I made a really good Scottish ale but i came across an issue. It hardly has a head. Im pretty sure it has todo something with the sugar. but i feel like i put enough in it, if anyone has a good recipe i could try or knows what i should do different next time please let me know!! I have a good recipe but im interested in some different ideas!!
Scottish ale is supposed to have low head. You probably did just fine. Try pouring your pints straight down the center of the glass instead of tilting the glass, and ensure you don't use any soap when cleaning your glassware but only a hot water rinse.
I thought that was the case ill try it! Everything from beginning to end went really good so i was curious what i did wrong
You can always make this out of style. You're the one drinking it. CO2 plays a part as well. Jack up the CO2 to about 2 to 2.5 volumes. Add .75 pounds of carapils and maybe some flakes. <---flaked barley or instant oatmeal at .5 pounds. These measurements will depend on how big of a beer we're talking about here.
Thanks man and it was a 5 gal. batch thats usually what i do and im gonna use the same recipie i used again but ill try to jack up the c02 and tweak it a little to see if that helps!! have you brewed a scottish ale before?
Is your problem that there's little foam, or that there's actually adequate foam that quickly disappears? Higher carbonation (or a harder pour) can help with the former. For the latter, look at adding ingredients that are foam positive like the carapils or flaked barley @inchrisin mentioned. He also mentioned oatmeal (flaked oats), but in my experience oatmeal is about neutral at best for foam. It does add proteins (foam positive) but is also relatively high in oils (foam negative) compared with other grains. But as @dmtaylor mentioned, Scottish Ale doesn't typically have a lot of foam anyway. This is the point in the conversation where our friends from across the pond usually remind us there's no such thing as Scottish Ale. But that's a different topic.
Well yeah when i didnt tip the glass when i poured it, it woud foam up but then quickly disapate. My glass was clean so it wasnt the soap ruining the head. Also it tasted just a little flat, i guess i didnt use the CO2 right. But my dad thought maybe we messed up on adding to little of sugar. But im leaning towards the fact that maybe we didnt carbonate it enough with CO2. I dont know im going to make it again with some different tweaks.
Basically, the ales made in Scotland were/are no different from the ales made in England. But I'm not a historian.
Eg: SN's new Maple Scotch and Founders' Dirty Bastard...both excellent variations of Scotch/Scottish style Ales
Beers have been brewed in Scotland over many centuries and what ‘defines’ a Scottish beer will vary over those many centuries. You might enjoy watching/hearing what Ron Pattinson has to discuss on this topic. Cheers!
I've done a few small shilling ales that came out pretty good and I've done 2 Strong Scotch ales. The strongs come across as cloyingly sweet. The trick, if you want to bump up the CO2, would be to know that this makes the beer taste a little drier. I can't imagine making a Scotch ale any sweeter than they are. I would personally leave the IBUs alone, where others may drop the number to compensate for the perceived dryness CO2 brings.
