Highland Brewing Company is one of the oldest breweries in North Carolina that is still brewing beer. Founded in 1994, the brewery used mostly retrofitted dairy equipment. Today, Highland Brewing Co is very popular and is distributed throughout Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.
Their flagship beer is the Gaelic Ale. According to a December 2002 Brew Your Own Magazine article,
“Gaelic Ale is a crossbreed of Scottish ale and American amber. It has the higher original gravity and intense maltiness of a Scottish ale, but the higher hop bittering level of a typical American amber. The yeast ferments to a low final gravity to bring the malt flavor into balance. Briess malts and American hops make this beer truly American.”
The below extract recipe is from the same BYO Magazine article back in 2002. You can convert this recipe to all-grain (instructions below), and in addition, I have located another all-grain recipe as well.
5 Gallon Extract Recipe
Original Gravity 1.056 (1.052 to 1.060)
Final Gravity 1.013 (1.010 to 1.016)
Mash Efficiency 75%
Bitterness 30-32 IBU
Alcohol 5.6% ABV
Grain
3.3 lbs light liquid malt extract
2 lbs light dry malt extract
1.5 lbs Munich malt (10L)
0.5 lb crystal 60L
1 lb crystal 40L
0.25 lb Briess Extra Special malt (or substitute Special B)
Hops
8 AAU Chinook bittering hops (0.75 oz of 12.0% alpha)
2.5 AAU Willamette aroma hops (0.5 oz of 5.0% alpha)
2.9 AAU Cascade aroma hops (0.5 oz of 5.8% alpha)
Adjuncts
1 tsp Irish moss (15 mins)
0.75 cups corn sugar (priming)
Yeast
White Labs WLP001 California Ale -or- Wyeast 1056 American Ale
Instructions
Steep the specialty grain in 3 gallons of water at 150F for 30 minutes.
Remove grain from the wort
Add LME and DME and bring to a boil.
Add Chinook hops and boil for 60 minutes
Add Irish moss for final 15 minutes of the boil
Add Willamette and Cascade hops at end of boil and steep for 2 minutes
Strain out the hops and add wort to two gallons of cool water in a sanitary fermenter
Top off with cool water to 5.5 gallons and cool the wort to 64-66F
Aerate the beer and pitch the yeast
All-grain
Replace the LME and DME with 6 lbs Briess pale malt and increase the Munich malt to 2.75 lbs. Mash all grains at 150F for 60 min. Collect enough wort to boil for 90 min and have a 5.5 gal yield. Lower the amount of the Chinook bittering hops to 0.6 oz to account for higher alpha acid extraction of a full boil.
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5 Gallon All-Grain Recipe (Alternate)
Total Grain (Lbs): 10.75
Anticipated OG: 1.054
Color (SRM): 13.9
Anticipated IBU: 31.3
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75 %
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes
Single Infusion Mash @ 153° for 60 minutes
Grain
Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.
| % | LB | OZ | Malt or Fermentable | Potential | SRM | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 55.8% | 6 | 0 | Pale Malt (2-row) UK | 1.038 | 3 | |
| 27.9% | 3 | 0 | Munich Malt (Germany) | 1.037 | 8 | |
| 9.3% | 1 | 0 | Crystal 40L | 1.034 | 40 | |
| 4.7% | 0 | 8 | Crystal 60L | 1.034 | 60 | |
| 2.3% | 0 | 4 | Special B Malt | 1.030 | 120 |
Hops
| Use | Time | OZ | Variety | Form | AA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| boil | 60 mins | 0.5 | Chinook | Whole | 13.0 |
| aroma | 5 mins | 0.75 | Willamette | Whole | 5.0 |
| aroma | 5 mins | 0.75 | Cascade | Whole | 5.75 |
Yeast
White Labs WLP001 California Ale -or- Wyeast 1056 American Ale
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I have not done either of the all-grain recipes, but I did brew the extract recipe a year or so ago and it turned out quite well. I don’t remember doing a side-by-side taste test, but I do remember being quite pleased with the outcome. Again, if you brew any of these recipes, please let us know how it goes and if it is accurate!
Hi Chris,
Just a quick note to tell you that your recipe for HGA has become my “go to” session beer. I’ve brewed this recipe 4 times (3 of them all grain) and it’s pretty much perfect. I will add that the last two attempts I’ve dry hopped with .5 oz of Willamette for a little extra “somethin somethin” before kegging and both batches have turned out terrific. Thanks for the great recipe!
Thanks Ethan! I’m glad it turned out well for you. I haven’t brewed this one in a while, so I might just have to add it into the pipeline again soon – thanks for the reminder!
I have made several Gaelic clones and my last one turned out extremely well. I cannot do a side by side test since I have 1,000 miles away. Basically what you see above was my last attempt and it turned out great. I will be using the AG recipe above but using American Ale II since it is all that I have on hand.
Good work!