Scottish ales

[booldawg]

I've just returned from visiting the in-laws in Scotland. Did a nice bit of hill walking and supped a few ales! I've always liked the sweet maltiness of the dark Scottish ales such as Belhaven 80/- but never really got round to brewing anything close.

I guess the real secret to brewing something similar is more in the technique rather than the recipe. No doubt theres a fair bit of caramelisation and raising the mash temperature to ensure plenty of dextrose (I think I have that right?)

Has anyone got a recipe along with a helping hand on the technique side to assist me in brewing an ale of this style?

[OldSpeckledBadger]

There's an 80/- recipe in Graham's new book.

[mysterio]

There's really not much to it, Wheeler's recipe for Caledonian 80/- is close to what I do (I don't have the recipe on hand sorry but i've posted it before).

Mashing warm, say 69 - 70C does help yes. So does an extra long boil. Rab Maxwell has an excellent tip of boiling down some of the first runnings although you really need to boil the crap out of it to notice any effect.

I would recommend the Edinburgh yeast from white labs, or any of the English/British ones. I've tried the Cal Ale/US-05 approach and i'm not a huge fan TBH. Also don't be afraid of a bit of late hopping with Goldings or Fuggles, but definately nothing more exotic.

If you want to get more adventurous, experimenting with replacing some of the base malt with Munich malt is interesting