Description:

I tried to make a Scotch Ale six weeks ago or so, and I've just opened the first couple of bottles. I used about 1/4 pound of "Mexican" brown sugar in the five gallon batch. Mexican brown sugar seems to be highly unrefined, and has an absolutely delightful molasses taste to it.

Now that the yeast is firmly on the bottom of the bottles, I can tell that there is very little molasses on the nose, and just a faint aftertaste. Just for fun the other day, I went out and bought some MacAndrews and McEwain's Scotch ale to compare. Since I like the MacAndrews better, I'll talk about IT. The first thing I noticed was a strong malt/caramel nose and flavor. We're talking strength like drugstore candy. More caramel than malt, I think. Tasty. My attempt doesn't come close. MacAndrews has more hop bitterness than mine does, but with all that caramel it probably needs it. The color, body, gravity, head, and the rest are fine in the beer I made -- what's missing is the caramel flavor.

Ingredients:

• 5# 2-row
• 4# Cara-Vienne
• 1# Cara-Munich
• 1/4# Mexican Brown Sugar
• 7 HBU Kent Goldings bitter
• Wyeast 1098

Procedure:

Source: Tom Leith