Pelican Gets Wee Heavy

From Darron Welch, head brewer at Pelican Brewery in Pacific City, Oregon:

“We are brewing the Wee Heavy today.  It is so intensely malty that we have had people coming in the front door asking if we are roasting pumpkins or something.  I guess lots of folks recognize those toasty and caramel aromas but can’t place them. This year’s Wee Heavy will be about 22 Plato.  We brew two batches of our
MacPelican’s Scottish with a little extra base malt in each, and a smaller hop bill.  We only collect about 12.5-13 barrel from each mash, and then do a two-hour boil to get down to about 10 barrels. The first batch had a great evaporation rate – 22% over two hours.  So that gives us plenty of extract to knock out and great color and flavor development in the kettle.  The second brew is going just as well, maybe even better, so I think good things are going to happen.  We just finished emptying the tun and the boil has begun. Todd (Campbell) is working the closing shift tonight, so he will be here until about 10 or 11 PM I think.  Wee Heavy is his favorite beer style in the world, so I know he will take most excellent care of it! Our initial yeast pitch was a bit lower than expected, but the beauty of double brewing this beer is that we can dose in more yeast while knocking
out the second batch and correct for it.  The first knockout is already fermenting, even though it is a little under-pitched, so I think we will do just fine. The beer specs so far are 21.9 Plato for the first knockout, and Todd will be targeting 22.1 for the second.  Planning for about 72% apparent attenuation to give us a beer with about 8.2% ABV when it is finished.  The hop bill is unmodified from prevous batches, and should give us about 24-25 IBU. Well, that’s all for now.  Gotta go trick or treating with the kids.”

Darron Welch
Head Brewer
Pelican Pub & Brewery