McMullen's Scottish Ale

This Ale was the first I had brewed using the excellent Brewer's Best kits. These kits are very complete, including all of the Malt Extract, either dry or liquid, hops, specialty grains, and grain bags that you need to make the specific style that the kit was designed for.

In addition to the ingredients included in the kit, I added one cup of Brown Sugar and a 1/2 oz. of Northern Brewer Pellet Hops.

The finished color is no where near as dark as the Recipator has it in the color sample.

Brewer:	Joel "No Bucks" Fleischer		Email:	-
URL:	http://www.projectnobucks.com
Beer:	McMullen's Scottish Ale		Style:	Scottish Heavy Ale
Type:	Extract w/grain		Size:	5 gallons
Color:	57 HCU (~24 SRM)		Bitterness:	24 IBU
OG:	1.052		FG:	1.010
Alcohol:	5.4% v/v (4.2% w/w)
Water:	Lake Superior water right out of the tap, lightly chlorinated by the city of Marquette.
Grain:	1 lb. American crystal 60L 4 oz. American chocolate 1 oz. Roasted barley
Steep:	Steep the grains in a grain bag for 20 minutes in 2 gallons of water at 160° F. In addition, boil the brown sugar in 1.5 gallons of water in a large, flat pan for 20 minutes. The goal is to caramalize it, i.e., nearly burn it. If you can smell caramel while you're boiling it, then you're doing it correctly.
Boil:	65 minutes	SG 1.065	4 gallons
	3.5 lb. Amber malt extract 2 lb. Amber dry malt extract .5 lb. Brown sugar
Hops:	1 oz. Fuggles (4.75% AA, 60 min.) .5 oz. Fuggles (4.75% AA, 15 min.) .5 oz. Northern Brewer (8.5% AA, 15 min.)
Yeast:	Two packets of dry yeast.
Log:	Remove grain bag and bring the wort to a boil Add Malt Extracts to the Brewpot (At this point, I accidentally started a kitchen fire!) Bring the wort back to a boil and add 1 oz. Fuggle Hops Boil for 35 minutes and add 1 Cup Brown Sugar Drink 2 Bottles of McEwan's Scotch Ale (may substitute Dirty Bastard Scotch Ale) Boil for another 20 minutes and add 1/2 oz. of Fuggles and 1/2 oz. of Northern Hops Boil for another 10 minutes Pour wort into Fermenter and top with cold water. When the wort has cooled to 70°F, pitch the yeast. After one week, rack to Secondary Fermenter
Carbonation:	After another week, bottle with 2/3 cup of priming sugar
Tasting:	After the beer is carbonated, it should be refrigerated for a couple of weeks to condition it. Some brewers have suggested adding oak chips to the Secondary Fermenter to give it that oak barrel flavor that Scotch has. You can also buy peat roasted malts, which would give that authentic Scotch flavor. I used Brown Sugar to give it some of that flavor, and, I have to say, it tastes almost exactly like the McEwan's that I was drinking when I brewed this ale. At a recent Burn's Dinner, one attendee rated it an 11 on a scale of 1 - 10.

Recipe posted 12/24/05.