From synchro!judge-request at uu6.psi.com Thu Jun 2 07:03:22 1994 Received: from uu6.psi.com by goodman.itn.med.umich.edu with SMTP id AA05393 (5.65b/IDA-1.4.3 for spencer at hendrix.itn.med.umich.edu); Thu, 2 Jun 94 07:03:18 -0400 Received: from synchro.UUCP by uu6.psi.com (5.65b/4.0.071791-PSI/PSINet) via UUCP; id AA19104 for ; Thu, 2 Jun 94 06:31:10 -0400 Received: by synchro.com (smail2.5) id AA14350; 2 Jun 94 05:23:44 EDT (Thu) Reply-To: judge at synchro.com (JudgeNet) Errors-To: judge-error at synchro.com Precedence: bulk Message-Id: <9406020523.AA14350 at synchro.com> From: judge-request at synchro.com (JudgeNet Administrator) To: judge-recipients at synchro.com (JudgeNet Recipients) Subject: JudgeNet Digest #775 (Jun 02, 1994) Date: 2 Jun 94 05:23:44 EDT (Thu) JudgeNet Digest #775 Thu 02 Jun 1994 THE BEER JUDGE DIGEST Chuck Cox , publisher Michael Hall , archive administrator digest submissions to judge at synchro.com administrative requests to judge-request at synchro.com send rank updates to the administrative address messages sent to the wrong address will be ignored FTP archive information in /pub/judge/README on cygnus.ta52.lanl.gov Published by SynchroSystems and the Riverside Garage & Brewery Contents: Scottish Vs. Browns. (Jim Cave) Re: Scottish Export vs. Brown Ale ("C. John Mare") Re: Scottish Ale (Rich Fortnum) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 1 Jun 1994 8:39:03 -0700 (PDT) From: Jim Cave Subject: Scottish Vs. Browns. I spent a fair bit of time in Scotland tasting the conventional gravity (~1.045 and less) and while it was a couple of years ago, I'm not sure I agree with Spencer's comments with the Brown vs Scottish. I remember the latter as being drier but not as hoppy as a bitter. Belhaven export in the bottle and Belhaven /80 in the cask have a definate smokey character; I don't know whether it is the peated malt or what. The book "Brew your own real ale at home" may be of assistance here: Protz tasting notes follow: A memorable rounded ale with a complex mix of fruit and hop....Mouth-filling balance of malt and tart fruit with intense dry finish". The dry finish is what impressed me, together with a background smokiness, which is perhaps due to the black malt or a type of peated malt. The hopping is moderate at 28 EBU's Apparently, Wheeler and Protz have access to the recipes and the grain bill for Belhaven /80 by %s are: Pale: 95.5 Crystal: 2.8 Black: 1.6 also, a portion of maltose syrup is added. (N.B.: Wheeler's recipe's indicate very low efficiencies so his "By weight" stuff is off by quite a bit.) My opinion of the British browns is they have a crystal malt signature The British don't call them browns, quite often they are called old ales or bitters, but the gravity is in the mid range of the 1.040's and the hopping is in the low 20's. Some of them have 10-15% of the grist as being crystal. Many of these are bland tasting, with a definate malt signature. Very few are memorable, with Newcastle being one of the least so! Jim Cave "I brew....therefore I am" ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 01 Jun 1994 15:20:22 -0700 (MST) From: "C. John Mare" Subject: Re: Scottish Export vs. Brown Ale As a former resident of Edinburgh and long-time quaffer of Scottish Exports and their 80/- casked cousins I must agree with much of what has been written by Mike Leliveld on these two similar beers. Indeed they share many characteristics, and this is not surprising since they share a close geographic relationship (N.E. England vs. S.E. Scotland). These areas are far from the Kent, Worcestershire, and Hertfortshire hop fields, and traditionally share a level of frugality which has resulted in the low hopping rates! In my view the presence of of a touch of roastiness in the Scottish Export is the main defining difference between these fine ales. Chin up, John M. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 1 Jun 94 22:46:30 GMT From: Rich Fortnum Subject: Re: Scottish Ale >Mike Lelivelt asks how to differentiate between brown ale and scottish export. > >I'm not the expert here, but our local Scottish ale maven (Bill >Ridgely) has carefully instructed us that roast barley flavors are an >inseperable part of Scottish ales. That's pretty rare in regular brown >ales, I believe. Comments? Actually, just from personal experience (the finest kind, folks) the Scottish Ale style is a bit misdefined. It represents a style produced by few breweries here, and when it is produced, it isn't ordered in much volume. It shows up at beer festivals, but much more distinctive local independent brews have different flavours and characteristics. Even S&N (Scottish & Newcastle) has that high-gravity flavour that could be mistaken for roast. Also, after seeing their runoff from their mash tun, I wouldn't be surprised if it's mostly anthiocyanogen oxidation that gives it its colour. My two pence, I guess. :-) Any comments on this? Anybody in Scotland/England to verify this? Actually, anybody? BeeRich Malting, Brewing & Distilling Science Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh, Scotland e-mail: rich at beerich.demon.co.uk ------------------------------ End of JudgeNet Digest ************************