I am trying to create my first recipe from scratch to get close to the Scotch Ale mentioned above. It is brewed by a small brewery in Atlanta called Monday Night Brewing. Here’s my attempt:
.25# Roasted Barley
.25# Smoked Malt (The website says cherrywood smoked malt. If my LBHS has it, I’ll up it to .5#, since cherrywoood usually has a mild smoked flavor.)
1.0# Chocolate Malt
2.5# American Two Row
6.0# Light DME (I may up this a little, but that’s where I am right now.)
Yeast: Edinburgh Ale I plan on making a starter.
I am a little stumped on the hops additions. The website lists Willamette and Columbus. I’m not sure which one should be used as the bittering addition as I view both of these as aroma hops.
Any thoughts on the above and the hops additions would be appreciated. Thanks.
First thought is that you should limit the Cherrywood to just a hint. Half pound would probably be too much. Second thought is that a pound of chocolate is a whole lot. Too dark and too bitter for a Scottish Ale even though I have never tasted this beer.
Are you using any brewing software to help you formulate this recipe? This is a recipe I found by simply doing a search for a clone kit online. I still think that is a ton of smoked malt though…
6 lbs Light/Pale Malt Extract Syrup
2.5 lb Light Dry Extract
1 lb Cherry Smoked Malt
4 oz Chocolate Malt
4 oz Roasted Barley info
boil 60 mins 0.5 oz Columbus
boil 15 mins 0.5 oz Willamette
Nottingham Yeast
RE: your hops issue. I agree, both are aroma hops, but a Scotch Ale doesn’t really do bitter with hops. Aromatic added early and boiled to death should be adequate, they are supposed to me malty. Now, if you WANT a hoppy Scotch Ale, that’s all up to you, mate.
Good luck.
Thanks for the suggestions and the clone recipe. I agree that the chocolate malt is too much and will scale it back. I have no experience with Cherrywood smoked malt so I’ll change my assumption about it’s strength and consider the flavor as similar to smoked malt. So I’ll add no more than .25#. I’ll adjust my two row accordingly so I can max out my partial mash.
The hop schedule in the clone recipe was what I had thought about doing, but I wasn’t sure.
This is my first real try at creating a recipe and the worst case is I’ll make beer. If it doesn’t match, so what? Maybe I’ll like it better.
Well if that is the case just go for it and see what you end up with. I have at least temporarily stopped doing clone recipes just because it can be hard to nail it down and even some of the clone recipes out there are not even close to the original. That and I’d rather focus on my own creations rather than try to duplicate others.
