Wee Heavy Malts

I'd do either the sugar or the caramalt but not both.

 

I wouldn’t mash for that long either. You’ll be better off going about half that long.

 

I'd skip the sugar, cara and victory and substitute amber. But no more than 10% of the grist

 

A pro friend had one that was just Golden Promise and 2% roasted malt, it was very good.

 

100% base malt also works very well.

@firstthenlast, which yeast strain are you using? Hopping?

 

How do you get the characteristic color? Long boils?

At least you, and everyone else, didn’t suggest Peated malt.

 

Yeah . . . if you're going for a certain SRM, then you're going to need some color adjustment, but if you're just going for a solid beer then that isn't needed.

 

I’d skip the caramelized sugar.

Would cut the roasted barley to 1.0%

Would add some lighter caramel malt too, like 2% 20L, 2% 40L. I like the victory malt in there at 5%, that will be nice.

The best Wee Heavy I’ve ever had (and I’ve had a LOT of different Wee Heavy) is Cigar City’s Big Sound (their BBA Big Sound is near perfection). I asked one of the brewers once what the grist looked like. He told me “it’s a kitchen sink beer, we throw a lot of different malts in there”.

Best of luck!

 

Btw, another thing that I’ve done in the past that I liked was to take a gallon of pre-boil wort into a separate small kettle or pot and vigorously boil that down to about 2 qts of highly caramelized wort and add back into main kettle at the end of boil.

Idk if the richness I got in my Wee Heavy has anything to do with that or not. Maybe others can chime in on this?

 

I like this technique a lot. I just use the first gallon to gallon and a half of the first runnings and add it directly to the fermenter once it has cooled. I also use it for my IPAs, as it makes adding sugar easier and gives a little more malt complexity, IMO.

 

That would work. EKGs or Fuggles would work well. You could use Vienna or Munich. It'll be a good beer, but don't expect it to be traditional or anything.

 

I would probably like the beer as you conceived it. Well, assuming you add hops and yeast and water

I would probably mash for 60. And I would aim for a 90 min boil, just to save time. That means you can drink a beer an hour sooner.

 

No, but a # or 2 of rauch malt and some oak soaked in Bourbon will make a delicious/not to style take on a Wee Heavy

 

Yes

No