Brew Day: North Kilttown Scottish Export Ale

So, it's been a while, but we figured we'd take advantage of the relatively mild weather and brew today. We decided to go with a Scottish Export Ale, which we're calling North Kilttown. We did a partial mash, mashing in with 1 qt./lb. water at 167° F with a target mash temp of 156°. We mashed for 1/2 hour, adding water at 15 minutes to get the temperature back up (though we still ended up with a final mash temp in the upper 140's). We used 185° F sparge water, and began boiling the first runnings as soon as they were collected. After collecting all the wort and adding the liquid extract, we boiled for another 15 minutes to get some caramelization before topping off with water. Once all the water and extract was added, we only boiled for an hour, but we had already been boiling on and off for at least an hour since sparging. We ended up at 1054, two points short of our target. We also went with some Bulldog Liquid Extract and a mild ale malt to try and get the sweetness up (since the dry extract is rather dry and our mashes tend to come out dry as well), so I hope it doesn't end up too sweet and full. I guess we'll see.

In competition news, we sent three entries to the Upper Mississippi Mash-Out: our Nimbostratus Dunkel (which we re-categorized as a Vienna Lager, christening it "Nimbostratus Amber"), Snow Squall Christmas Ale, and Winter Lightning Eisweizen (for their special "Eis-Anything!" category). Several Chicagoland competitions are coming up in the next couple months, so we'll see what happens at the Mash-Out and decide what we want to enter in those (hopefully the North Kilttown will be ready for those). Here's to a 2007 full of good beer!