Lawrence Brewers Guild

I did a 70 shilling Scottish Ale today.

Mashed at 158 degrees for 60 minutes.

I used wild hops that I collected last fall and left them to age. I figured that most noble hops are 4% AA so that is the number I used for the IBU calculation. Using leaf instead of plug in the calculation, 1.75 ounces of hops were used for a total of 23.5 IBUs, all in bittering. This worked out to .6 IBU/SG.

Since Scottish Ale is not a hop forward brew and aged hops were common in the brew, this would be a good time to try the wild hops.

The wild hops sure smelled good before going into the boil.

Used White Labs WLP001 for the yeast and holding at 65 degrees F which is the low end for the yeast. Trying to hold the attenuation down since my yeast attenuates at the upper/high end for the yeast plus trying to keep the esters down.

Will know something in a couple of weeks. The raw wort tasted really fine.

I have a Robust Porter that is going to be a Winter warmer at 7.8% ABV. Have to get it into a keg and free up the glass. A little high on style, went from 70 to 10 with to much attenuation. Need to cut down the base malts just a fraction. It tastes good but maybe a little dry.

Have a Maibock working in the frig. It needs another couple of weeks at 50 degrees. The first keg went down really smooth and hopes are that the newest one will be just as good.

Have two Oatmeal Stouts. The current Oatmeal Stout is not as good as a previous Oatmeal Stout that I brewed, same recipe. This one is a little dry. I haven't tried the other keg yet since it is still aging. May have to up my mash temp a couple of degrees but will have to play with it and see and look at the data.

Have 2 Dry Stouts that are aging. My last Dry Stout went down fine.

Drinking a nice Irish Ale at the moment. Still green but has a firm, fine head that marks each swallow.

Hope all had a fine New Year's day!

I will do the 70/- again. It is a little over hopped due to my cross-eyed error of 10 IBUs extra and a little dry since I have let my attenuation get too high (maybe a bug in my Cal Ale yeast) but over all, the wild hops came through nicely. Actually it is more like a 70.5/- since it is high on ABV at 4.42 ABV but low on SG for an 80/-

I am going to reculture my Cal Ale and try freezing some for a future date.

Overall, I am satisfied with the wild hops. It appears that 4% AA was in the ball park for the calculation.

This next year should also be a good year with the cultured hops that will be in their second year of growth.

Thanks to Sean and the link, there are several pounds of hops coming this Thursday.

Maybe, if I keep practicing, I will get it right.

Sounds to me you are doing things right, Chris!

Thanks Bill,

I decided last night that the keg will go to the drain and start over. The beer is way too dry and the bitter comes through.

Will see how the next batch turns out and I will still use the wild hops in the recipe.

Nice site since it is faster but now I don't get as much nap time waiting on the page to load . Sean and all did a fine job!