Scotch Ale Recipe - seeking advice on crystal malts

Seems a bit high for me, it could give to the beer too much raisin flavor and I don´t know if it fits well in this beer style.I would reduce it in a half.

 

I am not familiar with Cara-Brown. I usually restrict my crystal to 1# per 5 gallons. I am at work so I do not have access to my recipe book. I am sure I have used more then 1# in a recipe before. A brown ale I think. Good luck.

 

I'm no Scottish Ale expert, but the BJCP guidelines seem to steer away from heavy crystal use. I suspect ales traditionally brewed in Scottland also don't/didn't use large amounts of crystal, but I'm not sure. Calling @patto1ro ...

 

Are you going for a more traditional scotch ale, or something like Founders Dirty Bastard? The Founders is probably pretty heavy on the crystal malt, especially of the darkish variety.

 

I think that the amount of crystal is pretty high, I would cut it in half. Scotch ales (as the BJCP defines them) tend to be a bit sweet due to low hopping and attenuation. A lot of crystal could make it cloying.

So far as the crystal varieties you're using. I really like the Munton's C150. I don't think of it as being as raisiny as special b, but definitely has some dark fruit qualities along with the burnt sugar. I've never used more than 4oz in a 5gal batch though.

I've never used CaraBrown, but when discussing it with one of the guys at Keystone a couple of years ago, he told me about how they figure out the qualities of any new malt that comes on the market. It was something like 90% US 2row, 10% new malt, something like 1.045OG and bittered to ~20-30ibus, fermented with Chico. He told me that the mash smelled like freshly baked chocolate chip cookies (beer was still fermenting at the time). Sounds like it would be different and tasty in a Scotch ale.

 

I use good pale malt and a touch (1/4#) of roasted barley for my favorite wee heavy recipe. No crystal malt at all.

I not against it altogether, but agree with others who suggest less.

 

One thing to consider is that if you're going to boil it down for 3 or 4 hours, you'll probably want less crystal than if you are doing a 60 min boil.

 

My opinion :


11.5 lb maris otter
0.5# briess carabrown
0.5# Munton's dark crystal( avoiding too raisiny flavor(turns into cherry when oxidize))
0.5 Bicuit(to add malt flavor instead boiling longer)
0.5 Melanoidin(gets nice rubi color)
0.1# munton's roasted barley
3 oz of challenger

 

Founders Dirty Bastard has about 50 IBU and a lot of crystal malt to balance it. The head brewer said that at NHC.

 

I'll pass on the advice given to me for my Wee Heavy, consider swap of Maris Otter to Golden Promise.

 

Scottish breweries didn't usually use crystal malt at all. Their grists were dead, dead dull - pale malt and flaked maize or corn grits, with any colour coming from caramel.

 

I did stumble across a recipe this afternoon that called for 1/2# each of 40L and 75L crystal malts, with 1/4 roasted barley and the remainder (approx 10#) pale base malt. I personally haven't tried it, but the tasting notes that accompanied the recipe made me think maybe worth trying.

The procedure did include a boil-down of the 1st 1.5 gallons of the 1st runnings, which could be done concurrently with an extra burner or on the stove if you have a 2nd pair of eyes. Or just boil down as long as you are sparging.

 

I'd replace all the carabrown and dark crystal with just 8-12oz of Special B (keeping the OG up with additional pale malt). Not traditional but it works. I'd cut the hops in half too. A wee heavy is a malt bomb, about as 'balanced' as an IPA, just at the other extreme.

 

Zero roast barley for a wee heavy?

 

usually. Caramel was the colourant of choice.

 

When I asked someone about brewing a scotch ale, "they" recommended using a 80 caramel/crystal. they is Khris when he used to work at Southern Brewing. Now he works at Green Bench as head brewer. It did the trick! oh percentage.. about 10%

 

While I feel

While I generally feel that the BJCP guidelines are of little real relevance (and at times, hard to even take seriously), I would have to agree that good Scottish/Scotch/Wee Heavies don't call for (or need) crystal malts at all.
In fact. the best ales I've had (of the types in question) were made completely without any crystal malt at all, and they were astoundingly good (and they were anything but dull). The very best one I ever tasted (besides Traquair House Ale, which is something of a benchmark) was a Scotch Ale made with a malt bill that consisted only of 70% Maris Otter and 30% light Munich, with an OG of 1.080 and less than 15 IBUs (from a single, old school hop variety). With proper aging (at around 9 months when I tasted it) it was very flavorful and unbelievably complex despite the simplicity of it's components).

Of course, it always just boils down to personal tastes. In the end, there are no hard and fast rules because all beer "styles" have historically been subject to individual interpretation anyway. And I suppose that the use of some crystal/caramel malts are an ok way to add some complexity when proper aging isn't possible due to practical concerns, the need (in the commercial world) to get product out the door quickly, or (in the homebrew world) simple impatience.