Red Cuillin recipe?

[djavet]

Hi!

Just back from our summer holiday in Scotland, and more specifically from Isle of Skye. What a place! Love it.
We had local beers and love this one: Red Cuillin from Skye Brewery.

Red Cuillin (4.2% ABV)
The Skye Brewery`s much-prasied flagship ale. Reddish-hued, slightly malty and nutty in character, smooth to the taste. A multi-award-winning ale, named after the well-known hills of the Isle of Skye.

I would be happy to clone it at home with all grains in Switzerland. I write to the brewery to have hints, but no answer. I've searched the net without success for a receipe.
Do you have maybe some hints or receipe for this one?

Thx in advance.
Hoppy regards,
Dom

[seymour]

Here you go, Dom:

I couldn't find very many specifics, and I've never personally tasted this fine-sounding beer, so this involved a lot of guesswork. However, this will match the malty, caramelly, toasty, smokey, Fuggley, and appearance characteristics which you and others described. My recipe also uses some proven tricks for a delicious, modernized 80/- Scotch Export Ale kinda thing.

SEYMOUR - ISLE OF SKYE RED CUILLIN - CLONE RECIPE
all-grain recipe

6 US Gallons = 5 Imperial Gallons = 22.7 Litres

GRAINBILL:
68% = 6.53 lb = 2.96 kg, Pale Malt
12% = 1.15 lb = 522 g, Pale Crystal Malt
10% = .96 lb = 435 g, Munich Malt
5% = .48 lb = 218 g, Aromatic/Victory Malt (or you can toast some of your own base malt)
3% = .29 lb = 132 g, Smoked Malt
2% = .19 lb = 86 g, Oats

MASH ≈ 154°F/67.8°C for 60 minutes. If your water is quite neutral, consider a sprinkle of Calcium Carbonate.

SPARGE ≈ 170°F/76.7°C to collect 7.5 US Gal/6.25 Imp Gal/28.4 L pre-boil.

BOIL for 60 minutes, Irish Moss at 15 minutes remaining.

HOPS:
1 oz = 28.3 g, Fuggles, "First Wort Hops" added to empty kettle at beginning, sparge onto them, submersed for the entire heat-up and boil duration
.5 oz = 14.2 g, Fuggles, 15 minutes remaining

YEAST:
White Lab's WLP028 Scottish strain

STATS:
OG: 1044
FG: 1012
ABV: 4.2%
IBU: 20
COLOUR: deep reddish amber 10°SRM/20°EBC

[djavet]

First I've to apologize for the late reply. Was away from my keyboard more than I expected.

Fantastic! Sound absolutly great.
Will give a 45 liters batch try next week-end. Will give a feedback.
Hope I will find a scottish strain to my brew shop in Switzerland. They are not used to such strain. Otherwise, will be the choice of Nottingham or maybe S-05 something to consider in a dry yeast for this recipe? Which one will be the best substitution in case of?

Thx a lot for your recipe.
Dom

[jimp2003]

If only dried yeast was available to me I would go for S04 rather than Nottingham or US05. This is mainly because in my experience I tend to get about 75% apparent attenuation from the S04 but the others get to 80% or just over. Also the S04 gives more character to the beer although in a different way to the WLP028.

[seymour]

I don't know, neither of those is very similar. Try hard to get a true Scottish ale strain, White Labs WLP028 or Wyeast 1728, it's a beautiful thing. Otherwise, quiz them for a characterful, reasonably high-attenuating English ale strain. If you absolutely must choose between one of the most common dry yeasts, I guess I'd go with S-04.

This wouldn't be the same either, but I bet the Guinness strain (White Labs WLP004, Wyeast 1084) would be a pretty good alternative.

Best of luck!

EDIT: jimp2003 beat me to it, but at least we're thinking along the same lines...

[djavet]

Thx. Just had a phone call with my local brew shop and they have 2 last XL incubator from July 2013! Fantastic. Sound that everything is under good omen

Thx for your advise on dry yeast.

Dom

[djavet]

Just 2 short questions about malts.
The grains bills are based on Briess?
Which color do you recommand for the crystal malt? 20L or 30L?

I've to use only Weyermann as nothing else is available in Switzerland. I've a subsitution chart.

Dom

[seymour]

Just 2 short questions about malts.
The grains bills are based on Briess?
Which color do you recommand for the crystal malt? 20L or 30L?

I've to use only Weyermann as nothing else is available in Switzerland. I've a subsitution chart.

Dom

I wasn't thinking specifically of any particular maltster, just any ol' basic pale Crystal Malt will do.

Hell, if you have access to Weyermann, you could consider this other recipe I posted recently, featuring their CaraRed malt. It's funny because it's not my recipe, but it's somewhat similar conceptually. They specify a lager yeast, but I was actually thinking of fermenting it with the aforementioned Scottish strain. Synchronicity?

[djavet]

Here are my attenpt to adapt the recipe to the grains bills availbale in Switzerland and for 40L.

Recipe: Red Cuillin
Style: Scottish Export 80/-
TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 52.34 l
Post Boil Volume: 45.54 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 40.00 l
Bottling Volume: 37.16 l
Estimated OG: 1.045 SG
Estimated Color: 21.7 EBC
Estimated IBU: 20.5 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 78.8 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
5.50 kg Pale Malt (Weyermann) (6.5 EBC) Grain 1 68.1 %
0.95 kg Caramunich II (Weyermann) (124.1 EBC) Grain 2 11.8 %
0.82 kg Munich I (Weyermann) (14.0 EBC) Grain 3 10.1 %
0.40 kg Melanoidin (Weyermann) (59.1 EBC) Grain 4 5.0 %
0.25 kg Smoked Malt (Weyermann) (3.9 EBC) Grain 5 3.1 %
0.16 kg Oats, Flaked (2.0 EBC) Grain 6 2.0 %
50.00 g Fuggles [4.90 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 7 15.8 IBUs
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 8 -
30.00 g Fuggles [4.90 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 9 4.7 IBUs
2.0 pkg Wyeast 1728, Scottish Ale XL (Wyeast Lab Yeast 10 -


Mash Schedule: Batch Sparge, no mash out, 1 step
Total Grain Weight: 8.08 kg
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 24.07 l of water at 73.6 C 67.8 C 60 min

Sparge: Batch sparge with 3 steps (Drain mash tun, , 28.64l, 10.72l) of 75.6 C water

Any correction in the choice of Weyermann malts?

Regards,
Dom

[seymour]

Looks delicious, happy brewing!

[djavet]

Thx to you and your advises!

[djavet]

Short reflexion about smoked malt. It is not overwhelmed to use this malt as the wyeast 1728 develops some smoked light flavour?
I didn't notice the smoked profile when I drank it on place. Or so subtile that I didn't notice.

[seymour]

Short reflexion about smoked malt. It is not overwhelmed to use this malt as the wyeast 1728 develops some smoked light flavour?
I didn't notice the smoked profile when I drank it on place. Or so subtile that I didn't notice.

That was purely an option, a whim, meant to subtly compliment the Scottish ale yeast. Some smoked malt is stronger than others, but if I remember right, Weyermann is relatively subdued. You could always reduce it to just 1% of the grainbill, or replace entirely with more base malt.

If you end up buying smoked malt, get the smallest quantity you can, and then sneak the remainder into your next Porter or Stout recipe, where it melds nicely with the toasty/roasty aspects...

Cheers!

[djavet]

Thx! Hummm porter recipe from Durden Park approching the kettle... Soon in my fermenter

[seymour]

So, were you able to brew last weekend? If so, how did it go?