which techniques should i use for a wee heavy?

[animus_divinus]

im making a simple wee heavy.. i have golden promise as my base malt, roasted barley as an additional malt, fuggles hops, and white labs edinburgh yeast... using beersmith ive come up with 3lbs of golden promise, 2.5 ounces of roasted barley, and .25 ounce of fuggles hops.. my goal is a 1 gallon test batch

i was wondering though, how would i caramelize these grains, and do i do this process seperate from the boil in which i would add the hops or do i add this all together and boil it down to a syrup, then add enough water to make a gallon and cool it?

 

[SterlingHopper]

I'm planning on doing my first wee heavy this month as well, a 5 gallon partial mash.

If I'm not mistaken, the traditional way of achieving kettle caramelization is to boil the first runnings from your mash (ie, before you've added hops). Additionally, a longer and more vigorous boil will help caramelize the wort, maybe 90 mins? Add your hops when appropriate.

 

[Veinman]

I've done a few Wee Heavies and the easiest way to get some caramelization is to take the first gallon of runnings (in a 5 gallon batch) pull them off into a separate pot and boil that down on the stove until it's a thick syrup, usually thats about a quart of volume. Since you're only doing a 1 gallon batch I'd take the first 2-3 cups and boil that down until you get a thick syrup, then add it back your mail kettle and boil as usual.

 

[animus_divinus]

from what ive learned so far... people add the ingredients to a boil at certain intervals until theyve reached a certain period of time, at which point the grains and ingredients are removed and its put in to ferment.. so im confused as to what the "runnings" are, and how people get them

 

[animus_divinus]

seems i have to "mash" the grains to extract the sugars for an hour... then take a few cups of this and caramelize it, pour it back in, then boil for another hour with the hops added, is this right?... so in the end ill be boiling for two hours?.. i just want to be sure im clear about this before i get started, i intend to make a wee heavy first, then immediately after i want to make a scottish heavy ale (3.5% ABV) so i can try the wee heavy, and a table beer version of it as a potential daily beer.. so i want to make sure i do this right

 

[SterlingHopper]

You need to mash for about an hour at a specific temperature, and then separate the grains from the wort. Typically, you would then soak the grains in hotter water to get the last of the sugar from them. It is the first few cups of wort that you would boil down to a syrup before adding to the rest of your wort for the full boil.

Take a look at Deathbrewer's stovetop partial mash instructions or his stovetop all-grain (they're basically the same technique. The easiest way to separate grains from wort is probably a big mesh bag.

 

[40watt]

If you are going to make a Wee Heavy, you should look into making a large starter or brewing a smaller Scottish Ale and using the yeast from that batch for your Wee Heavy. The Wee Heavy should end up a little sweet, but you don't want a stuck fermentation.

You use this calculator. http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

 

[Veinman]

Is this your first all-grain beer? It sounds like you're not really sure on the processs. Yes you will need to mash the grains for an hour, after that you separate the water from the beer and the rinse or "sparge" the grains to rinse more sugars out of the grain. From there you will pull off a cup or two of that liquid and boil it in a pot on your stove until very thick (this usually takes me about 20-30 minutes) and then add this syrup back to the liquid. Meanwhile you will start your hour long boil and can add the syrup whenever it is ready to add.
If you want to make 2 separate beers from the same mash that is known as a party-gyle. You will mash the grains for an hour, then sparge producing the wort for the Wee Heavy which you will boil as usual. After your first sparge you will add 1 or 2 more sparges and drain these off into a separate pot, these sparges will have a lot less sugar and thus produce a lighter beer.
As mentioned earlier if you're trying to produce 2 full size batches of beer you should make a starter with your yeast so you have enough yeast to ferment both batches. However if you're making 2 1-gallon batches than a standard smackpack should be more than enough yeast as they are designed to do 5 gallons of normal strength beer.

Good luck.

 

[animus_divinus]

ok, i get what the "runnings" are now, its just the liquid after an hour of steeping, it may be tough to maintain the temperature only having the top of my stove to do it right now... i guess when i go full scale i should invest in a 6.5 gallon keg to mount an electric burner and a hot water heater thermostat into, but for now ill do my best with what i have

 

[animus_divinus]

well, its done.. i put 3lbs of golden promise and 2.5 ounces of roasted barley into a grain bag.. steeped it at 150-160 degrees for an hour.. luckily i had a thermometer that i set into it, and every ten minutes id run the burner for about 10 seconds to maintain the heat...

after the hour i rinsed the grain bag off, first few cups of this i put into a sauce pan, rest went back into the main pot... added .25 ounce of fuggles hops to the main pot, started boiling this and the sauce pan, with about 20 minutes left the contents of the sauce pan had boiled way down into a very rich caramel that smelled absolutely beautiful, almost like liquid candy... so i poured it back in with the rest for another 20 minutes... and cooled it... now all i have to do is wait...

does this sound like i did everything the right way?... i need to get a kitchen scale if i do this larger scale, since i had to measure out my golden promise by the ounce... and well, the wort is DARK, very, very dark brown, nearly black so it seems ive achieved both the gravity, and the color i was shooting for... i actually spent the last hour right beside the stove making sure it maintained 212 degrees, but didnt foam up and boil all over

 

[SterlingHopper]

2.5 oz of roasted barley sounds like a more realistic quantity for a 5 gal batch. As it is, you may have more of a Wee Stout.

Did you take a gravity reading? If not, you should get a hydrometer (and measuring "jar") and get into the habit of recording gravity. This is the only way to know how well you converted the starches in the grain to sugars in the wort.

 

[beerkrump]

Animus, you should read this, How to Brew by John Palmer. It does a really good job of explaining all the steps at both a beginner and advanced level.