Scottish Export Ale Recipe Discussion

[JstnMoyer]

I am planning to brew a Scottish Export Ale (14C) in a few weeks for late Fall drinking. All grain BIAB.

I am between 2 recipe approaches below. My main questions are:

• Which base malt to use? (seems to be an ongoing debate within the style)
• What yeast have you used for Scottish Exports?
• Which specialty malts - Chocolate Rye, Biscuit Malt, brown or amber malts, or other - will lend flavor that will make this beer interesting while being true to style? I prefer toasty and spicy over roasty or caramely.

Option 1:
8.5# Maris Otter
1.5# Munich Dark
9oz (5%) English Crystal 60L
.25# (2.3%) Chocolate Rye 240L
2oz Roasted Barley

Maris Otter to lend its nice toasty base flavor. Chocolate Rye was an idea I picked up from Beerandbrewing.com "to add some spicy malt flavors along with the touch of drying roast".​

Option 2:
8.5# Golden Promise
1.5# Munich Dark
9oz (5%) English Crystal 77L
.25# (2.3%) Belgian Biscuit Malt 22L
3oz Roasted Barley

I have made a couple nice beers with Golden Promise. Belgian Biscuit adds some nutty, toasted biscuit flavor & aroma.​

Yeast: WLP028 or S-04 (just made an irish stout with S-04 and Golden Promise and it is excellent)

I am aiming for SRM 17-20. 20-25 IBU at 60 min. I hope to get a a dry finish with this beer at 75% attenuation finishing at 1.013.

Thanks and looking forward to a solid Scottish Ale discussion thread.

 

[Konstantianus]

A few weeks ago I made an accidental Scottish Heavy with WY 1728.

Grain Bill:
4 Lbs. Muntons Scotmalt
3 Lbs. Munich Dark (9°L)
8 Oz. Flaked Barley
8 Oz. Caramunich III
2 Oz. Roasted Barley

Ended up with an OG of 1.046 and an FG of 1.005 for an ABV of ~5.4%.

For hops I used an ounce of Fuggle at 60 to eliminate any hop aroma.

I think Maris Otter or Golden Promise would be good in most UK beers. I used Scotmalt because its a Scottish ale and the name fits. I really like the 1728 because it accentuates the maltiness of the beer. I pitched at 55°F and let it free rise to room temp. I don't get any frutiness out of the beer at all. I'd lean more toward the WLP028 in this case for a more malty beer because the S-04 is just a little bit too fruity in my opinion. The little bit of roasted barley only adds color and is imperceptible up to this point. To be honest the caramunich was a bit overwhelming when the beer was young although its only been in the bottle 2 weeks. The UK crystal in your second recipe would be fairly similar but it would add more sweetness and less maltiness.

I don't think roasted flavors in a Scottish ale are "to style" but if it suits your fancy then go for it. The 1/4 Lb. of Chocolate Rye in the first recipe might be a bit strong for a Scottish ale. I wanted to make something close to the style so I made sure to eliminate any roasted character other than the roasted barley since it is named in the BJCP style guidelines.

 

[JstnMoyer]

A few weeks ago I made an accidental Scottish Heavy with WY 1728.

Grain Bill:
4 Lbs. Muntons Scotmalt
3 Lbs. Munich Dark (9°L)
8 Oz. Flaked Barley
8 Oz. Caramunich III
2 Oz. Roasted Barley

Ended up with an OG of 1.046 and an FG of 1.005 for an ABV of ~5.4%.

For hops I used an ounce of Fuggle at 60 to eliminate any hop aroma.

I think Maris Otter or Golden Promise would be good in most UK beers. I used Scotmalt because its a Scottish ale and the name fits. I really like the 1728 because it accentuates the maltiness of the beer. I pitched at 55°F and let it free rise to room temp. I don't get any frutiness out of the beer at all. I'd lean more toward the WLP028 in this case for a more malty beer because the S-04 is just a little bit too fruity in my opinion. The little bit of roasted barley only adds color and is imperceptible up to this point. To be honest the caramunich was a bit overwhelming when the beer was young although its only been in the bottle 2 weeks. The UK crystal in your second recipe would be fairly similar but it would add more sweetness and less maltiness.

I don't think roasted flavors in a Scottish ale are "to style" but if it suits your fancy then go for it. The 1/4 Lb. of Chocolate Rye in the first recipe might be a bit strong for a Scottish ale. I wanted to make something close to the style so I made sure to eliminate any roasted character other than the roasted barley since it is named in the BJCP style guidelines.

Looks like you got great attenuation out of 1728 which I'm also considering.

I used Caramunich in my Scottish ale last year but I couldn't shake the the flavor it brought. I'll have to see how long the bottles lasted because I know it can take time for charamunich to mellow. I typically just avoid it now.

I think I will avoid the chocolate rye. Instead, I might rely on the Munich Dark malt to add the malt character I'm wanting to accompany the caramel flavor. Plus, having a touch of toasty & biscuit flavor from Maris Otter and the English Chrystal malt (and still considering Belgian Biscuit malt).

 

[Hanglow]

This was the last heavy I made.

80% Extra Pale Ale malt
10% Flaked Maize
10% Invert no3

OG 1.040 (was aiming for 1.038)
FG 1.008

Hops were Pilgrim, about 30g at 60mins, came in at 35IBU wort IBU.
Nottingham yeast, would change next time for something more interesting at this strength.

And here's the recipe for my favourite heavy from the mid 90s, Maclays

90% Pale Ale
5% Medium Crystal
5% Wheat malt

OG 1.036
FG 1.010

Hops- Northern Brewer, Northdown, to 35 IBUs .


Neither will help you if you are set on those recipes But they are closer to what a heavy ( and export) would be. Something like McEwans Export would be about 20 IBU though I imagine, not had that in quite a while however

 

[JstnMoyer]

This was the last heavy I made.

80% Extra Pale Ale malt
10% Flaked Maize
10% Invert no3

OG 1.040 (was aiming for 1.038)
FG 1.008

Hops were Pilgrim, about 30g at 60mins, came in at 35IBU wort IBU.
Nottingham yeast, would change next time for something more interesting at this strength.

And here's the recipe for my favourite heavy from the mid 90s, Maclays

90% Pale Ale
5% Medium Crystal
5% Wheat malt

OG 1.036
FG 1.010

Hops- Northern Brewer, Northdown, to 35 IBUs .


Neither will help you if you are set on those recipes But they are closer to what a heavy ( and export) would be. Something like McEwans Export would be about 20 IBU though I imagine, not had that in quite a while however

Actually, really cool to see your recipes that span decades! I'm thinking about simplifying my recipe now and I'm not dead-set on the two that I posted originally.

 

[RePete]

This one is tasty. Brink is about a 10 minute walk from my house.
https://beerandbrewing.com/recipe-b...FjGRqp9LI4RmB7onQXKamWEM3KcBdBhOpjPg7Fof5YjMg

 

[JstnMoyer]

I think I can rely on Maris Otter and Munich malt to provide enough of the malt character I'm looking for. I might use 2 caramel malts. Wyeast 1728 or WLP028 will be the yeast but I'm considering a half pound or so of corn sugar and a mash of 150f to encourage attenuation. I'll want to ferment cool at first. The grist I'm now considering:

8 lb Maris Otter
1 lb Munich Dark
5 oz (3%) English Crystal 45L
5 oz (3%) English Crystal 77L
3 oz (2%) Roasted Barley
.5 lb corn sugar late kettle addition
25 IBU @ 60 min
Wyeast 1728

 

[Konstantianus]

I would definitely recommend mashing low, I mashed in at 143°F and raised it to 154°F doing a recirculated BIAB. I believe that's why I was able to get my FG so low. The corn sugar will dry the beer out a bit and I assume that's why you'd want to add it. You might think about adding the sugar at the beginning before the boil to try and get some caramelization out of it during the boil, but the crystal malts may provide enough character on their own.

 

[JstnMoyer]

I would definitely recommend mashing low, I mashed in at 143°F and raised it to 154°F doing a recirculated BIAB. I believe that's why I was able to get my FG so low. The corn sugar will dry the beer out a bit and I assume that's why you'd want to add it. You might think about adding the sugar at the beginning before the boil to try and get some caramelization out of it during the boil, but the crystal malts may provide enough character on their own.

Oh cool - I was wondering how you got the FG so low with 1728. My idea of mashing at 150f (instead of 152 or 154) and adding corn sugar are for the purpose of encouraging max attenuation with 1728 fermented at appropriate temps. If mashing low would achieve this, I'll omit the sugar. Going for an FG of 1.010 to 1.014 tops. I don't want it to be cloying like my last go at Scottish Export was. Perhaps I should go even lower than 150f. Recirculated BIAB sounds complicated though

 

[Konstantianus]

The "stated" attenuation was in the low 70's so I was fairly surprised when it came in so low. In my mind 152°F is the middle point of mash temps 148°F is the low end and 156°F is the high end so you should be safe at 150°F. At 72% attenuation you'll be looking at 1.014 which is around where I'd expect this to land assuming you hit 1.052 on your OG. You can go down to 148°F to really try and get a dry beer and if you hit 1.014 or above I'd be shocked.

For my BIAB recirculation I have a hot water pump made by Bayite which pumps the wort at the bottom of my kettle to the top of the mash. It's pretty simple and I let it run through the entire mash if I can.