Bully Scottish Ale (80/-)

Source: Tom Meier
Recipe added: 11/22/00
Email: tom.meier@mindspring.com

I was going for something in the style of Belhaven's Scottish Ale. This recipe ended up too dark - it is a deep deep amber brown. It has a wonderful maltiness due to the generous portion of munich and caramunich, and a slight toffee flavor I assume came from the long boil. I love this yeast, it ferments clean at the low temps, and leaves a nice high gravity. This would be a great stout yeast. A bonus - it packs itself firmly in the bottom of fermenters and bottles and is not easily stirred up. This was my first all grain, so I am somewhat partial, but I find this to be an excellent beer and recipe. The things I will do next time.. Scottish I've had is lighter, and has a roasty/biscuit flavor I wasn't able to achieve. Next time I will cut out 1/2 lb of crystal to reduce the caramel notes. I will add some Belgian Special B or perhaps some oven roasted Golden Promise to get a toasted aroma and flavor. I will eliminate the 2 oz of chocolate to lighten the color. I will add some flavoring hops, maybe 1/3-1/2 oz at 30 minutes. I pick up a small amount of hop flavor in commercial scottish ales that seems to round out the flavor. Mine was maltY. Good, but not all in all balanced. Research it, test it, and improve it. I'd love to hear from anyone who tries this recipe. Happy Brewing!

Specifics

Recipe type: All Grain
Batch Size: 5
Starting Gravity: 1.050
Finishing Gravity: 1.012
Time in Boil: 100 minutes
Primary Fermentation: 10 days at 58 deg F

Ingredients:

Procedure:

Preheat mash tun (5 gal pot), heat up 3.23 gallons of high quality drinking water to 170 F. To mash tun, add some water, some grains, mix and repeat. Avoid dough balls by mixing thoroughly. Mash should stabilize around 156 deg F. Place pot in oven set to 156 deg F +/-10 degrees. Put cookie sheet under pot to avoid heating the bottom. Crack oven door if necessary to maintain low temps. Leave in oven 60 mintues or until starch test passes. Easy starch test: mix a drop of iodophor with 2 tbsp of water on a white plate, add a tbsp of wort. No blue or purple tones means you are good to go. Sparge in a bucket in a bucket (drilled with 3/32" holes) to yield 6 gallons. Boil 10 minutes, add hops, boil hard for 90 minutes to yield 4-4.5 gallons of 1.060 wort. Chill covered in boil pot, let sit covered for 15 minutes, rack off cold break into fermenter, top up to 5 gallon mark or as needed to obtain desired final gravity. Ferment at 58 deg F in fridge. This yeast dropped out below 56 deg F. I researched and read that this low temp is best to create a clean, malty profile necessary for this style. Important: Aerate with clean air or O2 at start and 12 hours after pitching, even if activity is showing. Active yeast will very quickly absorb the oxygen preventing oxidation of the beer. Trust me on this one. Its a tip from Dr.Cone of Lallemand. Your yeast desperately need the oxygen at this stage to rebuild glycogen levels (makes them smell nice and bready and keeps them insulated against alcohol and CO2 poisoning). No secondary necessary, you'll just oxidize the beer. This yeast will drop like a rock when its done.
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