Wee-Heavy suggestion

[Beek]

Hey everyone. I love Scottish Wee-Heavies. Dirty Bastard is easily my favorite beer of all time. Anyway, yesterday I happened upon a recipe for a crazy huge Wee-Heavy. Just wanted to see what y'all think. Thanks!

Extract recipe, 5-gallon batch size
Original gravity: 1.120
Final gravity: 1.030
Bitterness: 32 IBU
Alcohol by volume: 9.5 percent

15 pounds light dry malt extract
16 ounces 55-degree Lovibond crystal malt
4 ounces chocolate malt
4 ounces peat-smoked malt
2.25 ounces black malt
1 ounce Northern Brewer hops (10 percent AA), 60 minutes

Steep the grains in 1 gallon of 150-degree F water for 30 minutes. Sparge with 1 gallon of 150 F water. Add 1 gallon water and bring to boil. Remove from heat and the Dry Malt Extract. Bring to boil, stirring regularly. Add 1 ounce Northern Brewer hop pellets.

Boil for 60 minutes, stirring regularly. Remove from heat and cool. Add to fermenting bucket/carboy and top off to 5 gallons with cold water.

Fermentation: Aerate well and pitch two activator packs of Wyeast 1728 Scottish ale yeast. Aerate again 12 hours later. Let ferment at 60 F for two weeks. Let it sit at 60 F four more weeks. Prime with 1/2 cup of honey, dissolved in 1 cup of warm water. Bottle and sample after six weeks.

 

[fatnoah]

I prefer my wee heavies a little drier. I'd shoot for an OG near 1.090 and try to get the FG closer to 1.020. I also don't think that is enough yeast. For a 5gal batch I'm guessing you'd need at least a 3L starter but I haven't done the mrmalty calc on it. Finally, I've read multiple times that smoked malt is not appropriate for wee heavies but most people seem to ignore that.

 

[slarkin712]

I also would say you need more yeast. Also, using the OG and FG your ABV would be closer to 11.8% rather than 9.5%. If you make this recipe I would definitely age it for a long time to round out the flavors and maybe soften the alcohol burn.