60/- Scottish Ale
Well folks, finally had time to post about my latest brew thats been in the bottle almost a week already! My 60 Shilling Scottish Ale. I originally set out to make an 80/- Scottish Ale but this being my first all grain experience I missed my OG by a few! (details below)
60 Shilling Scottish Ale
9-A Scottish Light 60/-
Date: 9/8/2008
Size: 5.0 gal
Efficiency: 59.5%
Attenuation: 77.3%
Calories: 266.48 kcal per 22 fl oz
Original Gravity: 1.044 (1.030 – 1.035)
Terminal Gravity: 1.010 (1.010 – 1.013)
Color: 16.77 (9.0 – 17.0)
Alcohol: 4.44% (2.5% – 3.2%)
Bitterness: 27.7 (10.0 – 20.0)
Ingredients:
10 lb American 2-row
0.25 lb American Chocolate Malt
0.75 lb American Caramel 60°L
1.0 oz Mt. Hood (5.0%) – added during boil, boiled 60 min
1.0 oz Mt. Hood (5.0%) – added during boil, boiled 15 min
35 mL White Labs WLP028 Edinburgh Ale
Notes
Started mash @ 12:40 for one hour at 149 degrees at start with approx 3.44 gallons of water (@ noon, temp is 145)
Will sparge (rinse) with 2.56 gallons for a total of 6 gallons
NOTE: lost 1.44 gallons in grist, will rinse with 3 gallons and run water voliume addition through for a total of 6
Added 3 gallons of rinse water for 10-15 minutes, will continue untitl I have 6+ gallons of wort
5 gallons of wort after 2nd rinse
Final rinse with 1 gallon then boil @1:25pm
started boil at 1:45 rolling at 2:03
First hop addition 2:05
added second hop addition @ 2:50
Shut off gas and started immersion chiller @ 3:02
im getting a better chill this time by stirring the wort, went from 140 at flame out to 100 in 10 minutes!
Down to 85 degrees @ 3:15
Temp @ 80 @ 3:24
Now I was shooting for an OG of 1.064 but ended up with 1.044 so any advice would be well received! I plan on doing this beer again with a new 10 gallon mash tun in place of my current 5 gallon to see if that will make any difference whatsoever. Many people use a 5 gallon mash tun cooler and get better results so im not so sure of any change that will make. A few more weeks in the bottle and it’s sampling time!
Now a little history on the “shilling” if you thought my title of this post looked a little weird!:
The abbreviation for shilling is s, from the Latin solidus, the name of a Roman coin. Often it was written informally or printed with a slash, e.g., 1/6d as 1 shilling and sixpence (often pronounced “one and six”), or when there were no pence with a slash then a hyphen, e.g., “11/-”. Quite often a triangular shape or (sans serif) apostrophe would be used to give a neater appearance, e.g., “1′6″ and “11′-”. In Africa it is often abbreviated sh.
Scottish Ales are commonly called “60 Shilling” or “80 Shilling”.
It’s due to the era of Scotland so historically portrayed in “Highlander,” Scots had to pay tax on barley. Thus, the more barley in the beer, the higher the alcohol content and body of the beer.
A 60 Shilling ale would be weaker(let’s say, oh, 3%abv) than a 90 shilling(6% abv).
Also, because importing hops all the way from England was costly, the Scots compensated by brewing with barely any hops at all.
Yo Sick,
Well, don’t be too bummed by the low efficiency. I’m sure it will be much better the next time. Primarily, I see the reason for the low efficiency due to your low mash temp. Here’s the thing. When you prepare your strike water, you should be shooting for about 165°F, because when you add all those grains (which are at room temp), the resulting temp will be around the ideal 154°F. The amount of water you used appears to be 1.25 qts. per pound of grain. You can go to 1.5 qts. per pound, which gives you a little more volume to hold up your mash temps in the mash tun. Next to the sparge. Don’t know if you have a false bottom or some kind of slotted plastic pipes in the bottom of your mash tun, but that will prevent channeling, which reduces mash efficiency. Also, you should recycle your first runnings until the initial wort is mostly clear. Not sure if you’re batch sparging or fly sparging, but you must sparge s-l-o-w-l-y to extract all that grain goodness. A valve for your outlet, and sparge water helps with that. What was the temp of your sparge water? Recommended is 165 (no higher than 170). Remember to sparge enough for 6.5 to 7 gallons to allow for evaporation in the boil. Well, that’s all I can think of for now. My ESB has been in the bottle for 2 weeks, and I’ll be trying one tomorrow .. I’m sure it will be great.
Cheers
Good news. The beer guidelines I have show that you brewed an 80 shilling. If you had hit your stated OG, you would have been 10 points over the max for an 80. Maximum OG for a 60 shilling is 1.035; maximum OG for a 70 shilling is 1.040; minimum OG for an 80 is over a 1.040. At 1.044, you made it.
I agree on the mash temp comment, but for different reasons. 60 shillings need more body so mashing a target mash temp of 155F, even up to 158F, would not be unusual. Your mash temp of 149F would have produced an easily fermentable (higher alcohol) beer compared to a 154F mash temp, but doesn’t really account for the low mash efficiency. I would look at your grain (although most grain today is highly modified already), your grist grind, mash pH and sparge pH. Ideally, you should have a pH of 5.2 to 5.5 for both. I don’t see a water profile, but being in the PA mountains, I’m guessing your water is relativley hard. Being in the same mountain front but alittle further down, my water pH changes throughout the year and ranges from 7 to the high 9s. Water treatmemts like lactic acid, citric acid or Buffer 5.2 might help. Also, I don’t see what your sparge techique is so that may have something, too. For reference, I use a batch sparge and a modified Igloo with a Bazooka “T” filter and get about 82 to 84% efficiency. I seem to get about the same with my old PVC pipe, too. Another consideration is your IBU level and malt balance. Your IBU is within and 80 but on the high side given the low mash and presumed low residual sugar. An 80 shilling is more of a malt-forward brew as compared to the English Bitters. Above all, make it fun, relax and have a homebrew. Hope this helps. Cheers.
EJ