I made mistake when boiling my Hope & King Scotch Ale. I added 1oz of Centennial hops instead of a .25oz addition as the recipe clearly states. Oops, this simple little mistake increased my IBUs from 24 to 48! Wow, damn that going to be a funny tasting Scottish Brown Ale.
Time seems to heal some screw-ups, would extra time in secondary fermentation help this Bitter Ass Scottish Brown Ale? Well, I think I have a name for this ale if not.
Was that @60 or a later addition? May not be true to style, but probably pretty tasty! The brown i made was too malty & kind of boring for my liking. I dig the sound of your mistake personally!! Enjoy. :cheers:
Yea, 60 minute addition. Those Centennial Hops have a real kick. :shock:
Have patience Grasshopper, hop levels fade with time.
Just call it an American brown.
There problem solved. 8)
I agree, it is now an American brown. Also, yes, after a year or two the hop character will disappear. IF you can actually hold onto some for that long!
Does anyone else think its weird of NB to include Centennial with a Scotch Ale in the first place? Why wouldn’t they just include an 1/8 of an ounce of magnums or some other clean high-alpha for bittering.
Agreed on making it an american brown. I might dry hop the hell out of it (like 3oz) just to get a little more in the aroma to balance the bitterness that will be coming at the end of each sip!
I can’t hold on to it that long. I’ll let it ride for an additional month and see what I get. I’m sure it will not go to waste. :cheers:
You know what’s funny… if you ever had the chance to taste McEwan’s IPA, imported from Scotland… it tastes like there’s no hops in it whatsoever. Might be due to the long voyage and sitting on shelves here in the USA, but I felt it was always a poor excuse for an IPA, whether British style or otherwise. In any case, putting Centennial hops into any Scottish ale recipe is very, very wrong. But you still have yourself a yummy American brown ale!
That’s why goldings were invented. 
This NB recipe is based off an ale that did win a Bronze metal, well not the extract version but I would think they are somewhat similar: “Bronze Medal Winner, 2002 and 2004 Great American Beer Festival, Gold Medal Winner, 2011 Great American Beer Festival. “Our interpretation of the classic ale that originated in Glasgow, Scotland. A full-bodied ale, rich in malt complexity. Brewed with both English and American barley and many, many specialty malts allowing hints of roasted chocolate, caramel and raisins with very little hop presence.” - Town Hall Head Brewer Mike Hoops.”
So the judges back then got past centennial hops in a Scottish ale, just saying…
In 2002, people used whatever they could find that was reasonably high alpha acid for bittering additions. It can be done… But there are more authentic hops that could be used, and hop selection and availability now in 2013 is ten times better than in '02.
I wonder what the Scots would say to using Centennial in one of their signature beer styles. Maybe they don’t care. But maybe if it’s not Scottish, it’s crap. I don’t really know. I’m not Scottish.
[quote=“dmtaylo2”]In 2002, people used whatever they could find that was reasonably high alpha acid for bittering additions. It can be done… But there are more authentic hops that could be used, and hop selection and availability now in 2013 is ten times better than in '02.
I wonder what the Scots would say to using Centennial in one of their signature beer styles. Maybe they don’t care. But maybe if it’s not Scottish, it’s crap. I don’t really know. I’m not Scottish.[/quote]
Hey, I value your post, wasn’t trying to be a douche. Just trying to justify what I did. :cheers:
I thought the Scots had to buy their hops from the English, and thats why they used as little as possible in their recipes.
Oh, no problem, no offense taken. I was just being a dork, and I continue to post often simply as a means of procrastination here at work.
Lennie is also correct. The Scots would probably rather not use any hops at all for spite of the English. From what I’ve heard they have a real hard time getting them to grow in Scotland for some strange reason. Maybe if they grew something vigorous like Cascade, or gasp Centennial, they wouldn’t have such a problem!
Had some friends visit Scotland not long ago and a lot of the photos they took looked like Arctic tundra kind of landscape.
