What is the difference between a wee heavy and a Scotch ale?

Also known as “ strong Scotch ale .” The term “wee heavy” means “small strong” and traces to the beer that made the term famous, Fowler's Wee Heavy, a 12 Guinea Ale. Historically, the strongest beer from a Scottish ale parti-gyle.

How long does it take to brew all grain?

All grain. 90 minute mashes, usually, followed by 60 minute boils. Including prep time, waiting for water/wort to heat/boil/cool, it's around a 4.5 hour brew day .

What is the flavor profile of wee heavy?

Flavors and aromas are dark dried fruit such as raisins, caramel, toffee, graham cracker, dark toast, and a hint of roastiness . The flavor usually comes wholly from the malt but there can be some yeast esters as well. The caramel notes do not come from a long boil, which is another myth about this style.

What are the characteristics of a wee heavy?

As a general rule, a wee heavy is strong, dark, and malty with little hop character and moderate carbonation . Malt is the major aroma—which follows through on the palate as toffee and caramel—but earthy and smoky secondary aromas may also be present, accentuating the style's renowned complexity.

Can you steep grains too long?

The grain bag will float at the top of the mixture. Leave it in and attempt to hold a constant temperature for 20-30 minutes. If you leave it in too long or steep at temperatures above 170F you will extract excessive tannins which will result in a dry astringent flavor in the finished beer .

Can you mash grain too long?

The only way you can mash for too long is if you let it go sour . This will generally happen within 24-48 hours. But with a large mash (the one I am talking about was 2,400lbs) I have seen it happen in as little as 8 hours. So unless you're making Jack Daniels, don't let it sit for too, too long.

Do you leave grains in mash while fermenting?

If you are planning on a very complex whisky, you might want to ferment on the grains . Extract more tannin (polyphenols) and oils. Hotter ferment and hotter sparge (if you remove the grain before distilling) will extract more tannins.

Why is Scottish beer called heavy?

Wee Heavy or Scotch Ale: the origin of the name What differentiated them was their alcohol content: the more alcohol, the more expensive . The price was marked on the barrels, ranging from the cheapest, the Light at 60 shillings, to the most expensive, the Export at 80 shillings.

What is the Scottish drink heavy?

If someone in a Scottish pub asks for a "pint of heavy," what are they asking for? Heavy is a type of Scottish ale . Scottish ales are generally darker and much maltier than English ales, with much less noticeable hop flavour.

What makes a beer a Scotch ale?

Scotch ale, or wee heavy, is a style of beer originating in Scotland that is fermented with ale yeast . Generally low in bitterness with rich malt sweetness, the caramel-colored beer often uses a pale malt base backed by darker malts. Though it can vary, many are comparable to English barley wine.

Is Scotch ale the same as Scottish ale?

Scotch Ale vs. Scotch ales, or wee heavys, tend to be higher in alcohol content, above 6% ABV at least, with a higher final gravity that makes them a little sweeter. Scottish ales refer to the lower ABV equivalent of an English pale ale, coming in at around 3-5% ABV .

Wee Heavy/Scotch Ale BIAB Recipe - Mr. Small Batch Brewer (2024)

The Wee Heavy, more commonly referred to as a Scotch Ale, is a deliciously malty beer. The Wee Heavy originated in Scotland and continues to be popular throughout the world. In this article, I’ll walk you through my Wee Heavy/Scotch Ale BIAB Recipe.

What is a Wee Heavy?

As mentioned before, a Wee Heavy may be better known as a Scotch Ale. This is due to its place of origin, Scotland. A Wee Heavy is dark in color, very malty, and has respectable strength 6.5-10% ABV. Hop character should be minimal in this style with the majority of the focus on malty richness.

The 2015 BJCP Guideline for 17C: Wee Heavy reads as follows, “Rich, malty, dextrinous, and usually caramel-sweet, these beers can give an impression that is suggestive of a dessert. Complex secondary malt and alcohol flavors prevent a one-dimensional quality. Strength and maltiness can vary, but should not be cloying or syrupy.”

I very much like their descriptor of a ‘dessert’ as this is what drinking a well brewed Wee Heavy often feels like to me.

An interesting debate that I found while reading about this style was on the use of hops in Scotland. Given that Scottish styles generally use fewer hops, this was assumed to be due to the fact that hops were not native to Scotland. However, there seems to be sufficient evidence that Scotland would regularly import hops from various countries for use in beer.

If you’ve been reading this website for any amount of time, you know I love my brewing books! I highly recommend the Scotch Ale (Classic Beer Style Series Book 8) for more details!

Each one of these Classic Beer Styles books I’ve read have been great. My goal is to slowly get through the whole series!

How to Brew a Good Wee Heavy

One of the first things I should advise against is using peat malt in your Wee Heavy. Using peat malt to obtain a smokiness in Scottish Ales became popular with homebrewers and commercial brewers. This is not traditional of Scottish brewing and is considered a fault in this style, however.

In both the ‘flavor’ and ‘aroma’ section of the BJCP guideline, they say that “peat smoke is innapropriate”. They then go on to say, “Peated malt is absolutely not traditional”. So it goes without saying further, if you’re brewing for competition or to match the style, don’t use peat malt!

That said, the focus should be on the malt in this style. Though many popular styles today use hops out the wazoo, it is important to keep hopping to a minimum in the Wee Heavy. English hops such as Fuggle, Target, Challenger, or East Kent Goldings should be used in the Wee Heavy.

Wee Heavy/Scotch Ale Recipe

Stats:

Volume:1.5 gallons(5.7L)
Predicted SRM21.41
Predicted IBU22.85
Original Gravity1.080
Final Gravity1.018
ABV- 8.14%

Grain:

77oz(2.18kg)Maris Otter
5oz(141.75 grams)Crystal 40L
3oz(85.05 grams)Honey Malt
2oz (56.7 grams)Crystal 120L
2oz (56.7 grams) Munich
1oz (28.3 grams) Chocolate Malt 250L

Hops:

0.3oz(8.5 grams)East Kent Goldings (60 minutes)
0.1oz(2.83 grams)East Kent Goldings (10 minutes)

Other Additions:

Irish Moss (10 minutes)

Water:

Flagstaff Tap Water
1/4tsp(0.86 grams)CaCl
0.3mL Lactic Acid

Yeast:

Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale Yeast – (1/3 Packet)

Directions:

Heat 8 quarts (7.6L) of strike water to 165°F (73.9C). Add brewing salts. Mill the grains and mix with strike water to reach a mash temperature of 154°F (67.8C). Hold mash temperature for 60 minutes. Sparge the grains with 170°F (76.7C) water until you reach a volume of 2.5 gallons (9.5L) of wort. Boil for 90 minutes, following the hop schedule. Remove 16oz (473.2mL) of wort for reduction/caramelization. After caramelization, add back to the main wort. Add Irish moss at 10 minutes.

After the boil, chill the wort to slightly below fermentation temperature, about 64°F (17.8C). Aerate the wort and pitch the yeast. Ferment at 64-68°F (17.8-20C) for 2 weeks, then cold crash the beer to 35°F (1.7C). Bottle or keg the beer and carbonate to approximately 2.25 volumes of CO2. Age until delicious.

Tips:

How to Perform a Wort Reduction

It sounds easy enough to separate some wort and boil it down more. In theory, it definitely should be! However, if you’ve ever tried to do a balsamic reduction or any other sauce reduction, it can be tough.

I recommend watching the pot that you are performing the reduction closely. The point between water boiling off and getting the carmelization you’re after and getting a candied, sticky mess seems to happen very quickly!

Your goal is to obtain a thicker, slightly more viscous wort. However, you do still want this wort to be in liquid form! I recommend stopping this separate boil sooner rather than later to be on the safe side.

Yeast Choice

Most homebrewers agree that Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale Yeast is the absolute best choice for Wee Heavies. It gives a clean and neutral profile that really lets the malt shine.

It can be fermented down to about 55F (12.8C) for ultimate ‘cleanness’.

In a pinch, the more common yeasts like Safale US-05 or Safale S-04 could suffice. Between these two, I would prefer US-05 as it ferments cleaner.

However, if you have time to order the correct yeast, I would highly recommend it!

Increased Boil Time

Many recipes for this style of beer use prolonged boil times in the 90-120 minute range. You will get increased caramelization and thicker mouthfeel with this prolonged boil time. If this is something you would like to experiment with, please make sure to adjust your hop schedule so you don’t end up with an overly bitter beer.

As many beer styles hop at the beginning of the boil, you will want to remember not to do this if you’re going to boil for longer than 60 minutes!

Roasted Barley vs. Chocolate Malt

If you’ve been researching this style, you’ll notice that many styles will use roasted barley vs chocolate malt. This is more traditional. I chose to use chocolate malt in this recipe as it tastes less bitter, which is what I was going for.

You can’t go wrong going either direction.

Thank you for stopping by!

If you are interested in how to homebrew using the brew-in-a-bag BIAB method, please see mypost here.

If you would like to see more small batch recipes like this, please follow thislink.

As mentioned before, if you’re trying to learn as much as you can regarding Scottish Ales, I highly recommend reading Scotch Ale (Classic Beer Style Series Book 8)!