Proper dry yeast for Scottish Export 80 /-

[Locham]

Folks-

I'll be brewing the Midwest Scottish Export 80 Shilling extract kit this weekend as a full-volume boil (and using my newly-acquired wort chiller). Ingredients are:

6 lbs. Gold liquid malt extract
1 lb. Amber DME
4 oz. Biscuit
8 oz. Caramel 40L
4 oz. Chocolate
2 oz. Special B
1 oz. Peat malt specialty grains
.5 oz. Challenger (bittering, 90 min)
1 oz. Fuggles (flavor, 30 min)

I have a few questions, though, and lay myself on the mercy of the board:

1) Proper yeast. Liquid yeast isn't an option for me (long shipping overseas, etc), and my kit came with Safale S-04. I also have ingredients for EdWort's Haus Pale Ale, and picked up a package of Nottingham to use with that. Recipes I've seen online sometimes use S-04, sometimes Nottingham, sometimes S-05. Which would be best to pitch for a Scottish Export, and so I learn, why?

2) Late extract additions. Would it be reasonable to do this as a late extract and expect good results (ie, proper balance between malt and bitter, befitting a Scottish Export)? Or would I need to change my hop additions so that the hops don't overpower the maltiness? To do this properly, would I add all of the LME during the last 5 minutes of the boil, or would I add some of the LME to the dissolved DME at the beginnng of the boil? I know that the times and amounts added will change the nature of the finished brew, but I'm not sure exactly how.

Appreciate any advice!

 

[brettwasbtd]

1) Scottish ales usually use really clean yeasts. In my experience, all three of the aforementioned dry yeasts are fairly clean (Haven't been able to get S-04 to taste british really). What temp are you fermenting at? If you can go real cold like 58-60 range nottingham might be the way to go, if closer to 68 I'd go with S-05.

2) You can do either. Depends on what your estimated color is. You have quite a bit of other malts so it could get dark for style. These were typically brewed to have some kettle caramelization so for this style you may want to put all the extract in at the beginning.

 

[Locham]

Thanks, I'll do some searching for a cooler corner of my house and see what I can generate. I expect that my upstairs closet will work - as long as my wife doesn't find the carboy in there! And I'll stick to following the recipe and not doing a late extract addition with this one - one step at a time, right?

I have to admit that yeast options are incredibly confusing for me, particularly since I'm relying on dry yeast. Midwest shipped Safale S-04 with my kit, and both Northern Brewer and AHBS lists Safbrew S-33 as their dry yeast of choice for their Scottish Ales, but then for AHBS's Session Scottish Export recommend Windsor. Nottingham is an option, but then so is S-05! I'm sure the results are different with each yeast (and then different within each of those yeasts depending on fermentation temps, pitching temp, temp fluctuations, time in primary, time in secondary (if one chooses to rack to secondary for some reason).

How does anyone learn this? Is it just that there are many paths to a final destination, and at the end it will be beer and will probably be good? I realize I should probably post this part in the yeast/fermentation section, too....

Thanks again,

Ken

 

[thughes]

Ken, take a look at this:

http://translate.google.co.il/translate?sl=iw&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fmyhomebrewedbeer.blogspot.com%2F2011%2F11%2Fyeast-yeast-yeast.html&act=url

http://translate.google.co.il/translate?hl=iw&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fdistilledbeer.blogspot.com%2F2011%2F12%2Fblog-post_17.html

This brew club is located in Israel, perhaps it would be worth checking out for you:

http://translate.google.co.il/translate?sl=iw&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fmyhomebrewedbeer.blogspot.com%2F2011%2F11%2Fyeast-yeast-yeast.html&act=url

 

[Locham]

Thanks! My hebrew is coming along and will hopefully improve exponentially over the coming few years that I'll be here. I hadn't come across any of the sites - particularly 'Lovers of Zion' which seems to be the big club/forum here. Perhaps a brew club will help improve my lingo skills even more...or at least find great beer.

Cheers