Merida Scottish Light Ale (Batch 369)

2025 is flying by, isn't it?

As I mentioned a few times recently, I'm not going to brew very many (if any) "Seasonals" this year, concentrating instead on the BJCP Goal.

I'd really like to mark off several BJCP Styles that I've never brewed.

Of course, who knows how well I'll follow-up on this plan. It is very possible that I'll get caught up with something else. But, follow along on this blog, and you'll find out.

At the same time I bought ingredients for the Tasman Devil Pilsner (batch 368), I bought ingredients for another brew ....

If you read Roll-a-Style 8: 14A. Scottish Light Ale, you probably know what beer that is ...

Merida Scottish Light Ale

I had some harvested Irish Ale yeast from Pack o' Hooligans Stout, which was around 2 months old. On Saturday, I made a starter with this yeast to get it ready for this batch of beer.

I also filled my Anvil Foundry with water to have it ready when I got up Sunday morning.

This weekend was pretty cold here in the Denver area, so I brewed in my garage Sunday.

I was up around 6am, which isn't real early for me, but sort of typical for my Sunday brew days now.

My typical routine on most of my Sunday brews now is to get the mash done by the time it is time for my wife and I to leave for church, setting the Foundry to heat up while we're gone to just under boiling.

And, this is what I did again Sunday.

When we got back from church, the wort was actually bubbling at a simmer already, and my pre-boil gravity / volume was pretty close to planned.

The boil went as planned.

I was chilling about an hour later and with the really cold temperatures, I was able to get the wort into the fermenter around 5 minutes after the boil was done.

Then, I stored the fermenter in the garage while I went on a snowy bike ride.

I was able to pitch in the lower 60's / upper 50's.

The yeast was working sometime overnight and rocking the next day.

I'm planning on this being a shorter than usual fermentation, so I should be drinking this in early February.

I'm planning on harvesting this yeast again for another "Roll-a-Style" beer coming up soon.

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