BeerBorg

doing NB's karls' 90 schilling scotch ale this sunday (weather permitting) .. using wlp028 yeast, fermenting at 68-70f.

re caramelization: will the 90 min boil produce enough of that caramelly goodness? or should I do the boil 2qt/1lb dme to 1 pint and add that to the boil before flame out trick? can I pre-make the reduction and store it on the counter til I am ready?

would adding d45 be basically the same as adding the reduced dme?


thanks

-z-

You won't get the carmilization with a longer boil. It is better to take about a half a gallon out first and boil that down.

D-45L will give you some nice caramel flavors, but reduce the body/mouthfeel compared to doing the boil down ("pseudo decoction" as such).

A long boil develops more flavor, but still not as much as doing the "pseudo decoction".

If you really want to make the recipe taste like it's supposed to and have the body it's supposed to, the "pseudo decoction" is what you should do.

If you want to add the D-45 L to that to increase the fermentables/flavor/abv, but not make it even more full bodied then it will already be, it would be a nice addition IMHO, but I'd still do the "pseudo decoction".

My Wee Heavy this year was intended as part 1 of a partigyle, but for various reasons I needed to use part of the second runnings to add to the volume of the first runnings. Part of that involved boiling that part of the second runnings separately from the first runnings, and it had a bigger percentage of volume loss while boiling. The result was a wonderful caramelly flavor from the melanoidins. That's a "mistake" that I would make again.