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Brewing up a Scottish ale next weekend, and it sounds like some of its colour and caramel character comes t from kettle caramelization. Any thoughts on what is the best way to achieve that? Boil the shit out of it for hours? Drain first runnings and boil separately in a smaller pot? Something else? Ditch the idea and use crystal and honey malts for the same end result?

we have removed 1gal of wort...boiled it seperate down to 1L...and then added it back to the main boil

jacinthebox wrote:we have removed 1gal of wort...boiled it seperate down to 1L...and then added it back to the main boil

yep - I usually take a gallon of the first runnings and boil that down to about a quart.

gm- wrote:Brewing up a Scottish ale next weekend, and it sounds like some of its colour and caramel character comes t from kettle caramelization. Any thoughts on what is the best way to achieve that? Boil the shit out of it for hours? Drain first runnings and boil separately in a smaller pot? Something else? Ditch the idea and use crystal and honey malts for the same end result?

Are you doing this for the Railcar Comp? After Andy's comments about the 2008 vs. 2014 BJCP guidelines, I had to go see if there were any differences. It's interesting to note how 2008 guidelines for Scottish export say, "go kettle carmelize some wort", but the 2014 guidelines say, "ffs, don't you dare carmelize any sugars" .

Wah?

Yeah, it is for the Railcar comp. Yup, got very confused by that as well. Wonder if it is going to to be judged by the 2014 guidelines, or just by whatever Mitch likes most?

It says it's the 2014 guidelines, so you might be better off skipping the kettle caramelization.

Yeah, probably safer. Sucks as I had a very extremely simple recipe made out. Oh well, some crystal and honey malts it is then.

I'd think a simple recipe would still be the way to go on this one.

Yeah, still pretty simple, but my original was MO, roasted and sugar. New and improved will probably be MO, crystal 40, roasted and sugar.