Carmelizing boil for a Wee Heavy

[HopHog87]

I'm really excited to try a Wee Heavy. One of my favorite styles when I'm not in the "hop" mood. I have been working on beersmith to develop my recipes with good luck so far. But now it hit a snag and need some words from experience, please.

I decided I need to keep it (recipe) simple. I think a good Wee Heavy could be 100 percent 2 row but I'm probably going 1-2% roasted barley, too.

For technique, I was going to boil down some first runnings to add color/flavor. People seem to have great luck with this method. My question, though, lies in this technique. How can I predict an fairly accurate OG with that? In beersmith I didn't see an option for this technique. I don't want to be way off on my OG. Thanks.





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[Yooper]

I'm really excited to try a Wee Heavy. One of my favorite styles when I'm not in the "hop" mood. I have been working on beersmith to develop my recipes with good luck so far. But now it hit a snag and need some words from experience, please.

I decided I need to keep it (recipe) simple. I think a good Wee Heavy could be 100 percent 2 row but I'm probably going 1-2% roasted barley, too.

For technique, I was going to boil down some first runnings to add color/flavor. People seem to have great luck with this method. My question, though, lies in this technique. How can I predict an fairly accurate OG with that? In beersmith I didn't see an option for this technique. I don't want to be way off on my OG. Thanks.

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You shouldn't be off on your OG. When you boil down some of the first runnings, the OG will increase in that amount of course, but then you'll add more sparge runnings (or water) to get back up to 5 gallons and then you'd have the same OG than if you didn't boil down any runnings.

 

[HopHog87]

Thanks, Yooper. That makes sense. Sense no sugars of significant amount are being evaporated than I guess that wouldn't really change the end result.

May I ask, if and when you use this technique, do you generally add more sparge water to achieve pre-boil volume or do you just add top off to achieve a volume/gravity?


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[frazier]

I've done this before - Suppose you want to end up with 5 gallons at 1.080 - Beersmith will tell you how much grain to use. Then, run off about 3/4 gallon more than you normally would to account for boiloff in your system. Take the first gallon and boil it down on the stovetop while you do the normal boil. I like to stick a candy thermometer in the satellite boil, and get it up to about 230* (otherwise, you are just making LME). Add it back into the regular boil at the end. You'll probably end up with a 90 minute boil anyway, which is good.

The important thing is, don't stress about a few gravity points here or there. The main character of the brew will come from the boil, not from the numbers.

And, wear a kilt if you have one.

Cheers!