BeerBorg

Final batch of the year. Last Call for Alcohol.

This is based on Gymrats Wee Heavy, but a little bit less heavy, used Goldings instead, and with a pseudo-decoction because I was itching to do one, and have always had good results. So is it a "90 Shilling?" Or a "Wee Less Heavy?".

For 2.5 gallons (ended up a tad more)

6.5# Marris Otter
4oz honey malt
1 oz black patent - I used a bit less proportionally, because I'm gaining some color from pseudo-decoction.

BIAB (oven) mashed 60 minutes at 154F

60 minute boil of main wort, and I pulled a quart of the batch and boiled it down to a thick very dark syrup, then added it back in during the boil, and then topped up to make up for the extra boiled off volume. I posted a picture of that pseudo-decoction below.

3/4oz EKG @60. My EKG has more AA the Gymrats fuggles, so I used less, and left the honey malt equal proportions to Gymrats recipe to balance the still remaining bit more perceived bitterness, since I used a bit less base malt.

My OG was 1.071, so I apparently topped up a tad too much. Oh well.
SRM = I don't know, but more then 14.

Pitched a whole pack of Nottingham.
^ That stuff tasted awesome btw. Like I had used some really dark crystal malt and Munich.

EDITS because I can't type for S*&R.

At 1.071 whether it is a 90 shilling or a wee heavy will depend on the attenuation of the yeast. That is going to be some mighty fine beer.

Bottled at 1.016. So 7.2% ABV. And it tasted great. I could drink the hydro sample and think "YUM!", although it did make me want to go and eat cake and ice cream. It would be good with cake and ice cream. And it made me want to brew a batch of sugar plum lager. I've done that before. I will do it again next. You will see...

It is going to be most excellent with conditioning on the right occasions.

Nice

So I popped a small tester bottle of this to see what it was like.

It's a dark reddish-brown color. Even this young, it's most excellent. There is a huge amount of flavor/complexity from that pseudo-decoction. Like I threw some 60L, 80L, and 120L into it.

It's obviously on the sweet side, but that's to be expected and appropriate for this.

Ralph's inspiration makes awesome beer.

I'll take a pic of the next bottle I open. This was just 4oz that was left over after bottling the rest.

This might be the best beer I made last year, and I made a lot of really good beer last year.