Nosferatu's Best Scotch (I hope)

[Nosferatu]

Wekslap has gone and lit the fires of my imagination with his thread about Lorimer's best scotch . For those of you not in the know "Scotch" was/is a beer pretty much unique to the North East , ranging from 3.5-3.7% it's name and strength might suggest that it's something similar to a 60/ or 70/ ale but in truth it's a strange one to truly pin down . If you've ever came across McEwan's export then the closest description is that Scotch is a weaker version of that and heading towards mild territory .
Anyway I'll get to the point , given the total lack of a Best Scotch anywhere over here on the Isle of Man and as a nostalgia trip I'm going to have a crack at making an extract version .
This is where you lot come in especially my fellow North Easterner's who know what Scotch tastes like , I don't think I'm going to get the right flavour using just lme or dme so I'm going to dip my toe into the world of grain steeping I'm guessing either Chocolate or Roast barley will be right for the colour but which one is likely to give the burnt toast/coffeeish hints that are needed . So the next question will be quantity of whatever grain . I'll be going for my usual 20l batch and aiming for somewhere around 1,037-1,038 as my OG , something akin to a mild on the IBU scale would seem right so with that in mind and using my usual calculator I've got this rough idea for my recipe . The red highlighted bits are the things I could do with a bit of advice on , as usual any help is much appreciated
100g (Chocolate malt or roasted barley) ?? <--- Does this seem about right ? My method will be to get said stuff , crush it up with a rolling pin then hoy in a bag and steep for about 30 min @ 60c ish
1Kg Amber dme
1Kg brew enhancer
50g Northern Brewer hops @7.7% a.a , seems to be a popular choice for Porters & Stouts so seems a reasonable idea but any alternative suggestions would be good
Anyone think that black treacle or a bit of muscovado sugar might be right in this ?
Workhorse or British Ale yeast
That's pretty much it I reckon .

[Hanglow]

I only do all grain now but that thread made me make some AG recipes up and in the two versions of Lorimers linked I used 100g of either Roast Barley or Black Patent, that was for a 20l batch too. So I assume you are on the right track.


For the sugar, if you want to use it, I'd make your own brewers invert, make it fairly dark to add bit of complexity. There's a good guide on the unholymess site for making it properly. I've used these quite a lot and they add a much better flavour than just the normal sugars imo. you make it out of demerara but it's more complex and better


Is brew enhancer a mix of DME and sugar? If so I'd leave out any additional sugar.


for hops, both recipes suggested challenger and fuggles, so I'd probably bitter with challenger (although I'm sure NB would be just as good) and do a small finish of fuggles? But I don't think I've ever drunk it so can't comment on that aspect really!

Hopefully you'll get something a bit better than McEwans Export at least

[Goulders]

I had a quick play around too based on the links you provided. I think 100g will make the beer too dark and roasts. Anyway my thoughts on the fermentables playing with brew pal, based on 75% efficiency for a 23l brew was:

3.4kg MO (88.9%)
0.38kg Wheat (9.8%)
25g roast barley
25g black patent

Sg 1.038 Og 1..038 FG 1.011 =3.6%

I noted that the Google book percentages didn't add up. Seemed to me to be over 100%
Maybe sugar should be in there too but don't know. I haven't played with hops yet

[Nosferatu]

Hanglow , aye the brew enhancer is a mix of dme and dextrose .
The hops question is a tricky one as I can't remember any real hop profile at all but aye sure enough on that link there's 2 different varieties in there . Hmm
As for it being better than Export if I manage that I'll be quite happy I actually like the stuff , a guilty pleasure haha .
Thanks for the reply !
Goulders , haven't done any AG brewing yet so was unsure about quantities had seen somewhere that roast barley or chocolate malt were quite strong and it advised against using more than 5-6% of them in the fermentables so had based it on that might be a good idea to err on the side of caution and drop the amounts so as not to overpower the thing . Cheers , thanks for the advice .

[Hanglow]

There were two recipes, one was (I presume based on an earlier version as many recipes changed from using sugars to being all malt)


85% PA
12% invert sugar
3% RB

and the other was


87% PA
10% wheat malt
3% BP
I assumed 3 % as about right for the second as it's not enough to make it roasty mild/porter territory and the other % for the roasted grain was 3%

[Nosferatu]

3% so about 60g then . Will the smaller amount make any difference to how long I need to steep the stuff or will 30 min still be fine ?

[Goulders]

I misread it then H. Wasn't too far out by guessing tho. It definitely tasted best as a cask ale, though I last drank it in about 1991! I may do a scaled down version for my dad at some point and have a play around with the hop schedule too.

[Goulders]

30 mins will be fine I would've thought N

[Hanglow]

sorry, 3% of all grain, as you need to use more base malt grain to get the equivalent of DME

you'd probably want the 100g worth imo

I've only ever done one or two extract+grains so I'm not the best man to ask!

[Nosferatu]

Cheers lads , good to see that I'm somewhere in the right area . I'll do a bit more digging as well see if I can find out what some of the other Scotches used .

[Nosferatu]

Brewed this afternoon , slight changes to the planned recipe due to not having the ingredients in that I thought . Will call this version Nos Scotch [I'll make a few more before I decide if it's my Best ] then go for a more authentic Lorimers clone later .

[Nosferatu]

This was what I went with this afternoon

Scotch Attempt #1 17l batch
1kg Amber DME
500g Light hopped DME
200g Demerara sugar
50g Black treacle
50g crushed crystal malt
50g crushed chocolate malt
30g fuggles pellets
1 sachet British ale yeast
Predicted OG 1.037 . Actual OG 1.039 . Approx 40 IBU

Possibly overdone the hops but wasn't sure how hoppy the hopped dme would turn out and then I read the packet . Colour and aroma seem spot on , OG slightly high but within the right area . Now the wait !!!

[Nosferatu]

Bottled this yesterday , the yeast has done a cracking job , SG was down to 1.004 so roughly 4.5 % haha looks like it could be more like McEwans Export after all Hanglow Quick taste from my sample jar was very promising . Will update with pics when it comes to the first pour .

[Hanglow]

Sounds good, bet it won't last long

[Nosferatu]

Sounds good, bet it won't last long

It didn't