Scottish Wee Heavy Recipe, what do you think?

[stpug]

I'd caramelize a gallon of your first runnings, not all. I did a wee heavy last weekend that has fermented in about 5 days from 1.090 to 1.018 with wyeast 1728 at 61F carboy temperature (ale pitch per Mr Malty), 99% Golden Promise, 1% English Roasted Barley. The caramelization probably affected the fermentability and I'd be concerned that caramelizing all the first runnings and having specialty malts in the grain bill would end up with a high final gravity.

After you take off your 1 gallon, still sparge to your normal pre-boil volume for a 90 minute boil beacuse the caramelized wort won't be a significant volume anymore. Plan for the caramelization to take 90 minutes.

For future reference for myself:
Your batch size was ~5 gallons, correct?
Also, what volume would you say you reduced your 1 gallon of carmelized runnings to? 2 cups? Quart? Half gallon?

I really like your simple grainbill. I'm interested in any tasting notes you have when tasting the samples since the actual beer probably won't be ready for another year

 

[DSmith]

For future reference for myself:
Your batch size was ~5 gallons, correct?
Also, what volume would you say you reduced your 1 gallon of carmelized runnings to? 2 cups? Quart? Half gallon?

I really like your simple grainbill. I'm interested in any tasting notes you have when tasting the samples since the actual beer probably won't be ready for another year

I take no credit for the recipe, I followed this recipe as close as possible (except 90 minute boil, and subbed in UK Golding hops):

http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=8071.0

The caramelization reduced to about 10% of the original volume and needed a lot of attention and extra heat for about the last 10 minutes. I bought a silicone spatula for my brewing box for this to really keep the wort from sitting on the bottom of the pot too long.

I'm planning on leaving it in the primary for 3 weeks, 2 months secondary near freezing, and bottle conditioning it for a long time.

 

[stpug]

I take no credit for the recipe, I followed this recipe as close as possible (except 90 minute boil, and subbed in UK Golding hops):

http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=8071.0

The caramelization reduced to about 10% of the original volume and needed a lot of attention and extra heat for about the last 10 minutes. I bought a silicone spatula for my brewing box for this to really keep the wort from sitting on the bottom of the pot too long.

I'm planning on leaving it in the primary for 3 weeks, 2 months secondary near freezing, and bottle conditioning it for a long time.

Thanks for the link. I love the simplicity of the recipe which, to me, means it comes down to the process and care you put into making the beer.

The caramelization reduction is impressive. I never thought you'd boil down 1 gallon of super-rich wort to a mere 12 ounces of caramel goodness, but I guess that explains where the depth of caramel notes comes from considering there is none in the grainbill. Was it as thick as I'm envisioning after the reduction?

This might just push me to getting one going this winter for next winter
Cheers

 

[DSmith]

Was it as thick as I'm envisioning after the reduction?

Probably not as thick as you're thinking. It did take some hot wort from the boil kettle to thin it out and transfer it to the boil kettle.

I had never done this before, so to prep, I cooked a caramelized maple syrup pecan pie the day before with the same pot/spatula. I reduced 2 cups of maple syrup to about 1-1/4 cups. The end consistency was about the same as the wort caramelization and was a delicious dry-run...

 

[DavidJP]

I take no credit for the recipe, I followed this recipe as close as possible (except 90 minute boil, and subbed in UK Golding hops):

Traquair house uses East kent goldings so you'd be more authentic than the Skotrat clone recipe, but i guess you probably already knew that.

http://www.traquair.co.uk/content/traquair-house-brewery

 

[Newsman]

I'm going to HAVE to give this a shot. I love big, sweet beers and this sounds like the ticket à