Wee heavy/old ale

1 Servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
10 pounds 2-row pale malted barley
2 pounds 80 Lovibond crystal malt,
Smoked
8 ounces Wheat malt
1 ounce Chocolate malt
1 pounds Brown sugar (in boil)
1 ounce Northern Brewer (7.4 AAU)
(boiling)
½ ounce Willamette
½ ounce Hallertauer
¼ ounce Cascade
¾ cup Light dry malt extract
(priming)
Wyeast 1098 \"English\"
(Whitbread) ale yeas

Directions

Heat 18 quarts of mash water to 140 degrees, ph 5.3. Mash-in for 5 min- utes at 130 degrees. Continue without a protein rest. Starch conversion of 60 minutes, 158-150 degrees. Mash-out for 5 minutes at 168 degrees. Sparge with 5 gallons water at 168 degrees, ph 5.7. Add brown sugar and boil for 90 minutes. Add boiling hops at 30 minutes. Dry hop with ½ ounce each of Willamette and Hallertauer 3 days after pitching, and bottled 4 weeks later. It's confession time. This was intended to be a Scottish Wee Heavy, but works much better as an Old Ale. I just haven't quite captured that uniquely malty characteristic of Scotch ales, but I'm still trying. I tried smoking the crystal malt over a peat fire, which really wasn't terribly successful in imparting peaty flavors to the malt. Next time I'll get the peat really soggy; perhaps that will work better. It's rich, vinous, with complex port-like ethers and not a hint of astrin- gency (a common hard-water problem) or off-flavors. Next time I brew it, though, I'll delete the wheat malt (plenty of head, for the style, with- out it) and the brown sugar (the vinousness is too much for a Scotch ale), substitute 2 pounds dextrine malt or flaked barley (still mulling this over) for an equal weight of pale malt, and smoke the cystal more heavily. Original Gravity: 1.070 Final Gravity: 1.020 Primary Ferment: 4 weeks

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