scottish light 60/-

brew date: 10/23/10

recipe

7.5 lbs. british 2 row
3.25 oz. black malt (500-600L)
1 oz. uk kent golding 4.9%, 60 minutes
wyeast 1728 scottish 2 pint starter

mash 140 15 min.
brought temp up to 154, 45 minutes
pre-boil volume 6.5 gal.
pre-boil gravity: 1.037
OG: 1.043
FG: 1.011

i havent had the pleasure of ever drinking any scottish ales. mostly because there arent really any commercial varieties readily available to consumers in the US- at least to my knowledge. please, correct me if i'm wrong. what i found out from brewing this recipe (the lowest quality of scottish ales) is that scottish ales really are a very light beer. they are not heavy at all. the malt character has traditionally been developed by extending the boil, thus furthering the the development of melanoidins in the malt and producing what is described by the style guidelines as "toffy like," "carmally" or "slick."

not really having any idea how efficient my system is, and as such having not a clue what so ever as to how to tweak my recipes to account for efficiencies, my gravities for this beer were seriously off- as in WAY too high. this being america, the palates that experience this beer probably wont mind too much. especially if served a little warmer, with relatively low carbonation, as is the tradition over there across the pond anyway. that being said, if served too cold and too carbonated, the beer will come across as thin and tasteless. there just isnt a whole lot going on in it. as you can see, the recipe is VERY simple.

according to the style guidelines, my OG should have fallen somewhere in the 30-35 range. it ended up at 43. this is in the range of a scottish export (80/-) which is noted to be between 40 and 54, lots of room for interpretation.

the yeast strain (wyeast 1728) is highly flocculent. my beer is crystal clear and has a nice reddish brown hue with a thin head that quickly disapates, while the lacing around the side of the glass persists.