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Highland Holiday Ale

5 gallons, partial mash; OG = 1.065

Ingredients:

• 3.5 lbs. crushed two-row pale malt
• 3 oz. peated malt
• 8 oz. dark crystal malt, 90° to 120° Lovibond
• 4 oz. Munich malt
• 2 oz. roasted unmalted barley
• 2 lbs. plain amber dry malt extract
• 2 lbs. plain dark dry malt extract
• 4 oz. dark brown sugar
• 1 oz. Challenger hop pellets (8% alpha acid), for 90 min.
• 1/16 oz. freshly grated ginger
• 0.25 oz. dried rosemary leaves
• Pinch fennel seeds
• 10-14 g. of a dry ale yeast, or 1 qt. of a liquid slurry (I prefer Wyeast 1728 Scottish ale)
• 2/3 cup corn sugar for priming

Step by Step:

Heat 1.5 gal. of water to 166° F, mash in crushed pale, peated, crystal, and Munich malts and roasted barley. Mash should settle to about 155° F. Hold 75 min., run off, and sparge with 2 gal. water at 170° F. To the kettle add 1 gal. of water, the dry malt, and the brown sugar. Bring to a boil, add Challenger pellets, and boil 90 min. Turn off the heat and steep (in a mesh bag for ease of straining) the ginger, rosemary, and fennel. Leave standing 30 min., remove herbs, and cool. Put into the fermenter and top off with chilled, pre-boiled water to make 5.25 gal. At 65° F pitch yeast. Ferment cool (60° F if possible) for 10 days, rack to secondary, and condition even cooler (55° F) for two to three weeks. Prime with corn sugar and bottle condition for three to four weeks.

Brewing Notes:

Non-mash version:

Steep roasted barley, peated, dark crystal, and Munich malts as above in 2.5 gal. of water, heat gradually to 170° F, and remove grains. Add 4 lbs. of amber and 3 lbs. of dark dry malt extract and 4 oz. dark brown sugar.

All-grain:

Mash 9 lbs. pale malt, 6 oz. peated malt, 1 lb. dark crystal, 2 oz. roasted barley, and 6 oz. Munich at 155° F for 75 minutes in 3.5 gal. Sparge with 4.5 gal. at 170° F. Boil to reduce to 5.25 gal., add hops and herbs as above.

Peated malt:

Peated malt is becoming easier to find. It's available at most homebrew supply shops. There is no substitute, but if you can't find it you can just leave it out.

Herbs and variations:

Substitute heather honey (if you can find it) for the brown sugar. Or use heather flowers and/or lavender (ask your homebrew shop to get them for you) in the herb mix. Be careful with the ginger. It is meant as an accent, not a featured flavor, and a little goes a long way.

Want to play with yeast? This would be really interesting with a recultured slurry of Belhaven or Traquair's yeast. Or maybe a Belgian Trappist yeast...Hmmm.

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