Scottish Heavy Walker's Gruagach 80/-

[ShizuokaBrad]

This looks like such a good recipe and I love Scotch ales. I'm going to give this a go in a couple of weeks. Unfortunately, it's not so easy to get some of the malts here in Japan. Specifically the melanoidin and the aromatic. Does anyone have a good substitute for these two... something like Carared, for example?
Cheers for the help!

 

[rico567]

This looks like such a good recipe and I love Scotch ales. I'm going to give this a go in a couple of weeks. Unfortunately, it's not so easy to get some of the malts here in Japan. Specifically the melanoidin and the aromatic. Does anyone have a good substitute for these two... something like Carared, for example?
Cheers for the help!

Of the several Scotch ales I have brewed, this is by far my favorite. As for the malt question, when I ran across a malt equivalency table I realizee that there are a lot of malts around that have just been given proprietary or regional names, when they are identical (or close enough) to a more familiar malt, like C40L or something. There's a link somewhere on HBT, but this is the first one that popped up under Google:

http://kotmf.com/articles/maltnames.php

good luck!

 

[ShizuokaBrad]

Thanks for that! Looks like it will be some help.

Cheers!

 

[dadnboys]

Brewed a 10 gal batch last night. It was cold outside and it took 25 min to get my mash temp up to 154-I was at 148 for a while. Finally raised the Polar mash run up off the ground and that did it! Let the mash go for 90 min total. How do you think this may affect the beer?
I did the carmelization step and I have some advice. Use a big sauce pan with extra space to prevent boil overs. Especially if you're running back and forth to the brew pot.
Only changes I made to the recipe were I used Golden Promise base malt because I had it, put in an extra 0.5 oz of hops and targeted a 12 gal finish instead if the 11.0 in doubled recipe. The GP malt usually delivers for me and I hit the OG dead on miraculously.
My LHBS had peated malt that didn't taste so strong so I used the full amount, but be aware as they vary. It will smell and taste like a Band-Aid if you use too much. Thoughts on adding scotch to the secondary?
Please post your replies to my ?s above .

 

[DrummerBoySeth]

bump... next recipe....

 

[Arrheinous]

Brewing this in January after the holidays. Started with a Brewer's Best Scottish Ale so it's time to revisit the style with style.

My hopping regime might be more like:
1oz EKG @ 60 min
0.5oz Northdown @ 20 min

 

[dadnboys]

Brewed a 10 gal batch last night. It was cold outside and it took 25 min to get my mash temp up to 154-I was at 148 for a while. Finally raised the Polar mash run up off the ground and that did it! Let the mash go for 90 min total. How do you think this may affect the beer?
I did the carmelization step and I have some advice. Use a big sauce pan with extra space to prevent boil overs. Especially if you're running back and forth to the brew pot.
Only changes I made to the recipe were I used Golden Promise base malt because I had it, put in an extra 0.5 oz of hops and targeted a 12 gal finish instead if the 11.0 in doubled recipe. The GP malt usually delivers for me and I hit the OG dead on miraculously.
My LHBS had peated malt that didn't taste so strong so I used the full amount, but be aware as they vary. It will smell and taste like a Band-Aid if you use too much. Thoughts on adding scotch to the secondary?
Please post your replies to my ?s above .

OK, finally tasted this carbed in keg after a few days. First, I split the 10 gal into 5 gal batches and pitched Edinburg Ale yeast in one and the Scotch Ale yeast in the other. Precarb the Edinburg batch was more complex, had some ester notes reminiscent of a Belgian Ale. This beer probably fermented at 65-70 deg. FG was 1.012. The Scotch Ale batch was flatter, malt nose and the peat came through better. Fermented at 60-65 deg. FG was 1.010. Now a week later, and carbed up the 2 beers are coming closer together. Very tasty.

 

[motorneuron]

Just my two cents on this--my buddy and I brewed this beer over the winter, and although the process went very well, we were initially shocked at the peat taste. We are both big scotch drinkers and love peated scotch, so it's not that we can't handle or aren't familiar with the taste--it's just that it was really intense. But as the beer has aged, the flavor has really rounded out, and the harsh phenolic "preserved corpse" character has turned into a slightly medicinal, briny, smokey taste, much more like a good scotch. It has really blended in well, and we now think it's a great beer. So I guess my advice is, follow the recipe but then let it age for at least 2 months before drinking. Thanks for the recipe!

 

[rico567]

Just my two cents on this--my buddy and I brewed this beer over the winter, and although the process went very well, we were initially shocked at the peat taste. We are both big scotch drinkers and love peated scotch, so it's not that we can't handle or aren't familiar with the taste--it's just that it was really intense. But as the beer has aged, the flavor has really rounded out, and the harsh phenolic "preserved corpse" character has turned into a slightly medicinal, briny, smokey taste, much more like a good scotch. It has really blended in well, and we now think it's a great beer. So I guess my advice is, follow the recipe but then let it age for at least 2 months before drinking. Thanks for the recipe!

A few things:

1. I love peaty Scotch (Laphroiag being my favorite).

2. I have made this recipe several times, and am brewing it again this Spring, and made according to recipe (4 oz. peated malt, I use Simpson's), I don't find it all that peaty (I start drinking after 4 weeks conditioning), in fact it's more of a "hint" of peat, enough so that I may try another ounce this year.

3. Maybe you got some strong peat......

 

[motorneuron]

Hmm, I also used Simpson's. Maybe it was just really fresh, or something. Despite a one-month stint in the primary, the phenol character (reallyl bandaid-like) was initially so intense that we thought we had an infection. Well, I don't know, but I'm just glad it turned out well in the end.

 

[Walker]

Peat is a damn potent thing, and I'm sure it varies from maltster to maltster and over time.
When I was trying to dial this thing in, 3oz was barely there, 6 oz was way too much.
I don't even know what brand I had. It was just packaged up in a half pound package at my LHBS.

edit: I will add that this is the first time I have ever heard the recipe called "too peaty". Normally, people have the reaction that rico had. Meaning, they tasted a hint of peat and wanted more, or they thought it was just right.

 

[Arrheinous]

I just bottled a 5.5 gallon batch of this last week after a month at 60F and a month at 50F. I'll let you know how the peatiness comes out. It's still flat though.

 

[Arrheinous]

Just opened a bottle after almost three weeks. I made some modifications on the hop profile and used Golden Promise for the base malt and went with US-04 since I was ready (and still ain't) to do starters like the Wyeast's Scottish Ale. Been excited to try it out since this is the style that got me into brewing.

Not too peaty at all. You can taste it behind some of the malt character and remains in the mouth after. I might even up the dosage by 50% for a peated oatmeal stout I want to brew.

I stored it at 60F for one month then ~53F for another. Very clear with a dusting of yeast at the bottle of the bottle. My only concern is that the carbonation is low. It's the longest I've let a beer sit and US-04 sounds like a good flocculating yeast. Maybe I should have agitated it a bit more during bottling to rekindle some of the yeast.

 

[Taxman]

I just brewed this and ended up with OG at 1.054, I used 5 lbs of Pale 2 row and 3.75 lbs of Maris Otter. It is fermenting nicely at 60 deg. My question concerns the volumes of CO2 to use to bottle. Tasty Brew shows the style for Scottish Ale/80 schilling at .75-1.3. The calculator shows to use .8 oz of corn sugar for a 5 gal batch that was fermented at 60 degrees. Will this be enough to even produce any head at all? Does this seem low? Has anyone bottled and have any experience with this?

 

[Taxman]

Just opened a bottle after almost three weeks. I made some modifications on the hop profile and used Golden Promise for the base malt and went with US-04 since I was ready (and still ain't) to do starters like the Wyeast's Scottish Ale. Been excited to try it out since this is the style that got me into brewing.

Not too peaty at all. You can taste it behind some of the malt character and remains in the mouth after. I might even up the dosage by 50% for a peated oatmeal stout I want to brew.

I stored it at 60F for one month then ~53F for another. Very clear with a dusting of yeast at the bottle of the bottle. My only concern is that the carbonation is low. It's the longest I've let a beer sit and US-04 sounds like a good flocculating yeast. Maybe I should have agitated it a bit more during bottling to rekindle some of the yeast.

What did you use to carbonate and how much did you use? I was wondering if 1 oz of corn sugar would be enough for the style or if this seems low? I generally store after fermentation around 68-70 deg. in a closet and usually carbonate to style with adequate head. Not sure on this one, my first attempt at a Scottish ale.

 

[Arrheinous]

I think I bottled with 4 or 4.5 oz of corn sugar which worked well for a nut brown ale I did. But in most cases I prefer standard 5oz/5gal priming over less carbonated, more stylistic priming amounts. The last growler I filled was a Scottish Ale (the one that started it all) and it turned sickeningly sweet as it went flat so I wanted to distance myself from that.

This batch sat for two months at low temperatures (60F and then 55F) before bottling. I used US04 which is pretty good at dropping out so only a slight silt is at the bottom of the bottles.

What I've done to try and get more carbonation post-bottling is to let the bottles sit in front of the heating vents so they get up to 68F for a few days. Also used a bit of agitation/gentle wrist snap to try and put the yeast back into the beer. I put them in the fridge yesterday so I'll see what's become of them in a couple minutes.

 

[rico567]

Going to brew this again tomorrow. Two things to remember:

1. Remember to do the reduction.

2. Remember not to allow the reduction to boil over.

I've been lucky so far, but.....I'm just sayin'.

 

[Remmis]

Brewed this in late December, exactly to recipe, not counting slightly reduced amount of hops to account for higher AA. Used Golden Promise as the base. Fantastic brew.

I would agree with the folks who have said the minimum aging on this should be around three months. My experience was that the peat aroma/flavor was increasing for the first few months as I would taste it, at its peak it was borderline unpleasant, then it began to mellow. Right now it is absolutely one of the best tasting beers I've made.

The only adjustment I would make is to be more vigilant with the secondary boil, I don't think I quite made a syrup the first time.

 

[plath]

marking this. I think I'm going to scale this down and brew a small batch.

 

[twqqis]

1) PEATED MALT
I've been trying to get an idea for usage of peated malt and found this thread.
It's interesting to note the various (albeit subjective) responses wrt peat strength.
If I look at Crisp's offerings ( Scottish Peated Malt From Crisp | Malt For Scottish Whiskey ) they provide various strengths:
"three levels of “smokiness”; lightly peated malt (15 ppm phenol), medium peated malt (25ppm) and heavy peated malt (50ppm)"

Do you have any idea of the strength used in this recipe?
I have access to the 50ppm peated malt, maybe 8oz too much then?

2) YEAST
Looks like I dont have access to this yeast or it's alternatives (WY1728/Scottish Ale, WLP028/Edinburgh, A31/Tartan, GY044/Scotch)
Any other suggestions?

 

[DBhomebrew]

I made a nice Scotch with 1084 Irish Ale. Traquair reportedly uses Notty in their very delicious offerings.

 

[twqqis]

I'm wondering if MJ Empire Ale yeast could work?
Description reads "suitable for heavy scottish ales" - tick
also "Ferments with full, rich dark fruit flavors." -- Not so sure about that for this recipe?

 

[twqqis]

Hi

Thought I'd share my experience with this recipe so far

16 days ago this one went into the fermenter.
I followed the temp steps as per the receipe, and currently sitting on 21-22'C ish
Actually, scratch that, reviewing the recipe here, I see it's not what I've put into Beersmith! *hmm*
I did:
4 days at 13C/55F
7 days at 16C/60F
and after that kept it around 21C/70F
For the life of me I have no idea where that came from; must be something I found elsewhere that was used for this yeast...

Anyways!

The gravity currently sits on 1.028 (refractometer) which beersmith's correction puts at 1.014
That is pretty much at the figure the recipe states as target gravity.

I'm quite perplexed with this yeast ( I used WYEAST 1728 ) Its had a 100% consistent 1-bubble/sec through the airlock since the start. Not deviating once. I have temp control.

Reading what others experience with this yeast, I find that everyone says it's a fast and vigorous ferment.
Def not true here.

I'm not too worried, it tastes very interesting. First time I have a beer anywhere near this style.
I'll just wait patiently and see what it does.