Isle of Sky Red Clone

[shazapple]

I visited Scotland in 2011 and had a beer called Isle of Skye Red Cuillin. I can't remember exact details but I think about it every once and a while so it must of been pretty good! I found some info about it and fiddled around with an online beer recipe calculator to get the following:

68% (6.5 lb) Marris Otter
12% (1.2 lb) Crystal 30 Malt
10% (1 lb) Munich Malt
5% (8 oz) Melanoidin
3% (5 oz) Smoked Malt
2% (3 oz) Oats, flaked
1 oz Fuggles @ First Wort Hops
0.5 oz Fuggles, 15 minutes remaining
WY1728 - Scottish Ale

Mash at 154°F for 60 minutes
Boil for 60 minutes

Estimates:
Original-Final Gravity: 1.048 - 1.014
ABV: 4.5%
IBU: 15
SRM: 9.8

I am going for a lighter copper colour on this one. I wont be brewing this until the new year so I am open to suggestions!

[robcoombs]

The details on their site mentions some roasted malt. Likely a very small %, but you may want to add something non astringent like carafa special or midnight wheat. It only mentions pale, crystal and roast so I'm not sure you need any others if you're truly trying to clone this beer. Smoked malt is common is scotch ales and wee heavy but not in reds. I'm not a huge fan of crystal (just my preferences) I like it to be in a supporting role and 12% is a fair amount. But at least you're just using crystal 30.

It also mentions that it is a dry finishing beer, if you want that you'll have to mash lower, in the range of 150F. If you want to retain or increase mouthfeel double up the flaked oats.

That's my two cents. I am by no means an expert on malt forward scottish ales so someone else may want to chime in. But that's the changes I would make based on the beer details online.

[shazapple]

Maybe I should have called this "Memories of Isle of Skye" since there won't be much chance of me being able to compare.

I'm totally on board for more flaked oats! Maybe using Victory instead of Melanoidin as it seems to have more of a biscuit/toasted flavour.

[shazapple]

I finally brewed this on the weekend. I double up the oats, and dropped the smoked malt in favour of Amber (partly for that a biscuity flavour and partly because Noble Grape didn't have any). The crystal 30 went up because I had 1.5lb of it around, but next time I'll reduce it in favour of others, depending how this batch turns out.

6.5 lb Maris Otter
1.5 lb Crystal 30L
1.0 lb Munich
0.5 lb Melanoidin
0.5 lb Amber
6 oz   Flaked Oats

Mash @ 150

1.0 oz Fuggles @ 60 min
0.5 oz Fuggles @ 15 min
WY1728 - Scottish Ale

Boiled a bit long so I ended up with 1.050. Might up the mash temp a bit next time to get a bit more body.

[shazapple]

I've had this on tap for a week now and it's pretty solid, but needs some improvements. It needs more "biscuitiness" and mouth feel. I'd also mash higher next time.