Wee heavy: Carmelization or adjuncts?

[adamjab19]

I am going to brew a wee heavy for my holiday ale...maybe put it on some oak...I am going to use the Scottish ale yeast with a starter. Anyway, I have come across two different types of recipes:

either a recipe with small amounts of a few specialty grains with normal amount of base grain and boil time.

OR

doing a large grain bill of pale malt, touch of roast and maybe a small amount of crystal 60 but to boil down the first gallon of runnings to a pint or so PLUS having about a 8-9gallon boil boil away to 5.5 gallons.


I like the idea of the boil down method, seems traditional. I doubt the bigger breweries have the capacity to do a boil down method so I am thinking they use the specialty grain route and thats where those types of recipes come from.

Anyone have a strong opinion to either which way to get the best flavor? I am torn, I just want the best way to lead to a tasty beer!

 

[commonlaw]

I have a wee heavy sort of in the works. My plan was to boil down some of the first runnings. I may also add some sugar, not sure yet. If you have the book designing great beers, there's a good discussion on the style and the various ways of approaching it.

 

[kevmoron]

by adjunct do you mean specialty grains, or adjuncts like maize or sucrose?

I've never heard of any kind of scottish ale being made with adjuncts.

The two approaches I'm familiar with incorporate either a simple grain bill with some roast barley or chocolate malt for color, relying on a long boil down to produce color and kettle caramelization, or a more malty, complex grain bill with lots of specialty grains.

I've done both, and both came out well. I'd recommend you try each at some point. I wouldnt say one is better than the other. The complex grain bill will give you a bit more complexity, but the long boil makes a good beer too.

When I did the kettle caramelization method I collected some of the first runnings and boiled it separately from the rest of the beer until it had reduced to almost a syrup, and it turned out pretty well.

 

[adamjab19]

Edited: Sorry goofed my terminology there....

Thank you kevmoron! I think I will try the boil down method and just make a 3 gallon recipe. And seeing as a three gallon recipe will take about the same grain and water as a normal 5 gallon recipe I can feel OK if this doesn't turn out as I have been in a funk with my brewing lately....(probably due to me trying new styles out.)