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xeerohour · 03-22-2011, 02:52 AM

Three months: from 10/24 to 1/24. I got good flavor from the cherries, a light hint of bourbon, but it could use a bit more oak (I just used a couple ounces of American chips). There's so much going on in that beer, the amount of bourbon and oak that were appropriate in other beers seems almost too little in this one.

Overall, I love this beer - the original and my clone. I just wish my clone had better mouthfeel and perhaps a bit more oak. Doesn't make it any less a solid beer.

saluki_brewer · 06-14-2011, 02:30 PM

How is this one after it's had awhile to age?

My parents always get a ton of delicious tart cherries off of their trees and the last couple years I have been incorporating them into a beer, so I think I would like to do a PM version of your recipe.

Do you have any idea of what type of extract would be good to supplement the grain on a beer like this? There is definitely enough info in this thread that I could figure something out using Beersmith, but advice from someone more experienced than myself is always helpful.

xeerohour · 06-19-2011, 04:29 AM

Unfortunately I've never brewed extract, so I really don't know.

I do plan on breaking out a bottle in the next week or so, I'll be sure to let you know how it's aging. It's been about a month since I last tried it.

theschick · 08-18-2011, 06:30 PM

xeerohour, any updates on how it's aged? This is still on my to-do list

xeerohour · 08-22-2011, 12:46 AM

Cracked open a bottle tonight, drinking it and watching some football.

It's just under 11 months old, and still is really solid. It's got a great cherry aroma, a lightness and tartness to the mouthfeel, and very very drinkable. It helps that it's bottle conditioned, and not bottled from the keg. It's also taken a while, but the carbonation level is where I want it, just a touch higher than a normal non-Belgian. it has ZERO head, though. Not sure why. Could be the glass.

Overall, I'm really pleased with the beer, and like it even better now. The oak has really faded, and it's actually a somewhat light beer, which is impressive for how strong it is. If I had to ever do it again, I think I'd oak age it a bit longer, and make sure I let it sit a nice long time before I call it ready. I'm really happy with it after the extra aging time.

jakesz28 · 03-31-2012, 02:25 PM

I'm going to be brewing this one soon. Glad I found this thread.

saluki_brewer · 05-29-2012, 11:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nateo

Quadruples are the hardest beer I've ever brewed, and the only beer I've tried to make that turned out undrinkable (twice).

A 1.115 OG with only 70% attenuation would be undrinkably sweet to me. That's an FG of like 1.035. For the style, you'll want an FG between 1.010 – 1.024, but I'd try to get it under 1.020.

Avery's Quad is 10%ABV, but their OG is only 1.093. From Boulevard's site, their OG is 21 and their FG is 2.6 Plato. That's about 1.087 for the OG and 1.010 for the FG. Those are pretty typical of commercial versions. Very high attenuation, which is hard by itself, and also a pretty high OG, which makes the yeast have to work harder.

To replicate those stats at home, that means a long mash, a cold mash (149F), a thin mash (2qt/#), and a very long boil. In my setup, that much mash liquor takes about 4 hours to boil down to my target volume.

You'll also want a big starter. Like 8 liters big. You really can't pitch too much.

http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

I'd scale the gravity way down from where you are, keep the sugars (corn or table, either works) at around 20% of the grist. Add the sugar when fermentation starts to lag to squeeze the most attenuation you can get out of it.

If you can get the candi syrup, use it. I wouldn't worry about SRM going too high. St. Bernardus 12 is like 37 SRM.

I'm attempting to make an extract version of this and am having trouble comprehending the part I've bolded. I double-checked with their website and your numbers are what they list, but they also say that it is 11.8% ABV. if you plug in the SG numbers they give, it comes out to about 10.5% ABV.

The way I understand this is that they add candi sugars during fermentation, so those aren't included in the OG. Does this sound right to you?

Anyway...I have been basing my Beersmith recipe on this assumption and here is what I have come up with so far. What do you think?

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 2.30 gal
Post Boil Volume: 2.08 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 4.75 gal
Estimated OG: 1.103 SG
Estimated Color: 36.1 SRM
Estimated IBU: 18.0 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 0.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
8.0 oz Caravienne Malt (22.0 SRM) Grain 1 3.4 %
8.0 oz Special B Malt (180.0 SRM) Grain 2 3.4 %
2 lbs 8.0 oz Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 3 17.1 %
6 lbs Liquid Gold Malt Extract (4.0 SRM) Extract 4 41.0 %
3 lbs 2.4 oz Wheat Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract 5 21.5 %
1 lbs Candi Sugar, Amber (75.0 SRM) Sugar 6 6.8 %
1 lbs Candi Sugar, Dark (275.0 SRM) Sugar 7 6.8 %
1.50 oz Magnum [14.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 8 16.7 IBUs
1.00 oz Hallertauer [4.80 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 9 1.4 IBUs
4.00 oz Oak Chips (Secondary 7.0 days) Flavor 10 -

Nateo · 05-29-2012, 11:31 PM

I wouldn't get too hung up on the numbers. If anything, I'd shoot a little low, like 10% ABV including all of your sugars should be fine. I don't think aiming for 11.8% ABV is necessary for the beer to turn out well.

Ditch the candy sugar. You really need to be using syrup, like D2. You'd be fine using some amount of corn sugar, table sugar, or turbinado sugar too.

4oz of oak chips is a lot. I'd cut that in half, and at least double the contact time, but I'd go a month or so if you can.

saluki_brewer · 05-30-2012, 03:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nateo

I wouldn't get too hung up on the numbers. If anything, I'd shoot a little low, like 10% ABV including all of your sugars should be fine. I don't think aiming for 11.8% ABV is necessary for the beer to turn out well.

Ditch the candy sugar. You really need to be using syrup, like D2. You'd be fine using some amount of corn sugar, table sugar, or turbinado sugar too.

4oz of oak chips is a lot. I'd cut that in half, and at least double the contact time, but I'd go a month or so if you can.

That makes sense. I will probably go with some closer to what you did, especially since this is my first really big beer. I actually planned on using dark candi sugar in the boil and syrup in the fermenter (I just used Amber sugar for the purposes of calculations since it was already in the Beersmith library and had similar properties to the syrup I picked out). Is there a reason that you prefer the syrup over the candi sugar?

Thanks for the advice on the oak chips as well. I hadn't really thought out the details of my secondary with the oak/cherries yet.

Nateo · 05-30-2012, 11:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by saluki_brewer

Is there a reason that you prefer the syrup over the candi sugar?

The best thing to do is to chew on some, and taste the syrup, then decide for yourself.

IMO the rock candy sugar is worse than turbinado, flavor-wise. It's just really bland and boring tasting, but also expensive. You're better off using turbinado if you want some character, or just plain sugar if you don't want any sugar character.