Saturday, January 9, 2010

Batch 84, David's Scotch Ale

My brew club did our annual group brew on Jan 9. It was sort of a complicated brew, bigger than what we've done as a group before. We had 9 brewing rigs in Rob's shop (heated!). It was pretty organized, more so than last year, I think. The crush on the grain seemed a little course, and just about everyone missed the OG. Here is the recipe:

David's Scotch Ale
Style: Strong Scotch Ale
Type: All grain Size: 8 gallons
Color: 49 HCU (~22 SRM)
Bitterness: 29 IBU
OG: 1.093 FG: 1.023
Alcohol: 9.0% v/v (7.1% w/w)

Grain: 21.9 lb. American 2-row
5.87 lb. Belgian biscuit
7.7 oz. Briess Special Roast
0.64 lb. American crystal 40L
1.92 lb. American crystal 60L
5.1 oz. Peated malt
5.1 oz. British crystal 135-165L

Mash: 65% efficiency
Mash @ 154°. Boil a portion of first runnings for added kettle
caramelization.
Boil: 90 minutes SG 1.074 10 gallons

Hops: 0.41 oz. Fuggles (5.5% AA, 60 min.)
0.73 oz. Northern Brewer (8.5% AA, 60 min.)
0.83 oz. Centennial (10.5% AA, 30 min.)
0.41 oz. Fuggles (5.5% AA, 30 min.)

The Fuggles was actually an experimental variety, a Fuggles and Mt Hood cross. We ended up using Nugget instead of Northern Brewer, and both the Nugget and Centennial were home grown by Steve P. David made a big pot of wort and let it simmer for a long time, then topped off several of the boil kettles, which helped with the final gravity. I ended up taking 7 gallons home with an OG of 1.082. The plan is for everyone to ferment individually, then in a month or so, we'll all meet up and dump it all into a wine barrel for aging. That should be interesting. Since I had 7 gallons, I'm fermenting in two 5 gallon corny kegs. I volunteered to bottle one of the kegs without the wine barrel aging so we'll have something to compare with.

Update, Sep 29, I'd given a keg to David a while back, he filled it from the wine barrel.  My share was 3.5 gallons.  I was going to force carb it, but decided to bottle it instead and let it age some more.  I added 2 tablespoons of Wyeast 1272 slurry from a mason jar in my fridge, and 22 grams of sugar to the bottling bucket.  I ended up with 33 12 ounce bottles.  They are sitting in boxes in the basement at 65F.  I'm thinking to open one a month and see how they progress.  I had about a half of a bottle left over from bottling, and it still has some strong wine barrel flavors.  It is a very complex tasting beer, and I think this will be outstanding as it ages.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.