strike grains with 4.88 gal of water at 182 °F.
Mash at 168 °F for 60 min.
Vorlauf and lauter 2.97 gal in your first runnings.
Add 4.53 gal of sparge water at 168 °F.
Vorlauf and lauter 4.53 gal in your second runnings.
Your combined runnings should be 7.5 gal.

Since I am mashing in an igloo cooler, raising the temp to 168 is not really an option. Thoughts?

Do not mash at 168, you will likely kill the enzymes and the beer won't ferment well. Mash at 148.

If you want to raise up to 168 after conversion completes, you can remove some liquid and heat it up in the kettle before adding it back (use a decoction calculator). But really that's not critical.
 
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I just started home brewing and would really love the recipe as well, I live near Missoula and in my family if we aren't drinking Cold Smoke, we are drinking Pabst. All or nothing.

Here's the recipe we've been talking about, which I think is quite accurate:
http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/332966/cold-smoke-clone
 
Math looks good, and that is true that it is a two hour boil. On another note, the 10.5 IBUs are supposed to come from CTZ (Columbus/Tomahawk/Zeus), so go with one of those. Here is my conversion for a partial mash recipe with the numbers rounded slightly.

5.4 lb light DME
0.25 lb brown sugar
5.1 oz 120L Crystal malt
3.2 oz Black Malt
1.4 oz Roasted Barley
0.3 oz Golding hops (at flameout)
10.5 IBUs from Columbus/Tomahawk/Zeus

Going off of the above measurements this weekend to make a 5 gallon batch (is above technically extract with specialty grains brew, not partial mash?). It has been a couple years since my last brew and want to make sure I have the steps correct. Is there no LME?

1-steep black malt, barley and crystal malt in 1 quart of water (assuming 1 quart per pound steeped) at 160~F for 25min.
2-heat 3 gallons of water to 170~F and mix in DME and steeped grains water/wort.
3-Bring to rolling boil - now start 120min countdown
4-Add 10.5 IBU CTZ at 110min
5-Add .25lbs brown sugar at 30min
6-Add .3oz golding hops at 0min
7-Top off kettle to 5 gal of water (given .5 gal of wort lost per hour boil, assume addition of 4 gallons?)
8-Cool to 68F and pitch yeast (Edinburgh Scottish Ale Yeast or S33)
9-Ferment at 68F for 2-3 weeks
10-Keg/Profit
 
Update:
I'm brewing this one right now with the following changes from the brewersfriend recipe posted above:

Mash 149
1.3 Qts/LB ratio strike
2L starter of WY1728 Scottish Ale
Ferment at 62F with a ramp to ~68F as fermentation slows

I will hold it at 68F for about a week (will be on vacation) and then package in the keg. I'm not sure if I'll purge headspace and let it sit at room temp or put it in the fridge right away. I guess it depends on how it tastes at that point? Will update, but would love to hear opinions.
 
This sounds like a great Scottish 70. I may have to give this a try. I love the fact that the brewery gave up the actual recipe. :mug:

Sweet! Share your results if you do! There's a popular Old Chub clone somewhere on here--maybe this one will follow suit as we all try to make an accurate copy ;) Such a tasty beer worthy of emulating!

Brew day yesterday was a little rough, but I was able to make corrections on the fly. I am not sure why, but my preboil mash efficiency was way up--approximately 80% via batch sparging in a 10g Home Depot mash tun with stainless braided line. I had my calculator set to 70%, which is what I usually get on bigger grain bills.

I mashed at 150F, at 1.3 qts/lb for about 75 minutes and recirculated via pump for my vorlauf. I had to add in about a gallon of water to the boil to correct, and still ended up with an OG of 1.072ish. I also had to bump up the CTZ hops addition to 0.3oz to keep the BU:GU ratio the same with the higher gravity. This is all before the late brown sugar addition, too.

It's the first 2 hour boil I've done, and I had my boiloff calculator set a little low to 12% per hour. I'm realizing now that being off by a few percentage points on estimated boiloff makes very little difference over 1 hour--but over two it's pretty obvious! I put just about 5.25 gallons in the fermenter (lost a lot to trub and equipment).

Pitched at 62F, undecanted 2L starter of 1728 Scottish Ale yeast.

Here's a little vid of the brew day:

 
Update: Yeast was pitched Wednesday, and she's bubbling steadily. I have my chest freezer set to 62F and I can tell it would've been a downright violent fermentation if I started at 68F.

I'm thinking of bumping it to 65 tomorrow morning, and 68 the following day (and then holding for a week at that while I'm out of town). Should be a more than sufficient diacetyl rest temperature and duration, I'd think.

I have never used this yeast before, but I started so low because I didn't want a ester bomb like some of my fruity Belgians, or something that came off hot, but I am a little concerned about it being *too* clean for the style at this temp regimen. Does anyone have any thoughts on this, or experience to share? WY1728/WLP028 strain
 
I fermented this batch at 62 for 3 days with WY1728, 65 for 1 day, and just bumped it up to 68F. I'm showing 1.012 with my hydrometer right now, krausen has dropped and airlock activity is fairly minimal. 1.072 to 1.012 or just about 78% attenuation.

Flavor is nice and Scottish...ish. Clean with a hint of berry ester. Some yeasties but I haven't crashed yet, and it hasn't flocced at all on its own. Touch of smoke (maybe?) on the nose, none on the palate.

This beer is obviously super, super young. Once these flavors meld, I'm sure it'll be a nice one for our cold weather. Definitely came in stronger than expected at 7.8% ABV, but doesn't taste hot.
 
Lucky, I've seen Scottish recipes with ferments as low as 58. From what I remember the idea of a Scottish is to mash high 156-158, boil long 90-120 mins and ferment low, so I think your process is great. Should be a good Scottish, but it did go a higher than a 70 schilling. More like a heavy.
 
Sounds good, I’d be interested in further updates on flavor, etc. Trying a Scottish ale again is on my to do list.
 
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