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Author Topic: Wee heavy help!  (Read 15740 times)

Offline morticaixavier

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Re: Wee heavy help!
« Reply #30 on: October 11, 2012, 08:44:08 am »
Shouldnt a wee heavy be drier? It sounds like a barley wine to me, with the sweetness.

wee heavy is, or can be, a VERY sweet beer. the top of the fg range for this beer is 1.056 so even if it really was at 1.060 still you would be alright. (by the way, you actually over topped the og on the style by a couple points) That being said, I can't realy imagine enjoying a beer with a 1.056 FG. especially with so few hops but to each their own.
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Offline jeffy

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Re: Wee heavy help!
« Reply #31 on: October 11, 2012, 09:48:14 am »
Shouldnt a wee heavy be drier? It sounds like a barley wine to me, with the sweetness.

wee heavy is, or can be, a VERY sweet beer. the top of the fg range for this beer is 1.056 so even if it really was at 1.060 still you would be alright. (by the way, you actually over topped the og on the style by a couple points) That being said, I can't realy imagine enjoying a beer with a 1.056 FG. especially with so few hops but to each their own.
I think he said it comes to 1.017 after adjusting the refractometer reading for the alcohol.
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Offline denny

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Re: Wee heavy help!
« Reply #32 on: October 11, 2012, 09:52:05 am »
Shouldnt a wee heavy be drier? It sounds like a barley wine to me, with the sweetness.

Not by any means!  You really don't want it to go any lower than it already is.
Life begins at 60.....1.060, that is!

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Offline morticaixavier

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Re: Wee heavy help!
« Reply #33 on: October 11, 2012, 10:50:04 am »
Shouldnt a wee heavy be drier? It sounds like a barley wine to me, with the sweetness.

wee heavy is, or can be, a VERY sweet beer. the top of the fg range for this beer is 1.056 so even if it really was at 1.060 still you would be alright. (by the way, you actually over topped the og on the style by a couple points) That being said, I can't realy imagine enjoying a beer with a 1.056 FG. especially with so few hops but to each their own.
I think he said it comes to 1.017 after adjusting the refractometer reading for the alcohol.

Yeah I was just saying even if it really were 1.060 it would be okay.
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"errors are [...] the portals of discovery"
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Offline bohrier

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Re: Wee heavy help!
« Reply #34 on: October 11, 2012, 12:55:06 pm »
Now that the measurements make sense, i'll leave the bloody beer alone.  8)

Offline DrewG

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Re: Wee heavy help!
« Reply #35 on: October 11, 2012, 02:48:48 pm »
Quote
Imagine the beer is a girlfriend/boyfriend who just found out that you slept with their mother before you met. They love you very much and don't want to break up with you but if you keep sticking a spoon in them and checking their gravity they are going to.

I just peed a little
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Offline bohrier

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Re: Wee heavy help!
« Reply #36 on: December 21, 2012, 08:17:18 pm »
Folks, this is what it turned out to be, after 3 months:

11% abv
very malty
very sweet
low bitterness


simply delicious, but very very strong. Seems to me it turned out to be a barleywine lol

Drank that bottle, got drunk and hungover over a period of 4h


I'll store those bottles for a year now.


Cheers!



musseldoc

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Re: Wee heavy help!
« Reply #37 on: December 24, 2012, 07:57:43 pm »
one of the cool things about big beers like this is how much amazing complexity you can get just from process.

this link is to a really well regarded wee heavy recipe that a regular here on the forum created. You will notice that there is exactly 2 malts and one of them is only 1% of the recipe. His trick of boiling down some of the first runings to create caramel, coffee character is quite good and I have used it to good effect.

anyway here is the link
www.skotrat.com/skotrat/recipes/ale/scottish/recipes/10.html

EDIT: to add that one of the most important aspects of any scottish style, in my mind, is the yeast. the edinborough ale yeast gives a slight smokey earthy peaty thing that really makes a scottish ale. Some folks put a pinch of smoked malt in scottish ales for this reason but you don't really need it with that yeast. I suspect this will not be particularly useful for you in brasil but if you have a friend coming to visit from the states try to get them to bring a tube of yeast with them. You'd have to step it up ALOT after that trip but if you really like scottish ales...

I agree with the above recipe, unfortunately, many of my BJCP brethren don't always concur.  I brewed the traditional 2-malt Wee Heavy and entered it into 4 or 5 competitions.  All came back the same - needs more malt character.  Well, I came up with a (very) knee jerk reaction recipe where I added 1 lb of most of the grains from 3L to 25L, then threw in .25 to .5 lbs of several caramelized grains from 40L to 120 L, and of course some roasted barley to finish it off.  This thing has 14 or 15 grains in it.  So far, I have taken 1st place in two competitions with it (2 national, 2 certified and 1 recognized judges).  Ugh....it is very discouraging that this worked. 

To the OP, congrats on the brew.  Brew it the way you like it and call it what you want  ;)

Offline tom

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Re: Wee heavy help!
« Reply #38 on: December 24, 2012, 09:10:57 pm »
Care to share your recipe?
Brew on

Offline bohrier

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Re: Wee heavy help!
« Reply #39 on: December 25, 2012, 05:09:06 pm »
sure!

for 5.3 Gal:

6.6lb Munich malt type 2
6.6lb Pale Ale
2.2lb Crystal malt
2.2lb Vienna Malt
1lb Biscuit Malt
0.2lb special B Malt

2lb Molasses @60min
15g Fuggles @60min
15g Challenger @60min
10g Fullges @10min
10g Challenger @10min

2pkt Nottingham yeast


Next time i'll use Edinburgh Yeast and adjust to get 9% ABV... 11% is WAY Heavy.

It's delicious anyway... maltyness... hmmm... =D