Wee Heavy recipe thoughts

[passedpawn]

What do you think about me dumping the full pound of peat smoked malt into the new recipe (Whiskey Stout)? I have the malt, might as well use it. Worst case, it will be horrid and I'll dump it.

haha go for it. Higher ABVs can carry strong flavors.

But you could just use a wood-smoked malt. When Briess came out with the cherry smoked malt, I fell in love with it. Sweet and bacony, I've made smoked beers with a mix of that and the Wey oak smoked many times, to great effect. I love the smoke beers.

 

[Falstaff]

Not really a hard alcohol drinker. I'm happy with good wine (cab's mostly) and beers I brew.

Me neither, but my significant other is Scottish so I dabble sometimes. Doesn't mean you don't like it though.

If you don't, you know who to send it to

 

[passedpawn]

What do you think about me dumping the full pound of peat smoked malt into the new recipe (Whiskey Stout)? I have the malt, might as well use it. Worst case, it will be horrid and I'll dump it.

If you want something interesting, consider looking into wood spirals. I HIGHLY suggest the spanish cedar, which I use all the time in IPAs. It's the wood that cigar boxes are made of. Nom nom.

I drop two of them in a fermentor for just a few days (longer = more!). You get all the wood flavor and aroma you want.

 

[Golddiggie]

haha go for it. Higher ABVs can carry strong flavors.

But you could just use a wood-smoked malt. When Briess came out with the cherry smoked malt, I fell in love with it. Sweet and bacony, I've made smoked beers with a mix of that and the Wey oak smoked many times, to great effect. I love the smoke beers.

I'm using the cherry wood smoked in my breakfast stout to get the bacon character.

The Whiskey Stout is coming up at 5.5% estimated. Tweaked the water profile to add more malt character to the brew.

Me neither, but my significant other is Scottish so I dabble sometimes. Doesn't mean you don't like it though.

If you don't, you know who to send it to

I'm sure I'll have little trouble getting the initial brewing to disappear. I've been kegging less than half and putting the rest into cans. When people hear a recipe is available, they come over for a glass (or several) and then go home with cans. Need to burn through the 11.1oz cans I got from MoreBeer since those won't work with the labels I plan to get printed (on a roll for easier application).

 

[Golddiggie]

If you want something interesting, consider looking into wood spirals. I HIGHLY suggest the spanish cedar, which I use all the time in IPAs. It's the wood that cigar boxes are made of. Nom nom.

I drop two of them in a fermentor for just a few days (longer = more!). You get all the wood flavor and aroma you want.

View attachment 740075

I have two packages of the medium+ toast French spirals in my Northern Brewer cart right now. I'll look to add some of the cedar and see what else they have in stock before I pull the trigger. I also have some maple honeycomb pattern wood that I need to use in something. Thinking it might go into the next time I make a maple wine. Need to get with a sugar shack before winter so that I can get some dark syrup off them. Figure if I wait too long I won't get what I want.

 

[passedpawn]

I have two packages of the medium+ toast French spirals in my Northern Brewer cart right now. I'll look to add some of the cedar and see what else they have in stock before I pull the trigger. I also have some maple honeycomb pattern wood that I need to use in something. Thinking it might go into the next time I make a maple wine. Need to get with a sugar shack before winter so that I can get some dark syrup off them. Figure if I wait too long I won't get what I want.

You can get spanish cedar (which is actually in mahogany family, its not cedar) at Woodcraft, if you have one of those near you. I've done that, split it into staves and dropped right into the fermentor.

 

[Falstaff]

I'm using the cherry wood smoked in my breakfast stout to get the bacon character.

The Whiskey Stout is coming up at 5.5% estimated. Tweaked the water profile to add more malt character to the brew.


I'm sure I'll have little trouble getting the initial brewing to disappear. I've been kegging less than half and putting the rest into cans. When people hear a recipe is available, they come over for a glass (or several) and then go home with cans. Need to burn through the 11.1oz cans I got from MoreBeer since those won't work with the labels I plan to get printed (on a roll for easier application).

Do you can? I'd love to but it looks like a lot of equipment.

 

[Golddiggie]

Do you can? I'd love to but it looks like a lot of equipment.

I do the can can...
Biggest investment is the can sealer. I had the Cannular with the manual lever. Yeah, no. Too much "human error" for me. Sold it to someone here and bought the 'pro' version which is a button to get it to seal. Better pedestal design as well. Not cheap, but "buy once, cry once". Wish I had bought it from the start (would have spent less total). If you're looking at it, just get the pro version and don't worry.
MoreBeer has the cans in two sizes. The canning machine works with standard 202 lid sizes. So you can get cans from any source that sells those.
Also went with the Tapcooler counter pressure filler setup for cans. Got the base "upgrade" which was 'meh' at best. Ended up making my own larger base (wider and thicker) with a bottom drain instead of off the back. Works pissah now. It wasn't much of an issue for me to make since I have a milling machine.
I have the entire can filling and sealing gear on a single rolling wire mesh cart. Makes it easy to move into position (in front of my conical fermenters) and use. When done, pretty easy to clean up and then roll it back to where it rests. Advantage of the wire mesh cart is the base for the Tapcooler can mount through the mesh so it's easy to use. With my new base, I simply put a container under it to catch the overflow (foam) and such.
Oh, and DO get the splash shield for the filler. Only issue I had was the shield doesn't work great for the taller (500ML) cans. I added another piece of plexiglass on the front to extend that down far enough. I also made a splash shield for the rest of the sealer to keep it from spraying all over the place. Simple corrugated plastic was used for that. Easy to clean when done.
Something else I saw on a couple of the videos when I was looking at filling options and such. Have a large bucket/tote of water next to the can sealer. After you fill and seal the can, drop it in there. Depending on how much it floats you'll know if you got the fill right, light, or heavy. I have better results when filling from conical (already chilled and carbonated) than from keg that was in the keezer before.

 

[Falstaff]

I do the can can...
Biggest investment is the can sealer. I had the Cannular with the manual lever. Yeah, no. Too much "human error" for me. Sold it to someone here and bought the 'pro' version which is a button to get it to seal. Better pedestal design as well. Not cheap, but "buy once, cry once". Wish I had bought it from the start (would have spent less total). If you're looking at it, just get the pro version and don't worry.
MoreBeer has the cans in two sizes. The canning machine works with standard 202 lid sizes. So you can get cans from any source that sells those.
Also went with the Tapcooler counter pressure filler setup for cans. Got the base "upgrade" which was 'meh' at best. Ended up making my own larger base (wider and thicker) with a bottom drain instead of off the back. Works pissah now. It wasn't much of an issue for me to make since I have a milling machine.
I have the entire can filling and sealing gear on a single rolling wire mesh cart. Makes it easy to move into position (in front of my conical fermenters) and use. When done, pretty easy to clean up and then roll it back to where it rests. Advantage of the wire mesh cart is the base for the Tapcooler can mount through the mesh so it's easy to use. With my new base, I simply put a container under it to catch the overflow (foam) and such.
Oh, and DO get the splash shield for the filler. Only issue I had was the shield doesn't work great for the taller (500ML) cans. I added another piece of plexiglass on the front to extend that down far enough. I also made a splash shield for the rest of the sealer to keep it from spraying all over the place. Simple corrugated plastic was used for that. Easy to clean when done.
Something else I saw on a couple of the videos when I was looking at filling options and such. Have a large bucket/tote of water next to the can sealer. After you fill and seal the can, drop it in there. Depending on how much it floats you'll know if you got the fill right, light, or heavy. I have better results when filling from conical (already chilled and carbonated) than from keg that was in the keezer before.

Wicked pissah. Thx for the info. I'll look into it.

 

[bwible]

One tip I got from a local very high level grand master beer judge for wee heavy said to collect about the first half gallon of runnings and boil that seperately down to about a quart (half) and add that back to the ketlle. To get richness and some extra malliard-y stuff.

 

[DBhomebrew]

Kettle caramelization...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/english-ales-whats-your-favorite-recipe.472464/post-9147739

 

[kevin58]

One tip I got from a local very high level grand master beer judge for wee heavy said to collect about the first half gallon of runnings and boil that seperately down to about a quart (half) and add that back to the ketlle. To get richness and some extra malliard-y stuff.

Sounds like a Scotrat recipe from a decade or more ago.

Side note: caramelization is another Scottish myth. It just didn't happen. And again, that doesn't mean it is not a valid technique just like using peated malt. If it works for you, by all means do it. Just don't claim it is a Scottish thing.

 

[MikeTHIS]

I made a 90 percent peated Scottish WHISKY ale. It's intense but very good if you like Laphroaig. I don't think it's a Scotch ale if it uses peat. The confusion I think comes from the name. Scotch refers to the specific style from that country, not Scotch Whisky, which, to my knowledge, use peat mostly in Islay, not everywhere, anyways.

I made a wee heavy with Scotch (Johnnie Walker Red) soaked oak chips. Crowd pleaser.