The Old Firm Derby

A match-up of legendary football proportions, Glasgow Rangers versus Glasgow Celtic. Well worthy of a Scottish Ale named after it. After brewing the all-grain IPA batch the previous weekend, I decided to go back to a liquid malt extract recipe in case i needed a beer to cry into if the IPA didn't work out. However, I did select the grains to use in this batch rather than purchasing a pre-measured and milled variety (at left are two different types of malted barley divided into three jars: Crystal Malt and Toasted Cara-pils Barley).

The title of the beer is The Old Firm Scottish 70 Shilling. There are three or more different types of Scottish ales, each denoted by their alcohol strength in shillings (abbreviated with a forward slash /): Light 60/ (3.5%), Heavy 70/ (3.5-4%), Export 80/(4-5.5%) and Wee heavy 90/(6% and up). This being my first foray into the category of English ales, which any self-respecting Scot would have a problem with its inclusion into that category I'm sure, I decided to use the malt extract and the medium choice of the 70/. This batch was a return to the regular schedule of brewing, uncomplicated and straight forward. You can see the nice brown color it produced, largely due to the light malt extract used. As suggested by the style, the alcohol content was not strong.

At right is the primary fermenter with a blow-off hose attached, which is submerged in a jar with water. In an effort to always improve my condition as DIY as possible, i built a carboy shuttle which is essentially a milk crate that has a busted out bottom, destined for the dump, with a board cut to size to fit the measurements of the crate, and four office chair wheels bolted into the bottom. One of the wheels only goes forward and backwards whereas the other three have swiveling brackets, so its not 100%, but it does the job of sparing my back and avoiding dropping the whole thing on the basement floor. It also helps keep sediment in place when im moving it from the cellar to the brewery just before racking.
This Scottish 70/ came out with a cider'ish flavor. Very tasty and sweet, we drank a glassful of the young beer right out of the secondary fermenter, just needed carbonation. The batch yielded 29 Grolsch bottles and 1 5 litre cider jug. Waiting in anticipation to taste The Old Firm.