Scottish Ale and CCLAMS

Today's blot post is totally homebrewing related.  A couple of things happening this week.  Firstly racked a Scottish Ale to the secondary carboy on Tuesday.  I guess you'd call it a 80 or 90 Schilling Scottish Ale.  It's just a notch below what would be consider the heavier Scotch Ale (as opposed to Scottish Ale).  I used:

10lbs of Simpson's Golden Promise Barley malt (a Barley variety grown in Scotland)
2 ounces of Roasted Barley to give it a little color
Fuggles hops - 1 oz at 60 minute and 1 oz at 30 minutes
Wyeast Scottish Ale yeast.

Simple yet tastes good and has a nice somewhat sweet malty flavor to it with a hint of peat character.

Should be ready to pop in the kegerator in about 2-3 weeks.

On a more interesting note, I finally attended the local homebrew club's montly meeting for the first time last night.  The club is called CCLAMS (Cape Cod Lager and Ale Makers).  The word Brewer would have been better but CCLAMS sounds more Cape Coddish than CCLABS so there it is.

I wasn't really sure what to expect out of it.  I was pleasantly surprised.  I figured it would be a small crowd of maybe 10 people max and kind of quiet discussion type of gather.  I was wrong,  It was more like 25 and it was a really good time.  The meetings are held on the shop floor of the Cape Cod Beer brewery.  I think this makes an ideal setting for homebrew club meetings.  Let's face nothing gets you into the mood like having big 30 barrel fermentors in the background. 

I give major kudos to the owners of Cape Cod Beer for letting a local homebrew club use it's facility for their meetings.  First of all it is pretty damn good foresight to realize these people are not just homebrewers they are some of your best and most loyal customers.  Secondly it's just a really cool thing to do. 

So basically it was just a good sized group of local Cape Codders and a couple of people from Plymouth just hanging around swapping home brews, talking beer, having some dinner, and tasting samples that people brought.  Some of the beers were really good.  There were quite a few brewers there that have been doing longer than I have and all grain brew and keg their beers like me.  It was a good mix.  Young and old and in between.  Veteran brewers, new brewers, and even a new guy that has yet to brew a batch.  In addition to the monthly hangout at the brewery they do occasional competitions and brew days as well.  I look forward to going in February.  Well I can't miss it since I volunteered to help provide dinner (what a maroon I am!).