Attempting 40%+ ABV beer... "Barley Brandy"

Brewer's Friend 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I'll take some more yeast pron pics when I get home. I will probably wait at least a couple days before taking a gravity.

I did pick up some more 099 today so I'm make a gallon starter tonight and try to double it up over the weekend.

I am hoping to feed the first batch with the 099, oxygen and lowered gravity wort from the second batch early next week. (and I leave for the NHC on weds morning)
 
I forgot about that Fermcap but then again I don't have much use for it right now anyways. Tell ya what, keep it and get me a tube of 099 next time you head to the Homebrew Emporium. My Awesomeness could use some fizz.
 
Update on the yeasties and a breakdown of all of the numbers:

I had to open up Excel and lay it all out. I know my FG it is not going to be EXACT but doing a few back-of-the-envelope calcs... here is what I came out with:

7 total gallons with an OG of 1.200

Batch 1:
- 4 gallons of OG 1.126
- Pitched US-05 cake from 10 gallon of 1090 IPA
- Seven days later, gravity was 1.019
- Racked to large starter of 099
- Added 1 lb of maple syrup adding 7 gravity pts so gravity was raised to 1.026

Batch 2:
- 3.75 gallons of 1.260

Once batch 2 was done, I dumped out .25 gallons of Batch 1 so I would have equal amounts. I am estimating 1200 OG on the entire batch based on 3.75 gallons of 1260 and 3.75 gallons of 1133 (1126 plus 7 for the maple syrup) and then I have one more lb of maple syrup to add... so... 1200 in my book.

Once I had the two amounts equal in volume, I took 1 gallon from each and added it to the other.

This is what I then come out with in terms of "OGs post first blending"

Batch 1: OG 1.088
Batch 2: OG 1.198

I ended up not pitching yeast into Batch 2 until Thursday night. I realized late Weds night, after the B's game that I wasn't about to run that 1260 through my plate chiller so I water/ice bathed it (old school) and got it down a bit but wasn't hitting pitching temps that night so I said eff it, capped it and went to bed. It'll be fine.

So I pitched Thursday night when I got home work (when I took the pics)

I just took gravities because I couldn't resist.

Batch 1: 1.052
- 099 is steadily chopping it down. It is actually a little slower than I thought. I thought the 099 would go crazy. NOT worried. I did another 099 starter tonight and will probably pitch that Monday or Tuesday night.

Batch 2: 1.136
- Massive US-05 cake is chompin' like mad. You figure from basically 1200 down to 1136 in a little over two days?? Seems like a pretty strong clip.

Like I said at the top... the math isn't dead on exact but if you do some simple calcs, that gives you a current gravity of about 1.094 on the entire batch and again... the bulk of it has only been on the US-05 for two days.
 
How far are you going to let it finish out? 1.025? It would be my estimation that 1.020 is attainable with your O2 stone, but some residual sweetness would probably be a welcome characteristic in a 45% beer. I've never had Tactical Nuclear Penguin or STB, but i've heard they are cloyingly sweet to counteract some of the massive alcohol burn.

I suppose you could back sweeten, but that would be very easy to overdo... I realize you said that you just want it drinkable right now, but it seems like such a waste to not have an awesome batch after hitting a mythological number like 1.260...

Best of luck on this! Even if it sucks, I will gladly trade some of my cellared rare commercial brews for a small bottle.
 
I'm kind of taking a wait-and-see approach. If I actually get it down that dry, then I'll start really thinking about which way I want to go. Right now, I'm just concerned with getting it down from where it is. I would be pretty shocked if it tried getting down below 1025ish but if it does, I'll have to taste it and see.

... and I'm not sure 1260 really should be all that special. I was saying this earlier... the really obnoxiously high OGs are not, in anyway, any more difficult to make than a normal every day 1.050 pale. You just have to boil longer. That's all there is to it.

OK, I take that back, you have to take an occasional gravity so you know here you are. But other than THAT, the only extra work is a longer boil.

Oh, and sure... would love to do a limited amount of trading. Only issue is this "beer" won't be done for a couple of years. I'm planning on aging this for quite a while and depending on how it tastes will dictate exactly how I do it.
 
I got in last night a little after midnight from the NHC, went to work this morning, got home about twelve minutes ago. It is absolutely on my to-do list for tonight but I gotta at least unpack and say hello to my young sons for a bit
 
I know this is a little nit picky but....what was the gravity of that US05 yeast slurry ( I think you said 1.090) that you dumped in there. I figure when taking dilution into account if it was a 1.090 gravity beer than you would have to figure on your 1.200 beer actually being a bit north of 1.180. I was just thinking about that as I read this thread because of some of my prior big beers and me figuring in some high krausen yeast additions causing dilution. At the volumes you're dealing with .75gal of 1.090 wort is a significant hit to your gravity.

Also AJ deLange here on the board did a test on themadfermentationist.com. If you read through the write up link you can see that the freeze distillation he did resulted in a two fold increase of gravity and less than 2 fold increase in alcohol.

I'm watching this with extreme interest to see if you can accomplish what you want.
 
I had two initial batches. One was a batch of 1130 and one was 1260. The 1130 fermented down to 1019 and that is when I dumped about half of one gallon of the now-1019 and started blending them.

The 1090 was a 10 gallon starter i had done for the US-05.

Batch one that is currently on a 099 cake is down to 1048 and the monster that is just sitting on US-05 is at 1124.

This is where it is going to be off a bit for a while because I have done one small "feeding" from batch 2 into 1 and batch 1, currently at 1048, is now holding four gallons and the monster is down to about 3.5 gallons.

So... Back of the envelope... Say the total is only down to about 1.083

I am not at all worried yet because just under half of the entire batch hasnt been touched by the 099.

Not that I am back from the NHC, I am going to begin 099, nutrients and oxygen feedings pretty regularly. We'll see
 
Ah! Sorry... I read your post too quick and I see what you are saying about the dilution.

IF... Still a big if... IF i can grt this al to actually work, when it is all said and done I am going to send a sample off to White Labs and have them tell me the exact ABV.

Then again... If I can light a shot of it on fire, I'll be north of 40% as a quick check
 
motobrewer said:
good. freaking. god.
Click to expand...

That guys either single or has a geeky wife with coke bottle glasses who's insect collection takes up every wall in the house...
 
ComcastWineRookie said:
lol...naw, he just makes good beer...
Click to expand...

Yeah but what women tolerates that kind of brewing proliferation? I mean mines as cool as it gets, but my brewing is limited to 500 sq feet and that it. That guys running a beer laboratory. And yes, im sure his beer does rock.
 
That was a very inspiring link above! TFP
I think he could have done with a little less digital; I'm tending towards analogue, and am getting my pycnometer UPS tomorrow.
The lab glass distillation rig looks very interesting, and probably not too pricey if one scrounges around. Stay tooned...
 
lol! i love in your thread that you ask for opinions on a specific piece of equipment, then link to wiki as to what that equipment does.
 
I was curious about the pycnometer after my dentist told me he used to work for Schlitz in their lab and used them for accurate percent alcohol readings in the early 1980's--analogue.
I started that thread knowing full well that I would either make or buy one. I since found a source for them, and will share what I find in the other thread when it arrives with pictures and calculations.

I think it might come in handy for Cape, and am offering my services free of charge in trade for 50ml samples...
 
I'm pretty sure that I'd need samples or at least accurate OG, volumes, and all additions calculated in to do it right. I'm going to make it a regular test for my future brews, if only for learning new equipment and apparatus.
I think a lot of us do this hobby for science/engineering practice--the beer is the reward.
 
Im sorry if this has been posted already as i haven't read through all 353 post but there is a commerical beer available at 41% Sink The Bismark and there is a little info about their process on the web site.
 
pm5k00 said:
Im sorry if this has been posted already as i haven't read through all 353 post but there is a commerical beer available at 41% Sink The Bismark and there is a little info about their process on the web site.
Click to expand...

I believe they froze 4 times, and at one time this beer was the strongest in the world (beat the previous record of 36%). I wanted to try it when it came out but never got a chance.
 
Bismark was their second big beer. First was Tactical Nuclear Penguin, the Sink the Bismark and the last one, End of History, currently holds the record for highest ABV at about 55%
 
motobrewer said:
a woman with a lot of pairs of shoes.
Click to expand...

If she has a counter-interest I haven't seen it, just a very sweet woman who puts up with her husband's passion.

The whole operation is held in an addition to the house, brewery on the first floor, lab on the second. He's also an avid BBQ'er and has two of the biggest dogs (Leonbergers) I've ever seen.
 
I buddy of mine and I are sitting on a Tactical Nuclear Penguin and a Sink the Bismark. Has anybody tried either one of them?

They certainly cost enough.
 
Cape Brewing said:
Bismark was their second big beer. First was Tactical Nuclear Penguin, the Sink the Bismark and the last one, End of History, currently holds the record for highest ABV at about 55%
Click to expand...

Shortly after the release of End of History, a Dutch brewery released a 60% ABV beer called Start the Future which sold for a fraction of the price and wasn't shoved up a rodent's arse.
 
But I liked the whole rodent arse thing. It was just the thing to piss off the PETA crowd.

And talk about an attractive koozy.
 

Similar threads

Clint Yeastwood
Flavorful Beer for Women?
Replies
39
Views
2K
PashMaddle
PashMaddle
L
Yeast Suggestion for this Red Ale Clone Recipe
Replies
9
Views
725
beren
beren
Clint Yeastwood
My Undrinkable Beer Got Better
Replies
24
Views
2K
corkybstewart
corkybstewart
orgenomescii
Brewing like a Barbarian: Ancient Irish Descriptions of Malting & Brewing
Replies
2
Views
1K
McMullan
McMullan
Broken Crow
How do other actual brewers feel about 'Beer Flights'?
2 3
Replies
81
Views
4K
pvtpublic
pvtpublic

Latest posts

Back
Top