Gigantic Mecha Red

Mill the grains and mash at 153°F (67°C) for 40 minutes. Recirculate until your runnings are clear—about 20 minutes—then run off into the kettle. Sparge and top up as necessary to get about 6 gallons (23 liters) of wort, depending on your evaporation rate.

Boil for 90 minutes, adding hops according to the schedule. After the boil, chill the wort to about 73°F (23°C), aerate the wort, and pitch the yeast.

Ferment at 73°F (23°C) to encourage ester development. Wort should fully attenuate in 3 to 4 days. Once fermentation is complete and the beer has cleared diacetyl testing, cool to 50°F (10°C). Two days later, rack off the yeast and crash to 33°F (1°C). Condition 5–7 days before clarifying. Package and carbonate to about 2.35 volumes of CO2.

You must use a Scottish Ale Yeast.

Water: We never do any water chemistry at Gigantic. Our water here in Portland is very soft, and we make it work for all our beers. Every brewer everywhere can buy the same malt, hops, and yeast as you, but they can’t get your water unless they live in the same neighborhood. You want a sense of place in your beer? Brew with your water, not against it. Ignore all the books. Accept the beer you can make with your own water if you want any kind of regionality, terroir, sense of place, whatever you want to call it. If everyone made the same beer, what would be the point? Just my opinion.

Hop it up: Want to make this more of a traditional Pacific Northwest amber ale? Double the bittering addition of hops. That middle hop addition won’t be as important—you can kind of do as you please there—different hop, more of it, whatever. Change out the Crystal for a more aggressively citrusy or piney hop such as Centennial, Simcoe, Amarillo, or Citra, and double that, too.