The Chronicles of SNB Brewing: Scott's Scottish on Scotch (AKA Project S.C.O.T.T.)

Could use an acronym

A while back I got this crazy idea about getting together with a bunch of other guys named Scott and brewing up 10+ gallons of a massive Scottish Wee Heavy which we would then age on Scotch soaked oak cubes. I named this idea Project S.C.O.T.T. - ending up calling it Scott's Scottish on Scotch

It floated around in my head for a while but never really congealed into a solid plan. It appeared to see some progress in June when I was finally able to get my hands on some East Coast Yeast. In addition to ECY01 BugFarm, ECY02 Flemish Ale and ECY04 Brett Blend #1 (yes you'll be seeing a lot of East Coast Yeast posts in the near future) I decided to pick up a vial of ECY07 Scottish Heavy.

ECY07 Scottish Heavy - Leaves a fruity profile with woody, oak esters reminiscent of malt whiskey. Well suited for 90/shilling or heavier ales including old ales and barleywines due to level of attenuation (77-80%) - recommend a dextrinous wort. Suggested fermentation temp: 60-68°F.

I figured picking up the vial would be the push I needed to get a Scott team together. It wasn't and after over a month of sitting on it I decided to a least run a test batch through. I therefore set out to run Project S.C.O.T.T. solo, Han style that is.

That's a lot of yeast

This also afforded me a great opportunity to test out my recently completed stir plate. It took me a little bit to figure out how to seat the stir bar so that it would correctly spin. Pro Tip: It's best to align it prior to powering up. Other than that it worked like a champ. I fired it up on Friday night for a Sunday brewday and with an overnight cold crash I had an impressive layer of yeast in the morning.

For the recipe I did my usually online research. I was looking for something in the high range 9-10%. I looked for tasting notes and any comments that I would find favorable. I also compared recipes to see if there was a common theme in the grain bill, this was how I decided on a generous base of British Golden Promise and Maris Otter. For the hops I decided to see what I had left over in the fridge the morning of brewday. I decided to keep the hops balance for more of an ageable beer then a hoppy beer but still include a slight amount of flavor and aroma hops.

Man, this thing has been
killing me lately

As will a lot of massive gravity beers my efficiency suffered slightly resulting in a slight dip from my target gravity of 1.095 ending up being 1.092 including a slight loss of volume. I roused the yeast everyday for the first week till the activity started to die down and every so often since. My hope is to drive it into the low 20s to reduce the level of sweetness and round my abv in the 9-10% targeted range.

The only minor issue I ran into was a leak in tubing of my wort chiller. It had had a slight burn in the outer layer and with the pressure a small hole burst. It wasn't a major problem like the one I experienced with the GRANDE IPL (currently is progressing nicely) but enough to warrant a full tare-down of the existing tubes and a full redesign of my cooling procedure. I've got a couple of pumps that I'll be rigging up to put into service for my next brew, one of which will be decided to moving ice water through the chiller similar to how Shawn does it.

Cheers

-SNB

Project S.C.O.T.T.
Strong Scotch Ale
Type: All Grain Date: 7/22/2012
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Brewer: Scott Bennett
Asst Brewer: DG aka BrewDog
Boil Size: 7.59 gal
Boil Time: 90 min
Equipment: SNB Brewhouse (Keggle and Cooler)
End of Boil Volume 5.72 gal
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.70 %

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.095 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.092 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.019
Bitterness: 35.9 IBUs
Est Color: 20.1 SRM

Ingredients

Grain
10.00 lb British Golden Promise (2.0 SRM)
8.50 lb Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM)
0.50 lb Carared (20.0 SRM)
0.25 lb Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM)
0.25 lb Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM)

Hops
0.50 oz Summit [17.00 %] - First Wort 90.0 min
0.25 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 90.0 min
0.25 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 20.0 min
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 0.0 min

Yeast
1.0 pkg Scottish Heavy (East Coast Yeast #ECY07)

Other
1.00 tbsp PH 5.2 Stabilizer (Mash 60.0 mins)
1.00 Items Rosemary (Boil 40.0 mins)
1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins)
1.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 15.0 mins)

Secondary
4oz Toasted Oak Cubes (Variety) Soaked in Glenfiddich

Mash Profile

Mash Name: Single Infusion, Medium to Full Body, Batch Sparge
Mash In Add 6.35 gal of water at 169.6 F 154.0 F 40 min
Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun, 3.84gal) of 168.0 F water

Pictures