Brew 15 - Son of Cornwall (Wee Heavy)


Brew 15 - Son Of Cornwall (Wee Heavy)

Brew day: 09/01/2021
Bottle day: 29/01/2021

New year, new beer. The first malt order for 2021 has arrived and a new beer style awaits. I received 2 brewing bibles for Christmas (Greg Hughes and another by Chris Colby). Flicking through I have picked up lots of tips and ideas and consequently decided to brew one of the recipes. 

I've a real love for Scottish beers and remember sampling a range of shilling beers during my time in Scotland in 2019. My Dad and I also love McEwan's Champion (weighing in at 7.3%) and often drink it in memory of my Grandad Roger (who also enjoyed this tipple). A fine, fitting beer style to emulate then. The name 'Son of Cornwall' derives from the poem/prose that my Dad wrote about Roger for his eulogy and was read at his funeral. Roger was a true Cornishman and this beer will be dedicated to him. 

This style poses a lovely big malt bill, a smallish hop bill and a really high original gravity that requires some specialist yeast.  

First up the malts. The recipe calls for Scottish 2-Row which I can't find on Get 'Er Brewed so a little research throws open the door to another 2-Row Malt and 6.70Kg of Maris Otter provides the base malt. (2-Row comes from the barley structure before harvest - with grains running in 2 rows up the stem of the crop as opposed to 6-rows of other varieties). Added to this are 230g of Amber Malt, 230g of Crystal Light and 57 g Roasted Barley. The final beer will have a deep amber colour (around 14 SRM) matching that of an English (or Scottish) Strong Ale, or in this case a Wee Heavy. 


The hop bill is simple and small with 35g of East Kent Golding going in for 60mins and offering around 22 IBUs. Scotch ales and Wee Heavy beers are not known for hoppiness and instead pull their flavour and character from the malt. This kept the price down nicely and allowed me to go for something a little special in the yeast department. 

With such a large grain bill (7.2Kg is a record on my kit) the original gravity has the potential to be large. The aim is to hit 1.084 (or as close as) which requires a yeast capable of thriving in such conditions. The recipe called for Wyeast 1084 or White LAbs WLP004 (both Irish yeasts). I couldn't get either so went with a liquid Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale - this cost a bit but should give the yeast a chance to kick start fermentation quickly. 

Brew day
First snag of the day hits almost immediately - hole in the new brew bag. Nothing too serious thankfully and a bit of bodged sewing fixes the problem. I'm aiming for around 19-20L of beer so going with 25L of strike water that fits nicely in the kettle. 7kg of malt also fits inside my new brew bag perfectly. 

Brew water is heated to 73 deg C with 1 whole campden tablet and 1tsp of Burton Crystals added before pouring into the new mash tun. So, 7Kg of malt and 25L of strike water fits nicely inside the mash tun with a little head room. I can lift the whole lot (its probably around 25kg) so put it onto a table and then wrap in a sleeping bag to insulate. 

Going for a 90min mash at 66 deg C today as I need to extract as much sugar as possible to hit target. 

I put the mash tun on a table so that I can utilise the plug/drain as a tap and drain the contents into the kettle. I'm then going to use the kettle lid to squash and squeeze the grain bag to save lifting it. 

Halfway through the mash and temperature is holding perfectly at 66 deg C. Using the little hatch to insert the thermometer is excellent and keeps the heat in. This is a much better mash than the old cool box. (Having a new thermometer is a treat too - the old one reads 2 deg C lower than the new one and has a bubble so probably keep that as a back up now). 

15mins to go and the temperature is sitting pretty at 64 deg C (very very happy with this). Pre boil gravity comes out at 1.067 (this is superb and a new record for me). The plug on the bottom of the cool box provides an excellent way of draining the wort into the kettle and allowing gravity to do the work. 

Usually at this point I would squeeze the bag and discard the malt but I decided to try something out... I added about 10L of hot water (77 deg C) back into the mash tun with a view to washing more of the sugars from the grist. I recirculated the new wort a few times over the grain. The resulting wort had a gravity of 1.049. I decided that this wort would be used to make a different experimental beer - the first mash had gone so well that it seemed silly to blend the worts and ruin the main brew. I will post a seperate blog for the 2nd beer. 

The Wee Heavy now entered the boil with the following additions: 
    - 35g of East Kent Goldings at 60mins 
    - 3/4 of a protofloc tab at 15mins

Rolling boil was good and around 4 litres was boiled off leaving a very dark wort that I cooled rapidly using Ice bottles and an ice bath before putting into the fermenting vessel and leaving outdoors at around 2 deg C. The wort measured around 3 Gallons/14 litres and had an original gravity of 1.080! Only 4 points short of my target and by far one of the best mash outcomes to date. I pitched around 3/4 of the yeast packet into the vessel (using the other 1/4 for the experimental beer). 

I'm using my new Airlock/Immersion heater combo and have wrapped up the vessel in a sleeping bag to sit and allow the yeast to do it's magic...
















Fermentation update: The yeast is working it's magic nicely and has chewed through most of the main fermentables in no time - gravity is down to 1.010 already (14/01/2021) leaving this brew well in advance of being 9% (small glasses at the ready!). The beer smells immense and has aromas of malt whiskey (aside from the strong yeasty smell). I'm using a little strip thermometer (aquarium style one) to monitor the temperature. I took the sleeping bag off the vessel a few days ago as temperature was beginning to push above 25 deg C (immmersion heater on) so stabilising back down to around 22 deg C (still a little too warm compare to recipe but it has done the yeast a world of good). I've turned down the immersion heater and will monitor for the next week. 

Notes
Malts: Maris Otter Pale, Amber Malt, Light Crystal and Roasted Barley
Hops: East Kent Goldings.
OG: 1.080
Gravity on 14/01/2021: 1.010
Final Gravity: 1.008
ABV: 9.5%
Batch size: 22 x 500ml (11 Litres)


Recipe: https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/1096246/lil-willy-s-wee-heavy
Based on Recipe: Little Willy's Wee Heavy from Chris Colby's Homebrew Recipe Bible (pg 101).

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