I’m thinking of brewing this one soon. I would love to hear some feedback.
Flowery Kilt Scotch Ale
1 oz Peated Malt
1 oz Roasted Barley
2 oz Biscuit Malt
8 oz 20 L Caramel Malt
Specialty grains steeped 148 F for 30 minutes.
12 lbs Maris Otter LME - half for full 90 minute boil and half the last 15 minutes.
1.5 lbs Honey at flameout.
1 oz Cenntenial 20 min
3 oz Fuggles 10 min
4 oz Heather Tips 1 min
Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale - Overnight culture.
SG - 1.097
Target FG - 1.02
I’m not really qualified to review recipes, but I’m thinking you’d do better if you added hops earlier. Maybe move the centennial to 60?
And you mention an overnight starter for the yeast. Is that on a stir plate? if not, you may want a full 24 hours to REALLY make sure you have enough for that 1.097.
I’ve never brewed with heather, but it sounds interesting. Fresh or dried?
I’m shooting for a malty beer as opposed to hoppy, hence the late addition of Cenntenial.
Definitely an overnight culture with a stir bar. Attenuation will be total crap without enough soldiers!
I’m using dried as I don’t have a fresh source. My understanding is that it provides a flowery-ness to the aroma. I’ve never used it either though. Here’s hoping its good!
I could be wrong but with an overnight starter, even on a stir plate, you are only waking the yeast up, not really growing more, unless the yeast is very fresh and takes off right away?
I would have given a solid week for the starter with that OG and made it at least 3 liters. Then I would cold crash and decant and pitch to keep the nasty oxygenated beer out of my fresh wort.
Have you had success with an overnight starter with this OG?
I’ve never had any trouble doing it this way. Usually the yeast are active in the first hour. Perhaps it’s my media. Most people use DME. I use honey (1.04) and go ferm for the starter. I guess the sugar in the honey kick starts them. Something I learned from mead making.
Cool
A late addition will give you hop flavor and aroma which you probably don’t want in a scotch ale. 15-20 IBUs at the start of the boil is the way to go and personally I wouldn’t use cenntenial, you’d be better off with goldings.
Agreed. That’s a good point. I’ll trade Cenntenial out for 1.5 oz of goldings for 1 hour.
