Saturday, March 14, 2009

Belgian-style Strong Scotch Ale

Racked the McChief down to one carboy. Gravity is a firm 10P. The beer is strongly sweet with nice banana/plum esters and a ton of sweet alcohol. According to my measurements the alcohol content is around 11% which at this point is a nice counter point to the sweetness. The beer isn't worty sweet but more like eating a caramel hard candy when you start getting it to melt across the palate. Actually pretty nice. I'll see if I can get another percent or so alcohol out of it before I call terminal. I have half a mind to simply bottle it as is without primings just to see what happens. So far it's fuller bodied and sweeter than McChouffe but not quite as intense as Scotch Silly. Shaping up to be a really nice beer. Definitely one to put down.

That 1.200 OG starting gravity wasn't that hard to pull off. Got me thinking about planning a whole 1200 series. October Ale, Barley Wine, Imperial Stout, Baltic Porter, a more straight forward Belgian-style Quad, Dopplebock, hmm, what else...

3 comments:

Kevin said...

So your OG was 1.200 specific gravity and your terminal is 10P or 1.040 specific gravity? That's like 22%! I don't understand. Sounds tasty though.

Jerome said...

Ya, well the home brewers triple scale hydrometer that I have on hand says "11%". You know, where you subtract the starting gravity from the gravity where you're at.

I'm curious what crazy new equation gets the alcohol to 22%.

Jerome said...

Also, love you Kevin. Am jealous of your experience and I'm hoping you're having a great time!