Brewday : Largs Thistle 80/-

Yesterday I managed to achieve 4 things that I've wanted to do for a while

1. Brew a Scottish Heavy, an 80/- (80 Shilling)

2. Do a brew of which all of it will go to bottle

3. Try a 60 minute mash

4. Try a 60 minute boil




The recipe that I used for this one was 'tweaked' from a fellow home brewer (thanks Mysty)

Brew length - 25L
Target OG - 1.046 (based on 75% BHE)
EBU ~30
60 min 69 degree mash
60 min boil

Brewlength - 25L
Target OG - 1.046 (based on 75% BHE)
EBU ~30
60 min 69 degree mash
60 min boil

Grist
4600gm Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 83.33 %
240gm Amber Malt (22.0 SRM) Grain 4.88 %
240gm Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 4.88 %
240gm Wheat, Torrified (1.7 SRM) Grain 4.88 %
100gm Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 2.03 %
Hops
50gm Fuggles [5.50 %] (60 min) Hops 25.3 IBU
20gm Fuggles [5.50 %] (15 min) Hops 5.0 IBU
Other
1.00 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
Yeast - Gervin English Ale

Originally I'd gone for just 4100gm Pale but concerned that I'd drop efficiency with a shorter (60 min) mash I upped it by 500g.

I had a great brewday, by only mashing for 1 hour and boiling for 1 hour I got my brewday down to 5 hours, which will help with the evening brews that I do. I needn't have worried about the efficiency, I got 25L at 1.052 which is a 76.7 brewhouse efficiency, I average 75%. The wort was a nice rich dark colour which I expect to be packed full of character.

This batch has been brewed to be bottled, so in a couple of week's I'll have 40 odd bottles of Largs Thistle 80/- conditioning.

About the name, I wanted to get the word 'Thistle' in there somewhere with the Thistle being the National Emblem of Scotland, when I looked into it I found an interesting story.

It is claimed that the Thistle became Scotland's emblem after the battle of Largs in 1263. Legend has it that during an attempted invasion of Scotland by Norsemen, the Norsemen tried to surprise the sleeping Scottish Clansmen. In order to move more stealthily under the cover of darkness the Norsemen removed their footwear. But as they crept barefoot they came across an area of ground covered in thistles and one of Haakon's men unfortunately stood on one and shrieked out in pain, thus alerting the Clansmen to the advancing Norsemen.

I think that's a great legend, so Largs Thistle 80/- it is!

I got (and 'borrowed') the above from HERE where there is lots more information.