oops. too much hops?

If patients is a virtue I'm in trouble. My LHBS is a POS. They have a whole

10 ft square for beer and wine making. If I was smart I would drive 2 hrs to a good HBS in Charlotte or Greensboro or order over the internet.

Enough whining.

Here's the thing. The LHBS didn't have the exact ingredients for the recipie I wanted to make. So I improvised; both recipies follow.

I came across

and used their calculator to check what I did. The hops are WAY too high for a Scotish ale. Racked into my secondary today and sampled it. Way too bitter, but drinkable.

Is there anything I can do at this point to cut the bitterness?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Improvised : Highland Ale 6/06/2006 15.30 O.G. 1.042 / IBU 67/

3.3 lb Muntons Amber LME 2 Lb Muntons Light DME L 3.5 1 Lb Muntons Crystal Malt L 49-64 1 Lb Weyermann Light Munich L 6.5 1/2 Lb Weyermann Smoked Malt L 1.3-2.3 1 oz chinook bittering hopps {next brew reduce to .5 oz} .5 oz willamette aroma hopps .5 oz Kent Goldings hopps 1 tsp Irish Moss Safale US-56 american ale yeast grains steaped in 2 1/2 gal water for 30 min. at 150 degF. Removed garin. Added LME and DME. Added chinook hops. Boiled 45 minutes rinced LME can with 2 cups boiled h2o and added to yeast in 3L bottle, shook like crazy to add air. added willamette hops and irish moss. Boiled 10 minutes added Kent Goldings. Boiled 5 minutes cooled and strained wort. Pitched yeast. Set airlock. Happy bubbles in about 2 hours.>

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Here's the origonal recipie:> {items in brackets are my notes}>

Highland Brewing Gaelic Ale>

Look what I found!>>> December 2002 BYO Magazine:>> Quote:>> "Gaelic Ale is a crossbreed of Scottish ale and American amber. It has thehigher original gravity and intense maltiness of a Scottish ale, but thehigher hop bittering level of a typical American amber. The yeast fermentsto a low final gravity to bring the malt flavor into balance. Briess maltsand American hops make this beer truly American.">> Highland Gaelic Ale clone (5 gal/19 l)> OG = 1.056, FG = 1.013, IBUs = 30-32, ABV = 5.6%>> 3.3 lbs Briess light liquid malt extract> 2 lbs Briess light dry malt extract> 1.5 lbs Briess Munich malt (10L)> 0.5 lb Briess crystal 60L> 1 lb Briess crystal 40L> 0.25 lb Briess Extra Special malt {replace w/ peat smoked malt?}>> 8 AAU Chinook bittering hops (0.75 oz of 12.0% alpha)>

2.5 AAU Willamette aroma hops (0.5 oz of 5.0% alpha)> 2.9 AAU Cascade aroma hops (0.5 oz of 5.8% alpha)>> 1 tsp Irish moss> White Labs WLP001 California Ale -or- Wyeast 1056 American Ale {replace w/scottish ale 1728(wyeast) or wlp007-high gravity english ale}>> 0.75 cups corn sugar (priming)>> Steep the crushed specialty malts in 3 gal of water at 150F for 30 min.Remove grains from wort. Add malt syrup, dry malt extract, and bring to aboil. Add Chinook bittering hops, Irish moss, and boil for 60 min. AddWillamette and Cascade aroma hops at the end of the boil, and let steep fortwo min. When done boiling, strain out the hops, add the wort to 2 gal ofcool water in a sanitary fermenter, and top off with cool water to 5.5 gal.Cool the wort to 80F, heavily aerate the beer, and pitch your yeast. Allowthe beer to cool over the next few hours to 64-66F, and hold at these coolertemperatures until the yeast has fermented completely. Bottle your beer, andage for two to three weeks.>> All-grain: Replace the light LME and DME with 6.0 lbs Briess pale malt andincrease the Munich malt to 2.75 lbs. Mash all grains at 150F for 60 min toachieve high fermentability. Collect enough wort to boil for 90 min and havea 5.5 gal yield. Lower the amount of the Chinook bittering hops to 0.6 oz toaccount for higher alpha acid extraction of a full boil.>

Short answer: nope.

Longer: You can try blending but then you run the risk of infection or messing with the carbonation level. I have "successfully" blended at drinking time; pour a low-hopped beer into your hoppy beer and try to hit a happy medium. Plus you have an added advantage of having to drink two beers.

Bitterness will fade as the beer ages. But not really enough to adjust for fix a beer that is widely off the style. And a Scotch ale with a level of 67 IBUs is very hoppy. One closer to BJCP style guidelines would have under third that, especially for a 1.042 starting gravity. A "Scottish Export" should have roughly 20 IBUs.

So do what everybody does - lie. Say you meant to invent a new style. Maybe call it an Imperial Scottish Ale or some such other made-up name! ;-)

Bob Devine

"Scott_ETOH

Ya know, even besides the hops, you're so far off from a Scottish ale that I wouldn't even worry about it. Call it something else, enjoy it, and take another stab at a Scottish.

---------->Denny

-- Life begins at 60...1.060, that is.

Maybe "Bitter Brown"

I put a sample in the frige when I transfered. It dropped clear in about a day, tasted much better.

I found a much better HBS in Greensboro and will get the 'right' ingredents.

Moral of the story: "do it right the first time and you won't have to do it over"

How about "Scottish Pale Ale?"

Or just server it to friends with "bet you can't guess what this is."

Scott_ETOH I found a much better HBS in Greensboro and will get the 'right' ingredents.

If you came up with a brew you enjoy, then you did it right! Seriously, I usually make up at least three recipies a year, sometime four, either by looking at 5-6 recipes for a style and getting a feel for what writers consider good ingredients, or by saying something like "needs hops" or "too muddy, use a bottom fermenting yeast next time."

You clearly stated what you got, so no one using your recipe is going to be surprised if it tastes the way you describe it.