Scotch Ale - thoughts?

[SmokingDog]

5gal - derived (yet modified) from the Dirty Bastard recipe posted.

9# Rahr 2-row Base (2# roasted 350deg for 60 min)
4# Maris Otter
1# Special B
.5# CaraPils
.5# CaraMunich
.5# CaraVienne
.25# Plack Patent
.25# Smoked/Peated Malt

1 oz. Golding @60
.5 oz. Perle @40
.5 oz. Golding @20

Wyeast 1728 Scotch Ale

Mash-in 165 deg
Mash 152-4 deg 60 min
Fly sparge 175 deg

First runnings 1 gal boiled down 50%

I'm a little nervous with the peated/smoked malt. I'd like a very slight smoke, but nowhere near apparent. Not sure if the 1728 will give enough of that or not. Possibly .125#?

Thanks for any input.

 

[JonM]

Looks good - you've got the right yeast.

I made a wee heavy recently and was advised to do a 75% reduction in the kettle caramelization rather than 50%. Here's a link:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/camelizing-wort-wee-heavy-266427/

I'm not a fan of smoked malt, but I'm sure others who do like it will weigh in on the amount. Cheers!

 

[JonM]

Oh, and scotch ales are low on hops - might want to do just a small 60 min addition.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

There's no reason to do a 40 minute addition.

 

[corkybstewart]

My wee heavy was just 98% Maris Otter and 2% roasted barley, 20 IBU's of Goldings for 60 minutes, and used White Labs Edinburgh yeast fermented around 58F. For my 10 gallon batch, I reduced 2 gallons of the first runnings to just over a pint in about 2 hours. Oh was that a delicious malt bomb, even my hophead daughter couldn't leave it alone.

 

[Lucky_Chicken]

seems like a high sparge temperature. I thought going over 170 started pulling off flavors out of the husks? that could be totally wrong but, I usually sparge at 169.

I just do 60 min hops on my scotch ales, so I would throw all those in from the begining.

+1 on the roasted barley with goldings... my mouth is watering already, I cant wait to get home!

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

seems like a high sparge temperature. I thought going over 170 started pulling off flavors out of the husks? that could be totally wrong but, I usually sparge at 169.

I just do 60 min hops on my scotch ales, so I would throw all those in from the begining.

+1 on the roasted barley with goldings... my mouth is watering already, I cant wait to get home!

Your sparge water needs to be hot enough that it gets the grain temp to 168 so it stops conversion.

 

[JonM]

Oh, when I did my kettle caramelization, I figured I should use my 4-qt saucepan that's designed for reducing liquids. It worked just okay but too slowly for my impatient self.

I then poured everything from that pan into my old 4-gal brew kettle. The much larger surface area made the 75% reduction happen in a snap. It took a little closer attention, but worked really well.

 

[wildwest450]

seems like a high sparge temperature. I thought going over 170 started pulling off flavors out of the husks? that could be totally wrong but, I usually sparge at 169.

Ph has everything to do with tannin extraction. If hot water(above 170f) produced off flavors, all decocted beers would be awful nasty.


_

 

[adamjab19]

I did what corkybstewart posted above and had plenty of smoke flavor I believe from the yeast. And I also boiled 7 gallons down to 5 gallons in the kettle.I think you would be fine without the addition of smoke malt. And the couple articels I have read about wee heavy beg and plead with the brewer to not add smoked malt.

 

[SmokingDog]

seems like a high sparge temperature. I thought going over 170 started pulling off flavors out of the husks? that could be totally wrong but, I usually sparge at 169.

My fly sparging at 175 leaves the grain bed at about 166-8 given lost from equip and grain. That should be equiv to about 168 batch sparge.

I appreciate everyone's comments. Final brew and results posts to follow.

 

[bjl110]

This is more of a thread jack question than comment, but that seems like a lot of crystal/cara. Is there supposed to be that much style wise?

 

[adamjab19]

This is more of a thread jack question than comment, but that seems like a lot of crystal/cara. Is there supposed to be that much style wise?

It was my impression that the dirty bastard clone is setup to mimic a traditional wee heavy boil down with all of the crystals etc...I may be wrong though. So for the OP I think with the recipe and their planned boil down will increase maltiness to be sure.

 

[Lucky_Chicken]

Your sparge water needs to be hot enough that it gets the grain temp to 168 so it stops conversion.

So I could skip the mash out if I sparge at higher temperatures?

 

[SmokingDog]

So I could skip the mash out if I sparge at higher temperatures?

Or you could batch sparge...my plan for this batch.