Wee Bonnie Lass

A while back my wife Bonnie tried her hand at her own batch of BIG IPL.  She had a good time doing it but lacked the amount of time to do it fully herself.  A month or so ago she came to me with the Northern Brewer catalog and told me she had decided what he next beer would be - Dundalk Irish Heavy - she even had the prefect name for it Wee Bonnie Lass (I think that's more Scottish that Irish but then again, so is the beer)

From the catalog - 

The inspiration for this deep garnet ale was actually called a barley wine, even though it weighed in at quite a bit less than you’d expect for a beer of that name. That’s “weighed” in the past tense because the powers that be gobbled up a small brewery in Kilkenny, moved this beer to Dundalk, and then did away with it altogether. Nice work, European corporate brewing industry. Looks like it’s up to us again, homebrewers. 

Nomenclature aside, think of Dundalk Heavy as an overgrown Irish session ale: the color of old mahogany, rounded and full in the mouth easing into an off-dry and slightly biscuity finish. Throughout you will find overtones of butter toffee, juicy malt, and tree fruit with glimmerings of ruby port, earth, and ground coffee. Raise a pint or four to brewing your own and keeping the dream alive: Slainte! 

Time was going to be tight to get it on draft by St Patricks day so she needed to brew it soon. It was pretty straight forward for me to convert the recipe from liquid extract to dry extract so that she could brew it with ingredients from the shop. 

The brewday went well and Bonnie had a great time. I should note that all of the pictures are ones she took during the process. I also mostly stayed in the background doing miscellaneous chores having brewed Westbennetteren 12 b2 myself earlier that day. 

Cheers

-SNB

Wee Bonnie Lass 

Some Crazy Irish Beer

Type: Extract 

Date: 2/17/2013 

Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal 

Brewer: Bonnie Bennett 

Boil Size: 6.00 gal 

Boil Time: 60 min 

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.062 SG 

Measured Original Gravity: 1.072 SG 

Est Final Gravity: 1.015 SG 

Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 7.2 % 

Bitterness: 49.8 IBUs 

Est Color: 13.7 SRM  

Ingredients

0.50 lb Carared (20.0 SRM) 

0.25 lb Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM)

6.00 lb Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) 

1.00 lb Corn Sugar (Boil 15.0 mins) 

0.75 oz Summit [17.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min 

1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) 

1.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 15.0 mins) 

1.00 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min 

1.0 pkg English Ale (White Labs #WLP002) 

Pictures