BEAR-ly Getting Started 6.4 - Scotch Ale

There is Scottish Ale and then there is Scotch Ale. What's the difference? Do the Scottish prefer hops or malts? Jason and Craig steer off for a few moments on the subject of English Barley Wine and the connections. Brewing techniques are discussed. Featuring Scotland's best known and best lover beer, McEwan's Scotch Ale. 

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Transcript

On our final episode of this series of Barely Getting Started, UK in a Day, we take it from Ireland, we're going to hop across the water over to Scotland. Scotland. That's right. It's one of those, like no matter what, it's like English and Scottish people, when they hear that, they just start going into an accent. That's right. You know, and it's just, okay, sounds good. My wife always hates when I do it, we travel, we go anywhere, she's like, stop speaking in an accent. I was like, I don't mean to do it. She's like, yes, you do. I was like, I don't, I don't, they're just all, that's how they sound and my brain goes We don't have any listeners in Scotland that I know of, okay? Hopefully, hopefully soon. So yeah, so yeah, we, we get to this final episode. You know that it's a good beer because they have the tartan right on the label. And as I've always joked for, for years, if it's not Scottish, it's crap. It's crap. Okay. I'm done with the accent now guys. It was Michael Myers, you know, between his fat bastard and then very underrated. Oh, So I Married an Axe-Mer. So I Married an Axe-Mer. Heed! Heed! And I'm out! Haggis! Like everything about that, like that was, you know, just, I remember once I started singing the Harriet, Sweet Harriet song, I'll have to, I'll have to cue in a little bit of this when I edit it. It's definitely, if you learn anything from this series, it's go watch So I Married an Axe-Mer. That's right. That's right. That's the best. That's the best. You know, that's why we're always barely getting started. There's just so much to talk about. But Scottish. Yes. Yes. So just like Ireland, you know, England has a lot of different ales. You know, there's a lot of different things we could have gone into that we didn't. Right. We did go into some of the history. Ireland, I basically was like, Hey, I didn't want to do Guinness. So I chose Irish red because that's basically the only other, you know, big style that comes to mind. So the big thing about Scotch ale and Scottish ales, I think that people don't realize is that there's a difference between Scotch and Scottish ales and you hardly see any Scottish ales. I think, you know, I've seen a few places. There's a Schilling Beer Company that does fantastic lagers. We'll do a, you know, they'll do a Scottish ale here and there, but, you know, to kind of break it down for you a little bit, talk about the styles and we'll talk about the history. Yeah. So Scottish ales, kind of like those bitters where there was ordinary extra or sorry, ordinary best and then your extra special, extra strong Scottish head, I think Scottish light, Scottish heavy and then Scottish export. And similar to kind of like how Belgian beers have a single, a double, a triple, a quad. These the naming conventions of those we talked about and you can do it with the Belgian Blissfully Belgian. That was kind of based off of how much alcohol and for people that, you know, were a little bit illiterate and couldn't read or write, made it easier. Well, Schillings, you know, is a, the coin that would be used in Scotland. I don't know if it's still, I mean, I'm pretty sure it's still Schillings, but based on the number of Schillings, it would be a higher ABV, you know, the more ingredients help to drive the gravity that drives the ABV, which then ultimately drives the price up. So Kewin's 60 Schilling is one of a quintessential Scottish ale, a Scottish light. So it, the lights going into your heavies were 60, 70, 80 Schilling and then I think once you got to 80 or 90 Schilling, you were more of a heavy Scottish ale and then the exports, you know, so I think 60, 70, your light, 80, 90, it's like a heavy and then like a hundred, you might be in an export and then I think Scotch ale would be like your 120 Schilling, but Scotch ale is also known as a wee heavy. So the Scottish ales that we just went through, the 60, 70, 80 Schillings, those guys just like the sessionable bitters of England ales and pub culture, they would be your lighter 3.5% to 4%, 4.5% to 5% and then, you know, kind of just standard ABV. But then Scotch ale, that's one that is kind of like, hey, it could be 8%, it could go all the way up to 12%. It's kind of like, hey, we're making a Scotch ale and that is what I think confuses people because they'll see Scottish ale and they're hoping to get like a big malty boozy treat and they're like, well, it's 4% Scotch ale, no, no, no, 4% Scottish ale. If you're looking for a Scotch ale, make sure you're ordering a Scotch ale or a wee heavy. So this is a Scotch ale. Some places, a lot of American breweries will call it the wee heavy and this guy is the most forbiddable that we're trying today. We're going to be at 8% and one of the, you know, the historical thing about Scotch ales is there's what's called the grain belt where grapes don't grow too well and that's basically, you know, Belgium, Germany, going into the Czech Republic and then Austria. So a lot of beer comes from that grain belt because grapes don't grow well in there. You know, you got to get a little bit warmer and you're getting towards the equator and that's why like, you know, Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, you're getting a lot more wine and grapes and then if you can't grow grapes, you're growing grains and then hops don't grow well outside of, I think it's 35 to 55 degrees latitude. So when you get all the way up to Scotland, they can grow grains, but they don't grow hops very well. So we've always known, not always known, but very early on when we were talking thousands of years ago that when you made alcoholic beverages from grains, it was very sweet. So people needed to balance it with some sort of bitterness. So I think we talked once about the Gruet and Gruet was kind of just a spice mixture. Well, Scotch and Scotch ales would use peat, would use bog myrtle and heather and ginger and things that had a lot of spice and roots and barks and all that stuff to kind of balance things out. And when hops started to take over for that and became kind of like the standard, especially like in Germany, and then, you know, there's the entire like English hop profile, the English Kent Goldings and the Fuggle and all of the popular English hops, one of the things the Scottish didn't want to do is have to rely on England, right? I think they, you know, they became, they merged, became one union, what was it, early 1700s, and there was still a tax on imports. So even though they became the same union, they did not eliminate tax on the imports from Scotland. So a lot of these Scottish ales were just enjoyed in Scotland because they were taxed when they came in. Well, then you don't get to enjoy the Scottish ale. I know. But what they weren't going to do, gosh darn it, is rely on those English for their hops. So they would, you know, it's a much, much more malt focused beer. So you know, we went from a little dark hint of roast with a English mild, darker beer than we went to no roast, very easy drinking, slightly malty English bitter that had just a little like perfumey floral bitterness to it, but nothing like the American bitterness that we are accustomed to. Then we went to a nice malty, but very, you know, very easy malty bread-like malt profile of the Irish red with George Killian. And now we're going to try a Scotch ale. We're jumping past all those Scottish ales. Again, you can't really find too many of those. They are imported, but Scotch ale is harder to find from Scotland. So we do have an import here with this McEwens. However, you know, there's a lot of We Heavy's that are made that are on the market, you know, locally as well as like usually the winter months and this, that, you know, when the temperature is right for it, a lot of breweries will pop out a We Heavy, just a fun beer to, you know, name in them. It is a very caramelly, very sweet malt. Yeah, it is. Slight buttery, like butterscotchy, like just, you know, almost decadent. Right. And when we do hit these higher ABVs and it's a maltier beer, whether it be malty and bitter like a barley wine or it's malty and roasty like an imperial stout, they definitely do become more of a treat, more regal, more of a sipper and sit back and you do feel like you have something a little bit more refined and distinguished. So the Scotch ale is kind of like the version of that for Scottish producing beer and the Scottish ales. It is, you know, kind of like, all right, this is this is some of the higher end stuff that we have to offer. And again, you know, it starts at around 78 percent and just goes north of that. So that's kind of the history of why it's, you know, you can't grow too many hops. So you have tons of grains, not a lot of hops. So we're definitely a malt focused beer. And then we have, you know, the difference between Scottish and Scotch ales. And now we just need to start drinking some. And to rewind back to our trivia question, and it is the pound sterling is the official currency of Scotland, the same as Great Britain. So there you go. Yeah. Yeah, I think the shilling, you know, it kept its name with a decent pour. Very nice. Kept its name for the beer style, but not necessarily for currency. So this is our fourth beer in the series. Our last one. I'll have to come up with a good idea for our next series. But always a pleasure doing it. And let's make sure we don't forget our cheers this time around. There we go. So I'm going to take a quick sip just because I feel it's sacrilege after a cheers. Oh, good old Scotch ale. So I'm putting it up to the light. I'm looking at it. You can see through it. It's clear, but it's not brilliantly clear like the last two beers. It's dark, but it's not as dark as the dark mild. There's no real black. This is just like you can see the red and ruby undertones, but it's so red and ruby that if it's not up to the light, it looks brown. But as you lift it up, you realize, nope, this is definitely a like a a plum red, you know, not not quite as purple. That's a good that's a good word. Yeah. You know, when when those plums have the red on it, the little red, little purple, little blue. This is like the red part of the plum. You don't have too much of a sustaining head with higher ABV beers. Alcohol is kind of kind of kills head. So if you like a super boozy beer, unless it's very highly carbonated, the you know, it will kick up the carbonation because it's still in there, but it doesn't sustain as long. But let's take a quick sniff. We we talked about what it looked like. This is one where you can kind of smell the alcohol or the booze on it. And, you know, what does alcohol smell like? I mean, even though rubbing alcohol isn't the most appetizing aroma, but it is pretty much, you know, like, you know, it it's what alcohol smells like because it's pretty much pure alcohol. So, I mean, it has that where it slightly stings the nostrils and gives you a little, you know, it lets you know that there's some there's some ABV in here. It's definitely not that 3.5 percenter dark beer we were starting with, with the Dubco English Mild. It's a little raisiny for me. Yep. Again, I think, you know, I got that a little bit with the Irish Red Ale. When something's a lot more malty, any of the esters from the yeast, a lot of times the combination of like the fruitiness with the maltiness, it kind of gives me that raisin. When it gets even darker or aged, it kind of tastes even like fig or, you know, some of these could taste like prune. But prune, I think, comes a little bit more with like a darker, roastier malt, where this one is definitely more of a caramel, caramel malt. This coats the mouth nice. Yeah, this is nice. Slightly slick. I mean, nothing like an oatmeal stout or anything that would have lactose. But, you know, it just we talk about the palate a lot. And, you know, that's just that's your tongue in your mouth. It's just it's where we're producing all of our tastes from. And, you know, from the back of the tongue, the tip of the tongue and even underneath, you just can kind of feel this. It coats. It doesn't linger. But, you know, there's some density to it. So when we talk about mouthfeel, that has a lot to play in the flavor. You know, there's the aroma, there's the taste and then there's the mouthfeel. And those together give us an overall impression of the flavor of the beer. And when you sip this guy, you get a little bit of that boozyness. But the fact that there's that nice caramel sweetness, it really balances that out. And then the nice body to it that's not too heavy, it's just just enough to kind of balance everything out. Because, you know, if one aspect gets intensified, how do you balance things out? Other things need to be intensified, right? If this was much thinner and higher ABV, I mean, you know, give you kind of a moonshine vibe where this here, the gravity and the ABV go up, the caramel notes go up. And then the, you know, the mouthfeel kind of goes up with that. So it keeps it rather balanced. I personally am a big fan of Scotch Ales and I like this one because it's not super boozy. I've had some that are nine and a half, 10 percent. You drink it. I mean, they're good. And sometimes you're drinking it because you are like, I got time for one and I want to warm up my belly here. And, you know, you are grabbing for a higher proof beer there. But this one is very well rounded where, you know, if you didn't tell me it was 8 percent, I would assume it's heavier or higher because it's a Scotch Ale. Right. But it's one of those that had I not known it was a Scotch Ale and I was just drinking it, I'd be like, oh, yes, this is definitely a mouth forward beer. But, you know, if it was 6 percent, I wouldn't be shocked because, you know, this hides the 8 percent well. And then similar to, you know, I equated that English Mild kind of like a Schwarz beer, Scotch Ales, I kind of equate to like Doppelbachs. So if you have a Bach that is an elevated ABV of a lager, then Doppelbach is even more so usually like a 7 percenter. It's typically very dark, but there are some lighter Doppelbachs out there. But those have high malt flavor profiles because, again, we're not adding a lot of hops and there's not a lot of yeast profile. So we end up with is you end up with this high gravity to get that high alcohol, which means a lot of malt. And that to me comes across. Now, when we talk about our comparison of breads, you know, this is more like a like a pumpernickel or like those dark rye crusts. I mean, it doesn't have the spice, you know, from the rye seeds. But just has that like darker, maltier kind of grained bread taste to it. And, you know, to me, it's almost like kind of like how fruitcake you take fruitcake. It's got that dense malty flavor, slight cherry, slight, you know, like you were saying, raisin. It just gives you overall, you know, it kind of even has like a festive vibe to it. A few of my notes on here was derived, like we talked about, from the original for a traditional English strong ale. And then some of the first ones they were called old ales or Burton ales was another word that I that I pulled up. So I was doing a little crossreferencing on that. And then everything, of course, originated in the British Isles, which includes which includes Scotland. And then from there, rich, intense, dark amber ales. And then that further inspired what would become the English barley wine. Yep. You take this with the high ABV, the heavy malt presence, and you're like, OK, this is a little too sweet for me, a little too much. You know, it's good. It's decadent. It's not it's not, you know, cloyingly sweet or anything like that. But if you wanted to, like, really balance this out and, you know, add a bitter component to it. Now we are talking a beer that would be very similar to the English barley wine. There is an American barley wine. The English barley wine is more toffee, caramel and a high hopping rate so that, you know, it balances. But it leans towards, hey, I'm still a malt dominant beverage versus the American, like all the other American styles that first came out with craft brewing in the late 80s, early 90s. That West Coast really bitter orange grapefruit pith kind of bitterness. Those were the main notes of the bittering that would be an American barley wine. So the American style barley wine is kind of similar. We talked about it's like the double IPA. Right. But it's just much more malt focused versus double IPAs. If you go to the episode that we talked about, they were using some sugar so that there wasn't a ton of malt presence so that you still would be focusing more on the hop than you are on the malts. And with Scotch Ale and barley wine, especially English barley wine, malt is the star of the show. And then one of the other things I had read is talking about how they would scorch the caramelized sugars to add to the malt characteristic. To give it a different, like to give it a deeper profile. Yes. Some of the kettles, you know, when you talk about a brew kettle, you know, nowadays almost everything that's in America is electric or it's a steam jacket to warm things up. But, you know, you have some breweries that keep their old equipment because the kettle is heated by a fire and it doesn't get any of that smokiness. Like we were talking about when you're you're malting grain. But when you're bringing a big old cauldron up and you're using flame, if you allow that to boil and, you know, just create a hotter flame by just keep stoking that fire, you start to really caramelize the sugars that are in this. Almost like when you're doing a reduction in a sauce, things get sweeter, things get a little bit more viscous. And that's kind of what happens when you, you know, a lot of the decadent enriched stouts or other beers, they'll talk about these very long boils and your typical boil last 60 minutes when you're brewing beer. We have some places that are doing, you know, multi-hour boils. And really what you're doing is concentrating your wort so that a there's just a high gravity, meaning there's a ton of sugar in there. And instead of adding water back into it, you kind of just keep it as is. So you can brew a very high ABV beer, but also it has these deep roasted caramel flavors to it. And then it also adds to kind of the mouthfeel because it's just it's just thicker, you know, it's just more reduced, which makes it more viscous. Now, when you were talking about the, you know, the kettle and the open open flame. So maybe and maybe I'm on track here, maybe I'm not. So recently I went to the Genesee County Holman Museum. I think that's what it's called out there. So we went to the History on Tap event and Rohrbach out in Rochester and brewed two beers for them. And what they so but they were using obviously their traditional brewing method there. But they were talking about how the I'm trying to think of which one it was. They had one of the beers that was on here. I think it was the Stocking Hill Ale. And then there was another one that was called it was the Fat Ox is what it was. It's called Fat Ox. So it was more of a more of a Scotch style ale, but it was like it was considered Old English. And then what they did was they had the old brewery that's on the site and they were making they were making it the old fashioned way there. And I honestly I don't know if they can use that though because it was it's a recreation of an old brewery and I don't think it's I don't think they'd be able to legally serve that. But they were making it and you could smell the spent grain and everything that you're in there. So that was the same idea. And that's what they were doing is the traditional Fat Ox recipe, which was an old English like a maple syrup thing there, too. Yeah, yeah. I think I might have been an event there. And I remember I was trying to get this beer because it was a historical beer and they had already run out of it. And the name Fat Ox reminds me or just it rings a bell. Yeah. March is their maple sugar festival. Okay. That's where I went to a nice little pancake breakfast. And then you walk around, you look at everything. And surprisingly, that was my first and only pancake breakfast. And I was like, you just keep getting more pancakes. And my wife's like, if you want. I was like, I know, you know, I'm not I'm not going to get any more. I'm happy with my first plate of pancakes. I mean, it sounds like a great idea, but it's just like now. I mean, they gave me a lot to start. I get you a plate of manhole covers and then you've got to work your way through that. Would you like some more? No, I'm good. Yes, I'm good. I could use something else now. But but but now based on what you said there, I get that with with that style and then having the Fat Ox, it was a little a little smoky. OK, which, you know, which I would and again, in Broerbach was using a closed system, I'm sure. I don't think they were using an open system when they made that. But yeah, it was I really enjoyed that. And then the Stocking Hill Ale is the other one that they that they did. Both of the recipes from the eighteen hundreds that were really nicely done. So, yeah, the the original idea being that open vat, the open kettle. And then when we went into the recreated brewery, I think it was from the 1830s. I think it was as as it was rebuilt. That's what I was understanding is that when they made everything, it was heated underneath and then everything literally poured down these like V-shaped chutes into the next vat. Yeah, almost like an open air concrete. Yeah. Concrete chute. Yeah. Well, I'm glad you. Yeah, that's when you brought up smoky that triggered. I was like, all right, good job. Good job. All right. You're always good. That's why I love hearing you talk. I mean, you do this. A, you have, you know, just a lot to bring to the table with your experiences. And one of the things that people often will see, especially with, you know, American breweries brewing Scotch Ale is they think of Scotch. And a lot of breweries put like a smoky like or like peat moss type of flavoring and into their Scotch Ale. That is not indicative of the style. It is not traditional to be smoky or to have that. But it's one of those like we've come to expect it because it's a Scotch Ale and a lot of Americans are like, I, you know, I kind of want to make it like Scotchy. And it's like, you know, Scotch the spirit versus. Right. And it's like, yes, I get it. But do we have to? Like, do we really need. Can you get away with that? I don't think you can. Well, it's just a style. You know, it's not, you know, it's not an appellation. We're brewing it. It's up to the brewer's interpretation. And then styles are really just for marketing. Right. It's if you're calling it a Scotch Ale, you know, as long as it's I mean, people laugh at you if it's a lager and it's a light Pilsner lager and you're calling it Scotch Ale. They're like, well, this guy obviously doesn't know, you know, this person doesn't know what the heck they're doing. Right. Maybe take the Scotch Ale and put it in a Scotch barrel to barrel agent. It's one of the things I did with Tappan Craft Festival last year in the VIP, because I represent Brewery Ardenne when I go to that festival. Yeah, yeah. They they do a Scotch barrel Scotch Ale. And they're another one that their Scotch Ale is very, not very, but it has a hint of smoke. It's got like, you know, kind of like if you were drinking Scotch. And, you know, to me, I like it. I don't dislike it. But when I have something that we just had with this McEwen Scotch Ale, this is more what I'm looking for. Yeah. Now, the other kind of quintessential one that I think is good is the Founders does the Dirty Bastard. Oh, nice pickup. Yes, that is a very good Scotch Ale if you've never had like a traditional Scotch Ale. And then, you know, obviously you're talking about Rohrbach. I mean, there's a brewery that makes great beers across the board. But anyone that's had Rohrbach, what comes to mind is Rohrbach Scotch Ale? Scotch Ale? I mean, it's almost like the Anchor Steam beer. Right. Like they were known for steam beer so much. A lot of people thought it was Anchor Steam was the name of the brewery. It was just Anchor Brewing. And, you know, Anchor Steam was just kind of like where your brain went, because one, they did patent the name Steam Beer. Like only Anchor could use it. But, you know, they're another brewery where they're so, one of their brews is so indicative of what they do that it kind of goes hand in hand with the name of the brewery. And Rohrbach, to me, it's like Rohrbach Scotch Ale, you know, it's like it's not Scotch Ale from Rohrbach. It's Rohrbach Scotch Ale. I kind of just, you know, ever since I've known Rohrbach, I've known about their Scotch Ale. And it's one of those, if your flagship's going to be, you know, this isn't by any means an obscure style. But it's not your typical style that would be, you know, usually people have some sort of American ale, whether it's a pale ale or they'll have like a brown ale or they'll even, you know, obviously nowadays people have like a quintessential IPA on their list. It's not often that like, hey, your number one beer and your quintessential beer is a Scotch Ale. And, you know, there's a few places that make it year round and, you know, it's usually more of a seasonal, but when they do come out, they are nice. They're a nice little treat. And kind of like I said, it's more of a regal and in the sense of like, it feels like I should be sitting and enjoying this. This is a slow time thing. This is not a, let's just drink these to drink these. Kind of like I said, with that German Doppelbock and your Belgian quadruple, they're meant to be slow sippers. And again, another thing that I feel goes really good with like holiday times, another, this being as intense as it is, it would go with some really good food. It'd be good. It's very good with a lot of cheeses because it is so rich and sweet, like the sweetness and caramel notes of this. Just think of like how on brie or, you know, even with blue cheese, like you might have some candied pecans or you're drizzling it with something like this caramelly, butterscotchy kind of malt forward beer goes really well with a lot of your pungent, powerful cheeses. And then, you know, I could see this a lot of game meets where you have to cut through and have something that really can stand up to the flavor of what you're eating. You know, this is definitely not.