The latest installment of Irregular Zymurgy - batch number 02-4
Late April is the time when a young man's fancy turns to running about in the heath with nought between himself and nature but a plaid skirt, and maybe blue paint.
I had intended to buy a few feet of plastic tubing and do some maintenance on my kegging equipment this afternoon. But when I looked around the brewing supply store, I realized how much I'd rather brew something other than the wheat ale I already had provisioned. Scanning the shelves, I noticed a jar of peat-smoked malted barley and knew that the time had come for me to brew a Scotch Ale.
At home, I set to boil
- 3 gal of filtered water
and made a tea of
- 1 lb crystal 60L malt,
- ½ lb munich malt, and
- ½ lb peat-smoked malt (all were crushed grains).
I accidentally burnt the strainer-bag of grain on the bottom of the pot, so I had some pouring of the hot tea into other pots, scrubbing, and pouring to do at this point. Not much of the bag burnt, so I continued after helping myself to a beer in order to calm my fears and brought the tea back to a boil. Then I added
- 7½ lbs british light malt extract
to the tea, stirring to make sure it dissolved. After the pot came to boil again,
- 2 oz Cascade hops
were added; 30 minutes later
- 1 oz Fuggles hops
went into the pot; 15 minutes after that, I sprinkled
- 1 tsp irish moss,
which is a clarifying agent, into the pot.
All told, the wort was boiled for 60 minutes. For fragrance, I added
- 1 oz Saaz hops and (another)
- 1 oz Fuggles hops,
and let them steep in the hot wort for 15 minutes. After that, the hops were strained out and the wort was poured over ice. Later I decanted the wort into a carboy and pitched in Wyeast strain #1728 "Scottish Ale". Then I invoked a blessing over the beer, and set it in the corner to ferment.
Now I am left with the makings for the batch of wheat ale I've procrastinated.