Now that I have plenty of beers ready for the kegerator and a few beers in bottles, I figured I could begin to space out brews a bit more and brew beers that allow for long aging periods. Also, I thought that I should take advantage of the low fermentations I can achieve at this time of year. I chose to go with a few Scottish ales that would benefit from a long cellaring period, as well as the low fermentation temperatures I will not likely achieve after a few more months.
I chose to go with Wyeast's Scottish Ale 1728 ale yeast, and brew up a low alcohol Scottish 60 Schilling ale followed by a Scottish Wee Heavy. The Scottish 60 should be a great way to grow some yeast for the "bigger" beer that will follow it since the OG of a 60 is relatively low, allowing the yeast to propagate without too much stress on the yeast. Plus, a low abv session beer will be great this spring, even if the finished beer ends up on the maltier side.
Scottish 60 Schilling Ale
Batch Volume (Gal): 6.00
Pre-Boil Volume (Gal): 5.00 (Collected 5 gallons of runoff,
then topped up to 6 gallons post-boil)
Total Grain (Lbs): 7.13
OG: 1.039 Anticipated FG: ~1.012 Anticipated ABV: ~3.5%
IBUs: 13.9
SRM: 14.6
Brewhouse Efficiency: 91%
Boil Duration: 90 min
Grain (Lbs/oz.) (%)
British 2-row Pale Malt (Pearl) 4.5 63.2
Munich Malt 8 oz. 7
Honey Malt 8 oz. 7
Crystal 40 1 14
Crystal 120 8 oz. 7
Chocolate Malt 2 oz. 1.8
Hops (AA%) (IBU) (Oz.) (Boil[min])
East Kent Goldings 4.5 13.9 0.75 60
Yeast
Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale (pitched directly from liquid yeast packet)
Water
1 tsp 5.2 pH stabilizer (in mash)
1 tsp Calcium Chloride (90 min)
1/2 tsp Calcium Sulfate (90 min)
1 Whirlfloc tablet (10 min)
1/2 tsp yeast nutrient (10 min)
I chose to mash this beer at a little bit thinner at 1.5 qts/lb, and went with a high mash temperature of 158 F to allow for a high percentage of dextrins in the finished wort. I only hit about 155 F for the first ten minutes, but I brought up the mash to 158 F for the remaining fifty minutes. Hopefully the high mash temperature, high percentage of specialty malts in the grain bill, and low fermentation temperature (~62 F) will result in a very malt driven beer, especially for such a low alcohol, quaffable beer.
After a good mash and sparge period, I was a little concerned upon smelling the wort once it was in the boil kettle. I was a bit worried that my mash tun had left an odor in the mash. After brewing the barleywine and english pale ale two weeks ago, I had left the grain in both mash tuns overnight. I was so tired after brewing all day, I figured there was no need to drag all that spent grain out to the compost, and I could simply do it the next day. Unfortunately the bacteria that are found in the husks of barley malt soured both mashes overnight, leaving me with a strongly soured wort and two very smelly mashes and mashtuns.
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| Vorlaufing: recirculating the mash prior to collecting the wort in the boil kettle |
I think I successfully removed the stink from the larger of the two mashtuns, but used the smaller mashtun today. After collecting the wort during runoff and while boiling, the aroma coming from the wort was very banana like, with some subtle sourness to it. I'm concerned that the finished beer could potentially be either soured (from a population of bacteria still alive in the mashtun) or simply retain the aromas taken from the smelly mashtun. Hopefully neither situation occurs, and the boil was enough to "scrub out" any off aromas and/or flavors.
I'm also concerned about my supposed efficiency. I've never even approached 91% efficiency before, so it was a bit confusing when I first measured my original gravity. I have observed some greater efficiency due to the use of my new mill, and I did use a thinner mash which has been said to increase mash efficiency, but 91% seems to defy explanation. I ran-off the first part of the mash relatively quickly so that may have withdrawn a large proportion of the sugar in solution. The small mash may have contributed to an increased ability to withdraw sugar as well. I have little experience using my new grain mill together with thin mashes so I'll have to go through a couple more brew days like this before I can try and explain where this increased efficiency is coming from.
The IBUs in this brew are a bit questionable as well, as my flame on the burner went out mid-boil. This was after I had made my 60 minute bittering hop addition, so it likely contributed to a decrease in alpha acid isomerization and therefore decreased bitterness in the final beer. I simply ran the boil fifteen minutes longer, and after playing with the numbers, I figured that this would either put my IBUs on the low or the high end of the IBU style range for 60 Schilling Ales (10-15 IBUs). It shouldn't amount to any big issue in the final beer.
The 60 Schilling ale should ferment at around 62 F for at least the next week, possibly two weeks. I'm hoping to brew the Scottish Wee Heavy some time before leaving to see my girlfriend Laura in Bahrain (I hear the country's settling down a bit...). I'm thinking the 60 will be great for warmer spring weather after it's in the keg, and the Wee Heavy will be a great fall beer if I can keep it around long enough in bottles.
The kegerator is full once again with two kegs; the German Altbier and the English Oatmeal Stout. The Alt is very malt, yet sessionable, with great flavor and aroma coming from the German Hallertau Mittelfruh hops. The Oatmeal Stout is smooth and creamy from the use of oatmeal, but with a nice contrast coming from the mineral flavor from the London ale yeast and the roast from the roasted barley. The kegged beers will hopefully be joined soon by the Belgian Dubbel once it fully carbonates in bombers.
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| English Oatmeal Stout |
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| German Altbier |
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