Yee Yee Wee Heavy (Jasper's Wee Olde Lizzie Scotch Ale))

[HeritageHD]

Thanks for the tip, ill give that a try and report back in a few weeks. How long ago did you brew yours? AG or extract?

 

[Oginme]

AG BIAB with a DME addition to up the OG. The grains account for an OG of about 1.078 and the DME add gets it up to 1.088. 10 liter batch. The picture is of my recipe brewed in November 2013. I repeated the brew in January so that I could stash away a few for long term aging. Third time I've done this recipe and it goes waay too fast <G>.

 

[ZebulonBrewer]

After allowing it to condition at warm temperatures, put it in the refrigerator for another couple of weeks. It makes a world of difference.

I brewed a breakfast stout recently and left it for like a month to bottle condition and carb at like 65°F (+ at least two days in the fridge, of course). Nothing. No carbonation at all. I moved them to a warmer locale in my apartment (70-75 as I've learned) for a week and then threw them in the fridge.

World of difference.

These heavy beers take longer to carb, just the nature of the beast, but warmer=better (not to exceed about 75°F depending on style)

 

[HeritageHD]

AG BIAB with a DME addition to up the OG. The grains account for an OG of about 1.078 and the DME add gets it up to 1.088. 10 liter batch. The picture is of my recipe brewed in November 2013. I repeated the brew in January so that I could stash away a few for long term aging. Third time I've done this recipe and it goes waay too fast <G>.

Might have to get the recipe off of you after I step up to BIAB.

 

[Trox]

Brewed up a Wee Heavy similar to yours, brewed it on 11/29/13, transferred to secondary 12/21/13, and just bottled it this last weekend 4/12/14; I actually have no plans on touching it until at least Nov. and will probably hide a bunch to let them age for another year and longer. Big beers like our Wee Heavies get a lot better if you let them age awhile. If I was you I would hide those cases until Nov./Dec. and just get some other beers going to keep your mind off of them.

 

[Oginme]

Brewed up a Wee Heavy similar to yours, brewed it on 11/29/13, transferred to secondary 12/21/13, and just bottled it this last weekend 4/12/14; I actually have no plans on touching it until at least Nov. and will probably hide a bunch to let them age for another year and longer. Big beers like our Wee Heavies get a lot better if you let them age awhile. If I was you I would hide those cases until Nov./Dec. and just get some other beers going to keep your mind off of them.

Agreed! They get so much smoother and build much more malty complexity with time. Surprisingly, this was the second recipe that I designed myself, after making three extract kits and one BIAB partial mash recipe. It just goes down so nicely on these cold northern evenings!

Just checking my logs, I brewed on 11/30/13, primary until 12/26/13 then straight to bottle. Bottle conditioned at 66F to 70F for 3 weeks and then into cold storage for four weeks. Tried the first sample bottle on March 6th.

 

[Paradigm]

I use Jasper's HB pretty much exclusively at this point. The price is a little high but the quality is really out of the world. I recently switched to all grain and their kits for that are just as good! One thing to note, however. If you're using their grain kits make sure to look at both instructions. The grain one doesn't give the exact steps for some of the identical processes (fermentation, hop addition, etc). It's just easier to cross reference.

 

[HeritageHD]

Big beers like our Wee Heavies get a lot better if you let them age awhile. If I was you I would hide those cases until Nov./Dec. and just get some other beers going to keep your mind off of them.

This was my second brew with my first being the Bourbon barrel Porter. So I have these two waiting for the holidays. I just got anxious and had to try my own brew for the first time. I know I'll keep the Porter saved and try to just have one of the wee heavys here and there but save most till the fall/winter. Now I just need to brew something I can drink sooner! I have a Pineapple Kolsch that I bottled 2 weeks ago carbing up right now. Saving that till may as a birthday gift.

I understand bottle conditioning but I guess I dont understand cold bottle conditioning. Why do some guys say to leave it in the fridge a week or so before drinking? Does it really make a difference?

 

[Trox]

By leaving it in for 3 days to a week in the fridge will give the cold CO2 time to dissolve back into the beer; otherwise you'll lose most of it when you first open the bottle resulting in a beer that goes flat quicker.

 

[HeritageHD]

Thanks Trox!

 

[HeritageHD]

Well it's been a little over a month since I last opened one of these and it's coming along nicely. The carbonation has come through and I'm now tasting some caramel and a hint of smokey-ness. The overly sweet taste has diminished a bit too.

 

[HeritageHD]

There is still no carbonation in the beer. The flavor is great but is absolutely flat. Any ideas on how to tackle this? I was thinking of opening the bottles and adding a priming tab or sugar solution. My only worry is that the yeast won't be viable with the lack of oxygen in the bottles. Any ideas?

 

[HeritageHD]

Figured I'd give an update just in case anyone comes across this in the future.

It's been almost 20 weeks in the bottle and still no carbonation so I've decided to do an experiment to try and get them carbed up.

I sanitized everything, popped the tops and added measured amounts of corn sugar to each. 1.8, 2, and 2.2 grams. I don't know if the yeast is still viable but I guess I'll find out in a few weeks.