scottland
Well-Known Member
Ya, I don't really plan on buying one. $31 is too close in cost to the $50 for an oxygen regulator and wand that I couldn't justify.
DFH 120 minute clone
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Ya, I don't really plan on buying one. $31 is too close in cost to the $50 for an oxygen regulator and wand that I couldn't justify.
bottlebomber
Well-Known Member
Holy crap. Epic results
shafferpilot
Well-Known Member
we're all so proud!
bottlebomber
Well-Known Member
Rivenin said:You should send me a bottle... just so I can say what it tastes like in Portland
Yeah don't forget your buddies that believed in you every step of the way. That never lost faith even when you burned your first batch
lastsecondapex
Well-Known Member
scottland said:
Well done! Will you be up for any bottle trades?
scottland
Well-Known Member
Well tonight was exciting, the final sugar addition went in. I can't tell you all how excited I am to no longer have to tend to this beer daily.
Gravity at 1.025 tonight. Added the final 6oz of dextrose. I'll let the yeast ferment however much they ferment, I'm done adding sugar. Hopefully it doesn't dip below 1.020, I think that'll be too dry.
OG: 1.182, SG: 1.028, ABV: 20.2%
Gravity at 1.025 tonight. Added the final 6oz of dextrose. I'll let the yeast ferment however much they ferment, I'm done adding sugar. Hopefully it doesn't dip below 1.020, I think that'll be too dry.
OG: 1.182, SG: 1.028, ABV: 20.2%
Jebu1788
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Go man, go! You are an inspiration to us all. I await with eager anticipation for the results... Really. You rock.
scottland
Well-Known Member
Thanks for all the nice words guys. I'd really like to say, while this beer is a lot of work, it's pretty easy if you can pay attention to detail. And while I've only tasted hydro samples at this point, there's still a pretty big sense of accomplishment for pulling this beer off.
LakewoodHomeBrew
Well-Known Member
Great job, man!
shafferpilot
Well-Known Member
Woah... sure you wanna do that so soon? I'd just keep monitoring it if i were you...
Took it pretty high! I left mine for a couple weeks after finishing the sugar and just added hops, are you doing the full dry hop plan or did you plan something different?
Grats on passing 20, thats tough man, you really had a great batch of yeast fueled with excellent starters.
I can't wait to trade, yours just may be 10 drier than mine if they are still eating, it's going to be quite the enjoyable brew.
Grats on passing 20, thats tough man, you really had a great batch of yeast fueled with excellent starters.
I can't wait to trade, yours just may be 10 drier than mine if they are still eating, it's going to be quite the enjoyable brew.
bottlebomber
Well-Known Member
Don't take it off the yeast! "Dead" yeast becomes yeast nutrient for hungry critters! It needs to resolve all the crazy by-products of the crazy fermentation
bovineblitz
Well-Known Member
There's an oxford 10-100ul for $50 right now. Might want to get it calibrated since it's used, I'm not sure how to get just one pipette serviced though.
lastsecondapex
Well-Known Member
Nice. Needs more sugar, consequently more alcohol!
scottland
Well-Known Member
Gravity finally settled. 1.021 from 1.182 bringing the final ABV to 21.1% It definitely tastes a little hot, but it's surprisingly not as bad as i figured it would be this young. The sweetness is definitely balanced by the extra bitterness, I'm very glad I hopped this as much as I did.
I'll leave it another week in the primary before I rack to the secondary. I'll leave it there for 2-3 weeks, then start dry hoping for 3 weeks, then off to the keg.
I'll leave it another week in the primary before I rack to the secondary. I'll leave it there for 2-3 weeks, then start dry hoping for 3 weeks, then off to the keg.
lastsecondapex
Well-Known Member
Wow, nice... If you want to trade a 12 ozer for either my monster vanilla bean, barrel-aged imperial chocolate stout (14.5% ABV) or my 500 IBU IIPA (9.3% ABV), let me know!
scottland
Well-Known Member
I'm thinking three months before I bottle it, then I'll probably drink it over thennext few years
Good luck!
I thought the same yet damn if I didn't hammer through my stash. True story, I was at a buddies house last Saturday watching boxing and while grabbing a beer, I noticed I had actually left a 120 at his house a long time ago and it's just been chilling in his beer fridge so that puts me back up to 3! My forgetfulness came as no surprise as this was from another 120 tasting night, my other friend has appropriately dubbed the 120 clone, "the roofie".
1 left for drinking leisurely
1 left for trading
1 left for the 1 year anniversary since I brewed 120, when we again brew 120
I tell you what, with no doubt I'm going to pony up the dough next round and brew a decent amount so it will stick around for a while. TOO MUCH WORK for only a couple gallons.
Excited for you man :rockin:
scottland
Well-Known Member
Ya, if I had a way to temp control 10 gallons while fermenting, i would have definitely made a 10 gallon batch. Sadly i only have room for a mini fridge in my condo garage, and that mini fridge only holds one 5gal fermenter.
10 would be awesome, I can only do 5 max myself though. Can't lie , this beer moves itself along provided you take care of it like you're supposed to but the grain and hop cost on a 10 gallon batch would make me nervous, that's a very expensive "oops, I botched this".
And a lot of people will tend to buy a few and age them.
Worth noting is that beer ages faster in bulk. So with their kinds of volumes, I'd say 3 months is plenty.
scottland
Well-Known Member
So while the beer isn't done yet, I definetly learned a few things during the course of this beer. I'll try to consolidate some of the thoughts for anyone else that wants to clone this.
A. Use more hops than the Homebrewchef recipe calls for. Trust me. From tasting my samples, I still wish i could have gotten more IBUs into this beer, enough though I'm not sure it's possible. Just trust me, there's no amount of IBUs that will balance 21% alcohol and 1.170+ OG. Just use a lot of hops.
B. Pitch WAY more yeast than the Homebrewchef does. He said he used 2500ml starters for a 10 gallon batch of each 1056 and WLP099. Those are tiny starters. I used a 6000ml starter of WLP007 and a 4000ml starter of WLP099 for a 5 gallon batch. Basically I used 4-5 times as much yeast as Paxton did, and I think my high attenuation had a lot to do with this. Also use lots of yeast nutrient and yeast energizer. If you don't use the olive oil method I did, use PLENTY of oxygen. Oxygen in your starters, oxygen in the wort after brewing, and oxygen for the first few days it's fermenting. You may want to ferment on the cool side for the first few days, as a 5-6 Liter starter will rip right through 1.100 gravity wort. I fermented at 64, and probably could have gone colder. Just make sure to warm it up to the mid-high 60s when you pitch the WLP099 and the sugar additions.
C. Sugar additions. I found that I could double the sugar additions twice a day. So rather than 6oz of dextrose twice/day, I added 12oz dextrose twice/day right up until the very end. I feel like the yeast stayed more active this way, and it's also 12 less times you need to open your fermenter. This leads into the next point though....
D. Gravity readings. Take gravity readings daily. It's incredibly useful to know how active your yeast are. If you were at 1.020, then add 6 gravity points of sugar(1.026), and you're back at 1.020 the next day, the yeast obviously ate everything you fed them. It takes 60 extra seconds to take a gravity reading, do it. This leads into the next point....
E. Cleaning and sanitizing. If you want to take gravity readings everyday, you'll need to put your samples back into the fermenter, otherwise you'll lose 1-2 gallons. That means your hydrometer and test tube need to be sanitary. You're also going to be pulling off 1-2 quarts of wort twice a day and whisking in dextrose. So keep a pitcher of Star San, I kept mine by the kitchen sink. Soak your hydrometer, test tube, whisk, wine theif(turkey baster), and stiring spoon in star san whenever you aren't using them. When i went to use the I would move them into a clean empty pitcher, then fill that pitch with star san, then pour it back out leaving an empty sanitized pitcher with the whisk, hydrometer, stirring spoon, turkey baster, and test tube. I'd first take a hydro sample with the turkey baster, then stir up the primary with the spoon to get the yeast off the bottom. Then pull off 1-2 quarts into the pitcher, whisk in the dextrose, dump that back into the primary, and gently stir it in.
Then clean everything before putting it back in the star san. Yes, it's a total pain in the behind to do all that twice a day. Thankfully it's only about 12-15 days though, so suck it up, and make sure everything is cleaned, then sanitized. It'll just become routine after a few times. A spray bottle full of sanitizer helps for those objects that are longer than your sanitizer pitcher is tall.
As far as the stirring and oxygen exposure: I wasn't too concerned with oxygen pickup while the yeast were still fermenting. I figured as long as I was still feeding them, any oxygen that got dissolved should be picked up by the yeast. You definitely want to be careful once the beer stops fermenting though.
That's about it. It's definitely a manageable beer to brew, it just requires some good planning, and a lot of tedious work for a couple weeks. The yeast is the most important thing. Pitch a crap-ton(technical term) of yeast, and the rest will mostly take care of itself. For anyone thinking about brewing this: Do it. It's a really fun beer to brew.
A. Use more hops than the Homebrewchef recipe calls for. Trust me. From tasting my samples, I still wish i could have gotten more IBUs into this beer, enough though I'm not sure it's possible. Just trust me, there's no amount of IBUs that will balance 21% alcohol and 1.170+ OG. Just use a lot of hops.
B. Pitch WAY more yeast than the Homebrewchef does. He said he used 2500ml starters for a 10 gallon batch of each 1056 and WLP099. Those are tiny starters. I used a 6000ml starter of WLP007 and a 4000ml starter of WLP099 for a 5 gallon batch. Basically I used 4-5 times as much yeast as Paxton did, and I think my high attenuation had a lot to do with this. Also use lots of yeast nutrient and yeast energizer. If you don't use the olive oil method I did, use PLENTY of oxygen. Oxygen in your starters, oxygen in the wort after brewing, and oxygen for the first few days it's fermenting. You may want to ferment on the cool side for the first few days, as a 5-6 Liter starter will rip right through 1.100 gravity wort. I fermented at 64, and probably could have gone colder. Just make sure to warm it up to the mid-high 60s when you pitch the WLP099 and the sugar additions.
C. Sugar additions. I found that I could double the sugar additions twice a day. So rather than 6oz of dextrose twice/day, I added 12oz dextrose twice/day right up until the very end. I feel like the yeast stayed more active this way, and it's also 12 less times you need to open your fermenter. This leads into the next point though....
D. Gravity readings. Take gravity readings daily. It's incredibly useful to know how active your yeast are. If you were at 1.020, then add 6 gravity points of sugar(1.026), and you're back at 1.020 the next day, the yeast obviously ate everything you fed them. It takes 60 extra seconds to take a gravity reading, do it. This leads into the next point....
E. Cleaning and sanitizing. If you want to take gravity readings everyday, you'll need to put your samples back into the fermenter, otherwise you'll lose 1-2 gallons. That means your hydrometer and test tube need to be sanitary. You're also going to be pulling off 1-2 quarts of wort twice a day and whisking in dextrose. So keep a pitcher of Star San, I kept mine by the kitchen sink. Soak your hydrometer, test tube, whisk, wine theif(turkey baster), and stiring spoon in star san whenever you aren't using them. When i went to use the I would move them into a clean empty pitcher, then fill that pitch with star san, then pour it back out leaving an empty sanitized pitcher with the whisk, hydrometer, stirring spoon, turkey baster, and test tube. I'd first take a hydro sample with the turkey baster, then stir up the primary with the spoon to get the yeast off the bottom. Then pull off 1-2 quarts into the pitcher, whisk in the dextrose, dump that back into the primary, and gently stir it in.
Then clean everything before putting it back in the star san. Yes, it's a total pain in the behind to do all that twice a day. Thankfully it's only about 12-15 days though, so suck it up, and make sure everything is cleaned, then sanitized. It'll just become routine after a few times. A spray bottle full of sanitizer helps for those objects that are longer than your sanitizer pitcher is tall.
As far as the stirring and oxygen exposure: I wasn't too concerned with oxygen pickup while the yeast were still fermenting. I figured as long as I was still feeding them, any oxygen that got dissolved should be picked up by the yeast. You definitely want to be careful once the beer stops fermenting though.
That's about it. It's definitely a manageable beer to brew, it just requires some good planning, and a lot of tedious work for a couple weeks. The yeast is the most important thing. Pitch a crap-ton(technical term) of yeast, and the rest will mostly take care of itself. For anyone thinking about brewing this: Do it. It's a really fun beer to brew.
scottland
Well-Known Member
The beer dropped dead clear after moving it to room temp for 3 days. It's time to move it to secondary. Gravity definitely finished at 1.021.
I decided to drink this hyrdo sample, and I must say, wow. It's already much better than expected. The alcohol isn't as sharp as I expected this early. The bitterness almost disappears; it's barely there. As I said in the post above, it's very hard to get enough IBUs into this beer to balance it. Overall, it's surprisingly drinkable already. I'm extremely happy with the level of sweetness. Those of you that thought it needed to finish in the low 20s were right. I can't wait to try this once it's dry hopped with 6 more ounces, and has a little carbonation on it. The next two months will feel very, very long. I need to keep brewing other batches to keep my mind off it.
I decided to drink this hyrdo sample, and I must say, wow. It's already much better than expected. The alcohol isn't as sharp as I expected this early. The bitterness almost disappears; it's barely there. As I said in the post above, it's very hard to get enough IBUs into this beer to balance it. Overall, it's surprisingly drinkable already. I'm extremely happy with the level of sweetness. Those of you that thought it needed to finish in the low 20s were right. I can't wait to try this once it's dry hopped with 6 more ounces, and has a little carbonation on it. The next two months will feel very, very long. I need to keep brewing other batches to keep my mind off it.
scottland
Well-Known Member
Just starters. The smallest drop I could manage to put on my stir bar.
Interesting! Were you adding the sugar directly into the bucket or decocting wort, mixing the sugar, then pouring back in?
From our conversations and I'm sure you can tell, I'm very intrigued by the differences in methods and your ABV, really seems like I took the long road on a lot of things.
scottland
Well-Known Member
Pulling off 1-2 quarts into a sanitized pitcher, whisking in the sugar, then adding back. I found if I added the sugar directly, it created too many nucleation sites, and foamed too much. Knocking Co2 out of solution helps, but not when foams over the sides of the bucket =)
The things I believe made a big difference in attenuation were: tons of yeast, and no hops in the primary.
The things I believe made a big difference in attenuation were: tons of yeast, and no hops in the primary.
