Need help developing a Scottish Ale recipe...

[Neuroticsockpuppet]

Trying to put together a scottish ale recipe (and brew it) for my gf's father...only thing is I'm a freak'n hop head who doesn't drink anything with less than 80 IBUs...So I put the following together for him, was wondering if anyone with experience can give me feed back...

Malt bill
2 lb - Biscuit
1 lb - Crystal 30L
1 lb - Crystal 45L
0.5 lb - Munich
13 lb - Golden Promise
0.2 lb - Peated Malt
0.5 lb - Roasted Barley

Bitters
1 oz - Fuggles (60 min)
1 oz - Heather Tips (60 min)
1 oz - Heather Tips (30 min)
1 oz - Cascade (15 min)

I've pretty much frankensteined this thing, any input would be appreciated!

 

[stpug]

I'd do things a lot differently if you're after an easily approachable beer. I don't know your gf's father so I can't say what he would/n't like.

Assuming 10 gallons (otherwise you're in the Wee Heavy side of things):
-Scrap the peated malt
-Half the roasted barley (and maybe switch it to carafa special, midnight wheat, black prinz, debittered black)
-That amount of munich will not make itself present in this beer so either up it or replace with more GP
-Half the biscuit
-As for the crystal, keep it in. Or you can do a common alternate method (without crystal) of: collecting first runnings and boiling them down to 10% volume (i.e. a syrup) and then add them to the remainder of the runnings which have been boiling for an hour (but don't scorch this syrup).
-Drop the cascade
-Seems like a lot of heather tips, although I've never used them (total guess but I'd at least half each addition)
-Adjust your base grain to get the OG you want
-Brew with a well attenuating yeast

Oh, and BTW, Welcome to HBT!

 

[TheHunk]

90 Shilling Scottish Ale
9.0 lb Bairds Maris Otter
2.0 lb Munich malt
1 lb Crystal 75 malt
8 oz Crystal 40 malt
8 oz Wheat malt
6 oz Honey malt
2 oz Choclate malt – Hot Steeped in 1650 water for 5 minutes added at end of boil.
2.2 oz Kent Goldings [6.1 %] (60 min)
1 Pkgs Nottingham

The key as stpug said is to boil the 1st runnings. I usually take the 1st gallon and boil it down to 1/2 gallon. I also think 1 lb of biscuit would be fine.

 

[danthebugman]

Less is more. There's quite a few different malts there and I'm not sure what you're aiming for, but I think it just going to get muddled. If it were me I'd cut out the Biscuit, Peated, and Munich altogether. I'm on the fence about keeping the Crystal malts. Some recipes have them, some don't. You don't necessarily need them I don't think, especially if you do a longer boil. I'd keep the Roasted, but if you're doing a 5 gallon batch you may want to knock it down by at least half. Alternatively you can switch it up like stpug said. Also that's a lot of base grain unless you have low efficiency or you're doing more than 5 gallons. Ditch the Cascade, it doesn't belong. I've not used Heather tips so I'm not sure on the amounts there. I will say I have had a commercial example that used them and while interesting I'm not sure I'd want to drink 5 gallons of it. Thus if it were me I'd take them out too.

You may also want to read this: https://byo.com/hops/item/1355-scottish-ale-style-profile

 

[Neuroticsockpuppet]

So I went ahead and did some modifications, now its looking like:

1.5 lb Melanoidin
2 lb Crystal 60L
19 lb Maris Otter Pale
.5 lb Roasted Barley

 

[stpug]

At 10 gallons, I think your new grainbill looks much better - in general.

The hops should basically be a single addition at 60 minutes to balance the beer and no more (pretty much exactly opposite of how you've been hopping your beers ). To balance the bitterness of the beer for this style you can divide the IBU's by the gravity points (e.g. 1.056 where '56' is the gravity points) and should end up somewhere in the 0.40-0.50 range.

-I still think there will be too much of a roast contribution from the roasted barley which is why I suggested some form of debittered black malt, but maybe it'll work out fine at that level. It certainly isn't going to ruin anything; maybe just be a little more roast character than typical.

Personal opinions:
-I'm not a fan of melanoidin so if I were brewing this I'd swap it for munich II, but that's just my personal dislike.
-I liked the Golden Promise direction for a scottish ale, but there's nothing wrong with Maris Otter at all.

Have fun brewing it!!

 

[MEPNew2Brew]

IMO - get rid of the Munich. It is a Scottish Ale after all.
Drop the Peated Malt, unless you are really looking for that flavor profile.
I'd do 2 lbs of crystal 40 and be done with it.

I'd go for a Scottish Ale yeast. I don't use a lot of liquid yeast. But, I use them for non-US specialty brews.

Use Fuggles instead of Cascade for the 15 min addition.

Just my opinion.

In any event, your gf's father will likely appreciate the effort. So, no matter what you brew, he should appreciate it.

Just my two cents.

 

[Snicklefritz]

Here is mine. Won a few times with this. The key is removing 1 gallon of wort before mash out and boil it down to 1/4 gallon then add back to the rest of the wort to get the rich caramel flavors.

Mash at 153
90 minute boil

16lb M.O.
1lb C120
8oz C60
3oz Roasted Barley

1oz NB hops for 60 min

1728 Scottish Ale Yeast