100 Bottles of Beer - Scotch and Barleywine

Scotch and Barleywine? No, we are not talking about Scotch whiskey and neither are we talking about wine. We are still brewing beer.

Scotch ale is the strongest, heaviest, darkest and bitterest of the Scottish ale style. Scottish ale is very similar to English ales. They traditionally have a longer boil time to partially caramelize the wort. They tend to be slightly maltier, darker, with a low hop character and usually, but not always, have a faint smoky flavor. This smoke comes from the use of grains which have been smoked over peat fires, commonly known as peated malt. It is my personal opinion that the use of peated malt is required to truly be Scottish ale.

Scottish ales typically fall into four categories; Light, Heavy, Export, and Scotch; described in "schillings". This system was devised in 19^th century Scotland and was based on the currency system of the time. "/" is the symbol for schilling. Typical ratings are: Light 60/, Heavy 70/, Export 80/, and 90/ to 160/ for Scotch Ales. Scotch ale is sometimes referred to as Wee Heavy. Higher schilling, typically, indicates higher ABV and darker beer.

Barleywine is truly ale, not wine. They are typically English style ales with ABV running from 9-13%, comparable to wine. They can range in color from light to dark. Barleywines are very alcoholic and full bodied and have a natural sweetness which is offset by very high hop rates. Due to the high ABV and hopping, these ales can typically be aged for very long periods. Some are designed to be aged for over 25 years!

Although not required for the style, it is my personal belief that to truly be a barleywine the beer must go through a secondary fermentation using a wine or champagne yeast. These yeasts can tolerate higher ABV than most standard ale yeasts and will attenuate more of the complex sugars which ale yeast may be unable to consume. The U.S. government requires barleywine to be labeled as "Barley Wine Style Ale" so as not to confuse the great uneducated masses.

Are we confused yet? Why all this talk of Scotch and Barleywine? The next two brews on our journey will make it all clear.

The first of these two is not a recipe from The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing but is based on information included in Charlie's chart of Guidelines for Brewing 5 Gallons of Traditional Beer and was intended to be a Strong Scotch Ale. As you will see, it did not turn out that way.

Strong Scotch Ale/Scotch Barleywine

Original Recipe:

12 lbs M&F plain light DME

18 oz British crystal malt 53L

4 oz British chocolate malt

4 oz British peated malt

2 oz Fuggles whole cone hops (60 min)

1/2 oz Fuggles whole cone hops (15 min)

1/4 oz Fuggles whole cone hops (5 min)

1 1/2 tsp Irish Moss

1 tsp gypsum

Wyeast 1728 Scottish ale yeast

Priming: ¾ cup corn sugar & ¼ cup DME

Subsequent additions:

Wyeast 1728 Scottish ale yeast

1 tsp yeast energizer

5g Pasteur Champagne yeast

Priming: 7/8 cup corn sugar

Steep grains in 2 gallons water treated with gypsum for 30 minutes at 165-170F covered. Raise heat to 180F, strain out and sparge grains with 1 qt hot water. Add DME to wort and bring to boil after DME as fully dissolved. I added another quart of water to aid in dissolving the large quantity of DME. Add hops and Irish Moss at times indicated.

Strain out hops and pour wort into 7 gallon carboy with enough cold water to bring volume to 5 ½ gallons. Pitch yeast when cooled. Original Gravity was 1.075 which is right on the mark per Charlie's chart.

Primary fermentation lasted 12 days and although it was strong it was never as vigorous as I had anticipated. Intermediate gravity at this point was 1.030 indicating about 5.9 ABV, just under the bottom end of the ABV range on the chart. It tasted strong but still very sweet, indicating it still had a bit farther to go. Rack to secondary.

After about 3 weeks in the secondary I took a gravity reading of 1.027, 6.4 ABV which is right in the ballpark per the chart. Still tasted sweet but I decided to go ahead and bottle.

Let the beer condition for 3 weeks before trying one. It was completely flat and very sweet, tasting like unfermented wort. Tried a second bottle, same. Obviously, the yeast was no longer viable and the priming sugars were not consumed.

So, now I had two options. One, dump the beer and call it a loss or; two, add some fresh yeast and see what happens. I chose option two.

Given that the beer was already bottled was a problem. They all had to be opened and either poured back into a fermenter or add a little yeast directly into the bottles. I decided against adding yeast to the bottles as this would be inconsistent bottle to bottle and had a higher risk of contamination. After sanitizing the top of each bottle I removed the cap and carefully poured each one into a carboy already containing a second pack of 1728 yeast. I took care to keep splashing and agitation to a minimum to prevent oxidation. Every bottle was completely flat with very little or no sedimentation.

After two days of no activity I added the yeast energizer dissolved in one cup cold water. I never got any real activity over the next 3 weeks, just a few random bubbles floating on top of the wort. I had put so much effort into this brew, I really did not want to give up and call it a failure, so; I decided to try one last radical approach...Champagne yeast!

Pitched the re-hydrated Pasteur Champagne and hoped for the best. After two days... EUREKA! We had some slow steady activity which continued for several days

After 8 days the activity slowed to the point it was time to re-bottle. The Final Gravity was 1.026, 6.5% ABV. This was not a significant change from the first bottling. But remember, the wort contained unfermented priming sugars from the first bottling. My best guess is this was now probably about 7.5% ABV.

We now had what could only be called: Scotch Barleywine. I let it bottle condition for one month before trying the first one. The beer was very dark but very clear. The carbonation was light but adequate and was still quite sweet, as most barleywines are, but not syrupy sweet like it had been. The champagne yeast added a slight wine character.

While this was not the best brew I had made, it was no longer a loss. It was very drinkable and improved with age. The carbonation level increased and the wine flavor dropped off for a while but came back in the last few bottles.. It reminded me of a lighter, more carbonated version of Sam Adams Triple Bock.

If I were to remake this brew today, I would still be going for Strong Scotch ale but would make a yeast starter to dramatically increase the amount of yeast pitched. This would allow more sugars to be consumed before the alcohol level killed the yeast. Or, a more likely approach, I would use White Labs WLP099 Super High Gravity Ale Yeast which can tolerate ABV level up to about 25%.

Now you hopefully understand the Scotch and Barleywine connection. This "learning experience" led me to wanting to intentionally make a barleywine for my next brew.

The barleywine recipe I chose came from Cats Meow and was credited to Greg Winters, location not specified. According to my notes at the time, it was also featured as the "Brew of the Month" for November, 1995 on the calendar put out by another Denver area home brew shop, Beer at Home. I can no longer find that recipe to determine if it was identical. This recipe has a couple of minor tweaks from the original for various reasons.

Breakfast Barleywine

16 lbs Alexander's pale LME

2 oz English black patent malt

1 lb dark brown sugar

14 oz orange blossom honey

3 oz German Hallertau plugs (90 min)

3 1/2 oz English Fuggles plugs (dry hop primary)

3 tsp. gypsum

Wyeast 1214 Belgian Abbey (primary - 2 pkgs)

Vintners Choice 3021 Pasteur Champagne (secondary)

Priming: ¾ cup corn sugar & ¼ cup DME

Bring black patent malt to boil in 2 gallons cold water treated with gypsum. Strain out grains just as boil commences. Add brown sugar, honey, and LME (make sure your kettle is big enough to hold all this and still have room to boil) and return to boil. Add Hallertau hops and boil for 90 minutes. Strain off the hops and pour wort into fermenter with cold water topping to 5 ½ gallons. Add Fuggles hops to fermenter and pitch Belgian Abbey yeast when wort has cooled. O.G. was 1.117, much higher than the 1.098 specified in the original recipe.

After 48 hours I still had no sign of activity. I suspected the Belgian Abbey yeast was either not fresh or I had pitched before the wort had cooled properly. Pitched another, fresher package and got some good activity within 12 hours, becoming vigorous after 24 hours.

Activity had settled down after five more days and was ready to rack to secondary. This was a bit of a chore as the hops kept plugging the siphon. Intermediate Gravity at this point was 1.033 indicating 10.25% ABV - WOW!

Pitch the Champagne yeast in the secondary. Very slow activity continued for five weeks at which time it was ready to bottle. What had started as very murky, muddy looking wort was now very clear with a thick layer of sediment in the secondary. F.G. was 1.028, only slightly higher than the 1.024 target. This gives it an ABV of about 10.75 percent - WOW again!

Now the test of patience began. This should age at least six months before sampling; could I do it? Yes, I did, actually waiting about seven months. Bottles were very clear and beer was very red. Unfortunately it developed heavy chill haze when chilled. It was very sweet and the ABV was very apparent. Very good stuff which got better as it warmed in the glass. Carbonation level was right on target. This was much better than the accidental Scotch Barleywine.

I took about seven more months to finish this wonderful stuff. It was definitely better not chilled and just continued to get better with age. It had a beautiful clear ruby red color with an effervescent head that dissipated quickly. On my own personal rating system for my home brews, this was the first "Very Excellent". It was a sad, triumphant day when I finished the last bottle.

After the last two extremely big beers, I decided to shift gears and take a different direction with the next one which I called, Bob Lite. This was an original recipe in an attempt to make a light beer. Not light as in low cal, low alcohol; but light as in light colored and light tasting. Something maybe my wife Nancy would like.

Bob Lite

3.3 lbs M&F Extra Light LME

3 lbs M&F Extra Light DME

1 lb American 6 row crystal malt 10L

1 oz Cascade whole cone hops (60 min)

1/2 oz Cascade whole cone hops (30 min)

1/2 oz Cascade whole cone hops (15 min)

1 1/2 tsp Irish Moss (15 min)

2 pkg EDME dry yeast (23g total)

Priming: ¾ cup corn sugar & ¼ cup DME

Heat 2 gallons cold water and crystal malt to 180F, remove from heat and strain out grains sparging with 1 ½ qt hot water. Add extracts and return to boil. Total boil, 60 minutes, adding hops and moss at times indicated. Strain out hops and pour wort into fermenter with cold water topping to 5 ½ gallons. Pitch re-hydrated yeast when cooled. I did not take a gravity reading.

Fermentation began in a little less than 24 hours and continued slowly for 3 days, never becoming very vigorous. The beer already looked pretty clear in the primary with just a few floating chunks of trub and thick sediment. Muddied up again when racking to secondary but settled back out again.

I left this in the secondary for 16 days just because I did not have time to get to bottling it.

This turned out very good, a little darker than expected and cleared very well as it aged. It did have a very slight chill haze. Mild flavor with a definite citrus character from the Cascade hops. And, as I had hoped, Nancy even liked it.

This next brew is a bit of oddity. (Yeah, like some of the others haven't been) This is my own concoction of the various odds & ends left over from all the previous brews. I just sort of decided to "clean out the closet" and threw them all together to see what I get. The only ingredient bought just for this brew was the yeast.

Clean Out the Closet Dark

1 1/2 lb M&F dark DME

1 1/4 lb M&F amber DME

6 oz British roasted barley

3 oz German 5.5L Crystal malt

6 oz British Dextrin malt

8 oz 40L Crystal malt

4 1/2 oz black patent or chocolate malt (don't know which)

3/4 tsp gypsum

1/2 oz Nugget hop pellets (60 min)

1/2 oz Fuggles hop plug (60 min)

1 oz Fuggles hop plug (15 min)

1 tsp Irish Moss (15 min)

2 pkg 23g total EDME ale yeast

Priming: ¾ cup corn sugar & ¼ cup DME

Standard procedure for this one; heat crushed grains in 2 gallons cold water treated with gypsum to 180F, strain out and sparge grains with ½ gallon hot water, add extracts and bring to boil adding hops and moss at times indicated. Strain out hops at end of boil. Pour wort into fermenter with cold water topping to 5 ½ gallons, pitch yeast when wort has cooled. Rack to secondary when primary fermentation is complete and bottle when adequately cleared in secondary.

This produced a dark beer, although no where near as dark as a stout or porter. It is probably best described as brown ale. It cleared very well and had no chill haze. The body was kind of thin with a dry coffee-like bitterness from the roasted barley. Initially it reminded me of Heineken Dark. It was just good drinkable summertime refreshing ale.

Well, this was an eclectic blend of brews for this edition; Scotch ale, Barleywine, Light beer, and something dark from the closet. And, I didn't even mention the Root Beer I made the same day as the Bob Lite.

That's four more down and 75 beers left on the wall. Hey, we are a quarter of the way through already. Stick with me for the rest of the journey, it promises to get stranger and more wonderful!

To be continued...

References:

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

Karl F. Lutzen & Mark Stevens, Homebrew Favorites, Third printing, February 1995

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