Wee Heavy

10 December 2006 @ early evening | Comments (0)

A drunk Scotsman once said, “Byde weill, betyde weill.” This wee pint should be good for many-a-month to come.

The recipe

• Style: Strong Scotch Ale
• Type: All grain
• Batch size: 5 gal
• Color: 30 SRM
• Bitterness: 31 IBU
• OG: 1.091
• FG: 1.036
• BU/GU: 0.34
• Mash: Step infusion
• Efficiency: 71%
• ABV: 7.2%
• Yeast: Edinburgh Scottish Ale (WLP028)
• Grain:
  • 13 lb. Pale malt (British 2-row)
  • 2.0 lb. Crystal 60L
  • 1.5 lb. Munich
  • 0.75 lb. Roasted barley
  • 0.1 lb. Peated malt
• Hops:
  • 1.5 oz. Kent Goldings (60 min)
  • 0.5 oz. Kent Goldings (45 min)

The process

Drilling a hole in the lid of the cooler for the sparge arm now keeps the heat contained during sparging, as does placing the kettle on a low flame, keeping the wort at 170F until boiling. RO water was used for both mashout and sparging to prevent alkaline tannin extraction and to see if using less tap water would help alleviate the strong phenols that have occurred in the last few batches. Next batch, I’ll return entirely to reverse osmosis water and see how it goes.

The primary fermentation for this batch took place around 65F, but dipped quite a bit lower in the last week due to cold weather. Ideally, this batch really should have spent some time in secondary, but because I had no available 5 gallon carboy, I just went straight to bottle after three weeks in primary.

It finished off with a much higher FG than I expected, most likely due to the high mash temperature (158F), which contributed many more unfermentable dextrins than a mash in the low 150s, or perhaps I just didn’t pitch enough yeast. There is a slight possibility that the fermentation got “stuck” from temperature-shocked yeast, so I primed at the low end of my desired carbonation range just in case there is any more fermentation activity while in-bottle. Someday I’ll have a proper temperature-controlled, dual chamber fermentation box. Until then, I’ve just got to expect the unexpected and roll with the punches.

Because of its complexity, this beer will most likely take several months to mature.

The result

January 28, 2007: Sampled today, one month in-bottle, just to check on carbonation, aroma, and flavor etc. It’s amazing. Honestly, I like this beer better than AleSmith’s Wee Heavy. I’m really excited to try this in another few months; I think it’ll definitely be a competition-calibre beer.

February 12, 2007: If this isn’t a prize-winning beer, I don’t know what is. It has a very subtle earthiness with a tiny hint of smoke. Very clean aroma. Nicely-balanced, warming finish. Very rich, without being cloyingly sweet.

June 19, 2007: Still improving. I love it.

October 21, 2007: I opened the last bottle yesterday (a 2004 Speedway Stout champagne-style bottle) and this beer was phenomenal! A dark, sweet, earthy and faintly smoky dessert beer. It aged quite well. This is among the top five beers I’ve brewed to date.

February 26, 2008: 2nd place, AFCHBC 2008!

Lessons learned

• Don’t use alkaline water for sparging; it can extract tannins and unwanted flavors from grain husks.
• Watching the San Diego Chargers kick some Denver ass definitely makes the beer taste better.