Traquair House Ale

Classification: Scotch ale, all-grain

Source: Micah Millspaw, Issue #910 6/25/92

I noticed a posting about the Scotch ale Traquair House. It is my personal opinion that this is one of the best beers that I have ever tasted, commercial or homebrewed! This amazing beer is available through Merchant du Vin in Seattle, WA. but the price is very high. Since I like the stuff but its not realistic to buy, I made quite an effort to copy it. The effort has gained me a lot of experience and quite a few ribbons in Scotch ale (wee heavy) competitions. So I will give you all my best and closest to Traquair House recipe, do not make substitutes with inferior ingredients or the ale will suffer, and use the same yeast indicated for the same reasons.

Ingredients:

18 pounds, British pale malt
4 pounds, British crystal malt
2 pounds, toasted malt (homemade in oven - 10 min. @350F)
4 ounces, roast barley - in mash out only
1 pound, chocolate malt - in mash out only
1--1/4 ounces, centennial hops - 11.3 alpha for 75 minutes
3/4 ounce, tettnager hops - 4.8 alpha for 15 minutes
1 teaspoon, salt in boil
1 teaspoon, gypsum in boil
irish moss, last 30 min.
Wyeast 1056 culture

Procedure:

Mash at 155F for 1--1/2 hours. Collect first runnings with no sparge. Strike with 8 gallons at 170F. Mash out with 3 gallons at 200F with chocolate and roast grains. Collect about 8 gallons, boil down to 5 gallons.

Specifics:

O.G.: 1.100, or 25 Balling