100 Bottles of Beer - Another Scotch & Toad and a Winky Dink

I hope so, for that is the whole point telling these tales of my experiences, to educate and inspire others to join in the fun and enjoy real beer. I know some of you are experienced brewers and I hope you get a chuckle out of some of this, for I am sure you have been there as well.

We have 56 brews still ahead of us so, let's get started. You will remember back in part seven my Scotch Ale that just didn't quite attenuate out and I ended up turning it into a Barleywine. Well, I wanted to try again to make a Scotch Ale. I found this recipe on Cats Meow. It was credited to Jeff McNally. As usual, I have tweaked it a bit due to availability and personal preference.

Scotch Ale

6.6 lbs Bierkeller Plain Light LME

2 lbs Belgian Munich malt

1 lb 53L British crystal malt

4 oz British chocolate malt

4 oz German wheat malt

6 oz British peated malt

2 oz English Kent Golding whole cone hops (60 min)

2 oz English Fuggle whole cone hops (15 min)

1 tsp Irish Moss (10 min)

½ tsp gypsum

½ tsp Burton water salts

Wyeast 1728 Scottish ale yeast

Priming: ¾ cup corn sugar & ¼ cup DME

Fairly standard brewing procedure here, heat 8 quarts cold water treated with gypsum to 165F and mash in. The temperature drops significantly when adding the grains so continue to heat and stabilize temperature at 165F. Cover, remove from heat and let mash for one hour, then sparge with 4 quarts boiling water.

Due to the larger quantity of malted grains than in previous brews I had to set up a different mashing and sparging arrangement for this one. I mashed the grains in a 16 quart kettle and heated the sparge water in an 8 quart. I strained the mash into a sanitized fermentation bucket using a two-stage strainer made up of my large plastic colander sitting in my large stainless strainer. I then sparged the grains through this arrangement, collecting all the wort in the bucket. Could this be my first step toward all-grain brewing? We will soon find out.

Return the wort to the brew kettle, add LME and Burton Water Salts, and bring to boil, adding hops and Irish Moss at times indicated for total one hour boil. I had forgotten to by hop bags so had to add the hops directly to the wort. This requires straining out the hops before pouring wort into carboy with cold water and topping to 5 ½ gallons. Pitch the yeast when wort has cooled.

Fermentation activity started very quickly but then slowed to a near stop just as quickly. I moved the carboy to a warmer location and the activity picked up again and progressed nicely. I bottled the beer after seven days in the primary and fifteen days in the secondary.

The color was a dark, dark red and was very clear with little or no chill haze. The peat smoked flavor and hop bitterness were both just right. This continued to age very nicely and developed a hint of Barleywine flavor, very appropriate for Scotch Ale and the slight smokiness was perfect. The target gravities in the original recipe were OG 1.055 and FG 1.018 indicating about 4.8% ABV. I am sure it was higher. Obviously this Scotch Ale came out far superior to my first attempt.

Our next brew comes from Charlie Papazian's New Complete Joy of Home Brewing and is his take on Guinness Stout. It does lack that particular tang of the real thing. Guinness achieves this by adding back a small amount (3%) of pasteurized soured beer to the fresh brewed stout. Charlie calls his version: Toad Spit Stout.

Toad Spit Stout

3.3 lbs John Bull Plain Dark LME

4 lbs M&F Plain Extra Dark DME

12 oz British 53L crystal malt

6 oz British roasted barley

6 oz British Black Patent malt

4 tsp gypsum

2 oz German Northern Brewer hop pellets (60 min)

1 oz English Fuggle whole cone hops (10 min)

1 oz Toasted oak chips

White Labs WLP004 Irish Ale Yeast

Priming: ¾ cup corn sugar & ¼ cup DME

The only changes I made were decreasing the gypsum, 8 tsp just seemed like way too much, increasing both hops by ½ oz each, and using specific Irish Ale yeast. I also added the oak chips, kind of on a whim when I racked it to the secondary.

Heat milled grains in four quarts cold water treated with gypsum. When steady boil is reached, turn off heat, cover, and let stand for ten minutes. Add extracts to six quarts hot water which was boiled while grains were mashing. Strain and sparge grains into kettle with two quarts boiling water. Bring the kettle to boil adding hops at times indicated for total 60 minute boil. Remove hops and pour wort into carboy with cold water topping to 5 ½ gallons. Pitch the yeast when the wort has cooled.

After four days in primary, rack to secondary along with steamed oak chips and bottle after 15 days in the secondary.

This was sweeter and hoppier than Guinness. The body was a bit lighter and the head was brown and thinner, not the creamy white of Guinness. The head was persistent all the way to the bottom of the glass. Charlie's target gravities were OG 1.054 and FG 1.019 for about 4.5% ABV. I believe Guinness is actually only around 3% ABV.

From spitting toads we move on to Winky Dink Marzen, another of Charlie's creations. This time he actually explains where the name comes from. Winky was one of his favorite childhood cartoon heroes. Apparently he could transcend space and time by drawing with a magic crayon. I had never heard of him so I checked Wikipedia on the internet. Apparently, the show aired on CBS from 1953 to 1957 and was probably the first interactive TV show. Viewers could purchase a kit which included a vinyl static-cling sheet which stuck to the TV screen and special markers with which children could draw along with Winky. Let's see, 1957, I was only four and where I grew up in rural Montana I think we only got one network and I am not sure if we even had a TV yet. I guess that's why I don't know Winky. Anyway, back to the beer.

Winky Dink Marzen

6.6 lbs Bierkeller Plain Light LME

1 lb Laaglander Extra Light DME

½ lb German light crystal malt (1.3-2.3L)

½ lb Belgian chocolate malt

2 oz German Hallertau Tradition whole cone hops (60 min)

1 oz German Hallertau Tradition whole cone hops (5 min)

½ tsp Irish Moss (15 min)

Wyeast 2308 Munich Lager yeast

Priming: 1 ½ cup DME

I used slightly less LME than the recipe indicated and added the DME to offset that. I also doubled the finishing hops. Although I am using lager yeast, I am brewing at ale temperature. After the Australian Red Lager disaster, I was unwilling to mess with that again. Charlie advises that although lagering will improve this beer, it is just fine without it.

Very standard brew procedure which I think we all have a handle on now so I will not go into the details. After five days in the primary, I racked to secondary. After eight days in the secondary I closed the heat vent in that room and left it another eight days before bottling. Just as a slight nod to the lager yeast. As this was early February, the room got cool but not cold.

You probably noticed I played with the priming sugars again. I should have stayed with my usual corn sugar and DME mix as it did come out a bit under carbonated. It was a little too dark for the style, should have used less chocolate malt. Taste was very sweet and malty, which is correct for the Marzen or Octoberfest. These two styles are basically identical beers brewed at different times of the year, Marzen for springtime and Octoberfest for fall. This beer improved significantly with aging. The carbonation got better and the malt and hops came into a better balance. Charlie's target gravities for this beer were OG 1.047 and FG 1.018 for about 3.9% ABV.

I think I will call it good for this edition. That's three more down, leaving 53 bottles of beer on the wall. Next edition we will move on to the next level in brewing and try a couple of advanced procedures. Can you say, "All Grain" and "Cultured Yeast"?

Keep on Brewin'

To be continued...

References:

Charlie Papazian, The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing, 2^nd edition, October 1991

Karl F. Lutzen & Mark Stevens, Cat's Meow