what style would you call this??

[crusader1612]

Basically, I want to make a Wee Heavy.

But, I will have a perfect yeast cake of WY1469 West Yorkshire, from a Best bitter, that I'd love to use (alternatively I can use this yeast for an NEIPA which works really well).

The recipe is super simple.
93% Maris Otter
5% Munich or Vienna (not sure yet).
2% Roast Barley (up to, I can't remember off the top of my head).

at 45 mins into mashing, take 3.5litres to boil down to a strong syrup and add back to the beer with 10minutes remaining in the boil (somewhat more traditional method of making a Wee Heavy).

My questions is, is this still a Wee Heavy, or would it be better classified as something else? Maybe an Old ale?

 

[Jayjay1976]

Maybe its a heavy wee-wee? Sounds like a great recipe.

 

[bkboiler]

Well...based on the style guidelines, it's just about what the beer tastes like, not what's in it or how you got there.
That looks like an awesome recipe, but I agree with your questioning it as a wee heavy.
IMHO, better using that yeast to do a dark roasty stout...

 

[crusader1612]

Well...based on the style guidelines, it's just about what the beer tastes like, not what's in it or how you got there.
That looks like an awesome recipe, but I agree with your questioning it as a wee heavy.
IMHO, better using that yeast to do a dark roasty stout...

should be plenty of yeast left over to do more than just this beer, so a roasty stout sounds like a good plan.

ive used this yeast on a neipa before, and it comes out really really well.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Basically, I want to make a Wee Heavy.

... The recipe is super simple....

My questions is, is this still a Wee Heavy, or would it be better classified as something else? Maybe an Old ale?

Well Wee Heavy is one of those much-abused styles that is far more widely seen abroad than in its home, but ultimately it is based on just one beer, Fowler's Twelve Guineas (ie 252/- in the shilling system) which in its dying days was contract-brewed at Heriot and then Belhaven after George Howell moved from Heriot to Belhaven. As such the Belhaven 90/- Wee Heavy can be regarded as the modern benchmark for the style, and like most Scottish beer it has a super-simple grist, just pale malt and some black for colour (and quite possibly some sugar), 26 IBU of Challenger for bittering and some Goldings late in the boil - we talked about it here.

Belhaven were bought by Greene King in the mid-noughties and I imagine their distribution around the Pacific is improving since they were bought by Li Ka-Shing, so you may be able to find it out your way.

It's kinda hard to talk styles since any British beer depends on the balance between all four main ingredients and you've only mentioned one - the grist, and then not even a gravity. As mentioned, your recipe is too complicated for a typical Scottish recipe - and in general British beers would usually (but not always) use crystal rather than Munich/Vienna and almost always use chocolate rather than roast barley. You could be somewhere in the ballpark for an old ale or strong bitter, both are fairly vague categories that any British beer that's not obviously something else, tends to get lumped into.

 

[crusader1612]

Well Wee Heavy is one of those much-abused styles that is far more widely seen abroad than in its home, but ultimately it is based on just one beer, Fowler's Twelve Guineas (ie 252/- in the shilling system) which in its dying days was contract-brewed at Heriot and then Belhaven after George Howell moved from Heriot to Belhaven. As such the Belhaven 90/- Wee Heavy can be regarded as the modern benchmark for the style, and like most Scottish beer it has a super-simple grist, just pale malt and some black for colour (and quite possibly some sugar), 26 IBU of Challenger for bittering and some Goldings late in the boil - we talked about it here.

Belhaven were bought by Greene King in the mid-noughties and I imagine their distribution around the Pacific is improving since they were bought by Li Ka-Shing, so you may be able to find it out your way.

It's kinda hard to talk styles since any British beer depends on the balance between all four main ingredients and you've only mentioned one - the grist, and then not even a gravity. As mentioned, your recipe is too complicated for a typical Scottish recipe - and in general British beers would usually (but not always) use crystal rather than Munich/Vienna and almost always use chocolate rather than roast barley. You could be somewhere in the ballpark for an old ale or strong bitter, both are fairly vague categories that any British beer that's not obviously something else, tends to get lumped into.

thats quite the run down - really appreciate the time youtook to write and post on this.
It definitely an interesting topic, and may taste like something compeltely different to what the style hybrds im looking at intend, but for all intensive purposes i feel as though its true hybrid between an old ale andwee heavy (modern wee heavys tendto have overly complicated grain bills and i haven't done a huge amount a research on old ales, but i suspect there is a large element of items such as molasses etc. which would be where the boil down of firstrunnings comes in. i'm aiming for 35 IBU pre firstrunnings add in (i'm estimated around 1 litre, with approximately 10-12 OG points being added and adjusting the IBU to 28-29 accordingly.

I'm going to run with this, provided i can get 1469, which I'm having trouble finding in NZ - if not, I'll be using WLP023 burton ale, which will change the recipe slightly again, but should still yield something tasty (will be brewing a pacifica andfuggle best bitter for a club event, and be using that yeast cake fo both this and an export style stout).

 

[crusader1612]

so its 1.5% roast barley
I'm unsure what the boil down will add to the beer, but assumed 10 points additional (if no then it'll give me an idea for next time).

Sadly as well WY1469 isn't available in NZ (I'm gutted, cos this is such an awesome yeast).
So I went with WLP023 burton.

So I guess I'm calling this an Old Burton Ale lol

 

[Joshua Hughes]

I bet it will be good! I did a similar bill with Just the roast and MO and it was malty, rich and a nice little burn. I used left over yeast from a bite as well.