Wee Heavy, too light on yeast?

[Lab Cat]

Was looking at this as my next brew this weekend. Surely it's a 2 yeast brew, with a can of Innkeepers, amber malt and 500 of sugar?

https://www.diybeer.com/au/recipe/scotch-ale.html

Currently in the FV is the Yorkshire ale, which used 2 yeasts and had the Innkeepers and a can of light malt, plus some grains.

Edited July 4, 2019 by Lab Rat

[Otto Von Blotto]

Nottingham yeast would probably chew through that pretty well on its own but nothing is stopping you from adding the kit yeast as well. Perhaps the yeast driven aromas or whatever it said are the reason for the single yeast pack too. 

[Lab Cat]

Cheers, I'm just being cautious with brews that have a lot of fermentables. I used Notts with the Yorkie too (I've had variable results with S04 and 05).

My hopgobbler finished pretty high, even though I only used 1kg malt instead of the amber can + 500g in the recipe. Some on here thought I'd underpitched, I used MJ42.

Edited July 4, 2019 by Lab Rat

[Beerlust]

I brewed this beer a few years back. I used MJ's M07 British Ale strain (it's what I had at the time) with no kit yeast & it made a delicious Winter beer.

OG was approx. 1.057, FG approx. 1.013. I agree with Kelsey, the Nottingham is a beast & will likely have no problem with that either. The elevated ferment temp helps also.

Best of luck with the brew.

Lusty.

[Lab Cat]

Ta

I'm still inclined to pitch the kit yeast as well with this one. The Hopgobbler was brewed at the same temps as this one will be, and struggled.

Can't harm, can it?

[Otto Von Blotto]

Not likely. Might change the flavour or aroma profile a bit but that'd be all. 

[Lab Cat]

Taking another look at this recipe - no hops or anything added, it's going to be too sweet isn't it?

[Otto Von Blotto]

I'd think the bitterness would balance it pretty well. Malt driven beers don't have to be overly sweet.

[Lab Cat]

Where does the bitterness come from? The innkeepers and Amber don't have any to speak of. The last time I did a beer with no dry or bittered hops it was the bootmakers and 1.5 LDM. Sweet and syrupy.

[Hairy]

Here are the Style Guidelines for a Wee Heavy.

http://www.bjcp.org/style/2015/17/17C/wee-heavy/

The Innkeepers Daughter is 610 IBUs. When converted to the recipe volume you get 49 IBUs pre-fermentation (i.e. 610 x 1.7 / 21).

This is at the top end for the style so it should be fine.

[Otto Von Blotto]

Innkeepers is like 40 IBUs on its own. Should be enough bitterness. 

[Lab Cat]

Cheers. Kind of got used to pimping up beers with grain and hops, I'll go the recipe and see how it is.

Where do you find the IBU info for the kits Otto?

[Hairy]

They are all listed here:

https://www.diybeer.com/au/brewing-extracts.html

This is the one for the Innkeepers Daughter:

https://www.diybeer.com/au/thomas-coopers-innkeeper-s-daughter-sparkling-ale.html

[Beerlust]

4 hours ago, Lab Rat said:

Taking another look at this recipe - no hops or anything added, it's going to be too sweet isn't it?

+1 to what Hairy & Kelsey have already said.

Nottingham finishes quite clean & crisp as it has quite a high attenuation so don't worry about excessive sweetness. If you used S-04 on that recipe however, I reckon you might have problems with excessive sweetness in the final beer.

Trust the recipe. It's a lovely Winter beer. 

Cheers,

Lusty.

[Lab Cat]

Cheers. Yep, the IBU made sense, Innkeepers is way up there, so am going with the recipe.

Bottling the (fairly similar) Yorkshire Square this weekend, this promises to be a pretty good beer too. 

[Lab Cat]

What the...? Just put this one down and took my OG - 1070. Did this one as per recipe, but to 20l instead of 21. Adding another litre (I've only just pitched yeast) won't affect the OG that much anyway.

The recipe does have 500g of brown sugar and this is the sweetest, maltiest sample I've ever  tasted. It does taste syrupy, so maybe the sugar really does blow the OG out?

I was expecting something around 1050-55, based on kits I've added a can of liquid malt to before. Hydrometer is fine, and checked for calibration.

Edited July 8, 2019 by Lab Rat

[porschemad911]

No way it's a 1.070 OG beer with those ingredients in 20l. I'd say your wort is not homogeneous and you sampled an extra sugary bit. I'd expect around 1.058. 

Cheers, 

John 

[Otto Von Blotto]

I concur with John. 

[Lab Cat]

Been out. Tried another sample, still the same. Sanitised the hydrometer and put directly in the FV. About 1052. I think that's the closest reading I'm going to get. Not sure what went wrong here, I mixed this up really well

[Beerlust]

Hi Lab Rat.

4 hours ago, Lab Rat said:

The recipe does have 500g of brown sugar and this is the sweetest, maltiest sample I've ever  tasted. It does taste syrupy,...

Don't be too alarmed as all pre-fermentation samples of pure wort are sweet, & the yeast will cull that back some by the end of fermentation.

That said, the final product of this type of beer is meant to be on the sweeter side.

BJCP Guidelines - Category14.B: Scottish Heavy (Wee Heavy)

Roughly the equivalent level of sweetness in the American style is an Amber Ale.

Cheers,

Lusty.

[Lab Cat]

I've just bottled the Wee Heavy. Topped out at about 6%. Hard to be very accurate as the OG was borked. I've got a bit of a back up in bottle conditioning due the the weather here. I have about 120 bottles stored, so now my brew fridge is doing conditioning duties to get a couple of boxes moving along.

I bottled the trub yeast - Nottingham and most of the kit yeast. If I was to use this in my next brew, do I just pour the lot in? I have about a 740ml bottle worth.

Edited July 19, 2019 by Lab Rat

[Shamus O'Sean]

56 minutes ago, Lab Rat said:

I bottled the trub yeast - Nottingham and most of the kit yeast. If I was to use this in my next brew, do I just pour the lot in? I have about a 740ml bottle worth.

Hey LR

This sounds like about twice as much as I would use for a brew.  See attached 1L jar, so about 300ml of yeast.

[Otto Von Blotto]

The OG can easily be calculated. Those ingredients in 21 litres would be around 1.055/56. 

[Lab Cat]

@Bearded Burbler

@Gazzala

Well. Been carbing this in my fridge with the Yorkshire Sq for over a week. The York is still having issues, opened another flat one after 2 weeks in the garage and a week at 24C in the fridge.

Got fed up and threw the Scotch ale in the freezer for a taste test. Only been in the bottle for 8 days.

OMFG. I can easily say already this is the best beer I've brewed so far after nearly a year. I'm tagging BB and Gazzala because if Fullers ales are what you're going for with Real Ale, then have a look at the recipe in my OP. It looks just like the recipe shot, and spot on for Coopers description. It's London Pride with a huge whack of caramel and toffee and another 1%+. In fact, I just sank a Fullers 1845 last night, and this one is right up there with that.

I'm fuzzed up already....It's not a session beer for sure. It's full bodied malty, toffee and caramel a bit sweet and the ABV isn't hiding. You could drop back the brown sugar if you want less sweetness. The recipe for his one is just too simple. I threw in the Innkeepers yeast with the Nottingham.

 

Edited July 26, 2019 by Lab Rat

[Gazzala]

That’s awesome!

Cheers LR! Just read through the whole thread...

I was gonna do a SMOTY Ale next but I think I will switch it to the Scotch Ale now.

Thanks for tagging me - I will let you know how it goes.