First High Gravity High Hop Beer

Hey all. Long time lurker, first time poster.

I trust some of these proven megathreads like a textbook. So cheers to that

I'm doing my first high malt, high alcohol, high hop beer tomorrow. Gonna clone Avery's Maharaja. If anyone could stick around and point out any errors in my planning, that would be awesome.

It's all grain

I'm using this recipe: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/can-you-brew-recipe-avery-maharaja-242812/

Except that I'm replacing the DME with 1.67 as much 2 row.

I'm using pellet hops.

I'm not going into secondary. I think it just causes problems.

It won't be filtered. It will be bottle conditioned.

I will pitch two smack packs of yeast into 2 L of 1.036 starting wort. According to: http://www.brewersfriend.com/yeast-pitch-rate-and-starter-calculator/

I'll aerate the wort by pouring the cooled wort through a cone sieve, along with shaking the fermenting bucket.

Now some questions.

I'm assuming I'm gonna need a blow off tube system. Is this correct?

As for the DH. I was thinking that I would add the hops into the primary as I first cap it. Wait 14 days. Then move the beer to bottles. Is this an OK strategy?

Is 6 gal too much? Will the hops really soak up that much? I was thinking 5.5.

What are some of the issued that only beers this monstrous pose?

You will certainly need a blow off tube, that puppy should take off.

You don't want to add the dry hops at all during primary. The amount of off-gassing during primary will defeat the purpose of dry hopping. Wait until primary fermentation is complete, then add the dry hops. You'll have to wait a bit longer before bottling, but it will be worth it.

The amount is up to you, but I would think between that amount of boil hops and debris from the grain, you'll probably lose about half a gallon of volume following the boil.

The main issue with a beer this big is that it will probably take a while to bottle condition (edit: i.e. carbonate). I'm talking a few months.

The wait is fine with me. If I lift the lid off of primary in order to dry hop, won't I release the CO2 layer covering the beer and expose it to oxygen?

As long as you don't have the lid off for an unnecessary amount of time, and you aren't removing it multiple times, you will be fine. There will still be a degree of off-gassing during secondary fermentation, so the CO2 blanket will be maintained.

smiller said:

As long as you don't have the lid off for an unnecessary amount of time, and you aren't removing it multiple times, you will be fine. There will still be a degree of off-gassing during secondary fermentation, so the CO2 blanket will be maintained.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the tips. The brew went pretty well.

My mash efficiency was lower than normal, but I just switched from a cylindrical cooler to a rectangular one. So, I'll work out the kinks in the near future.

Just added the hops two days ago. Tested for gravity and taste. She's gonna be a big beer!

Glad everything went well!

TheHairyHop said:

Thanks for the tips. The brew went pretty well.

My mash efficiency was lower than normal, but I just switched from a cylindrical cooler to a rectangular one. So, I'll work out the kinks in the near future.

Just added the hops two days ago. Tested for gravity and taste. She's gonna be a big beer!

Click to expand...

Glad it went well.

Bigger grain bills usually end up getting me less efficiency as well.