New to homebrew. Tips for high alcohol and good taste.

Hey. I'm new to home brewing. (still haven't bottled my first batch yet.) I am looking for tips to brew a high abv brew but with a good taste to it. Something at least 9-10%. I've been reading the joy of homebrew and it has me excited to try my own recipe just to experiment and have fun. I am curious to what types of combinations of malt extracts and sugars can be used. I hear 20% sugar is the limit or it can be cidery. Any help to boost that up without ruining the integrity of taste would be appreciated. Ha me and my friends like to drink so I'd love to pull out a great taste that will get them feeling it. Also what steeping grains and hops would also compliment, and is a secondary fermenter a good choice to have for this type of beer? Thanks for the tips.

As a new brewer, are you brewing with extract or all grain? If you are using all grain, you could just increase your grain bill to increase abv. It is hard to give tips without specifying the style of beer you are searching for. High abv and good flavor come in many styles of beer. Since you are new (like me), I recommend looking for a recipe that suits your style. Homebrewtalk is awesome because it has plenty of threads where these subjects have been thoroughly discussed. It should be easy for you to find information. Good luck and cheers!

As the guy above said it depends on the type of beer, but the two best tips I can give you for high gravity beers are

1. PATIENCE. Leave it alone.
2. Temp control during fermentation

depending on what style you want, look for a recipe with the word "Imperial" before it

Ok thanks for the tips. I am still using extract. Say I have a recipe of a simple ale. Can adding sugar to it and/or increasing the extract do what I'm looking for without ruining the quality of the taste too much? And any advantage over DME or LME? Thanks guys.

sugar, DME, LME =more ABV . It just takes longer to make good flavor. Make cider if you want 9-10% ABV in 6 weeks time . My cider sits for 6months -a year ,but it tastes good then. Cheers

xxjohn85xx said:

Ok thanks for the tips. I am still using extract. Say I have a recipe of a simple ale. Can adding sugar to it and/or increasing the extract do what I'm looking for without ruining the quality of the taste too much? And any advantage over DME or LME? Thanks guys.

Click to expand...

Welcome to a great site and a great obsession!

My 2cents: high ABV coincides with good taste when the alcohol is a balanced part of the whole beer. It's possible to produce this combination, but not in a hurry. Just adding lots of sugar/LME/DME to a recipe without maintaining a balance with other ingredients tends to hurt the taste. I'd suggest you look in the recipe section under IIPA, Belgian Strong, RIS or similar styles to get a recipe that will provide balance and strength.

Cheers!

I would agree with Piratwolf. To me, high ABV shouldnt be the aim unless it's part of the recipe. An imperial IPA or strong ale or something of the like would suit you well. Lots of oxygen and time would be the best 2 tips I could offer.

Thanks for all the suggestions and the welcomes. So far everyone is very helpful to the new guy. Imperial ipa are a great choice seeing I'm a big fan of them. And time is no problem. I'm not looking to make something quick and disgusting. I'm just curious out of other brewer experience what things could compliment/balance the taste if I use more sugars and extract. Haha I want to experiment without getting stuck with 5 gallons of garbage.

Welcome!
Yep, patience is the thing when it comes to high ABV beers. I have an 8 month old Russian Imperial stout that's great now, but was rocket fuel early on.

Anyway, check out imperial recipies, Wee Heavy recipes if you like Scottish ales, and, heck, even visit the mead forum. Cheers!

xxjohn85xx said:

Thanks for all the suggestions and the welcomes. So far everyone is very helpful to the new guy. Imperial ipa are a great choice seeing I'm a big fan of them. And time is no problem. I'm not looking to make something quick and disgusting. I'm just curious out of other brewer experience what things could compliment/balance the taste if I use more sugars and extract. Haha I want to experiment without getting stuck with 5 gallons of garbage.

Click to expand...

Ok, I'm going to tell you something that you don't want to hear. The best way to not get stuck with 5 gallons of garbage is probably to 1) not start with a 10% ABV beer, and 2) not experiment right off the bat. These are just my opinions of course, and you're welcome to do what you want. But higher gravities lead to more challenges, and experimenting works better when you have some fundamental understanding of where you're starting off.

That said, for a high alcohol beer:
1) As others have said, don't just take a 6% beer and crank up the fermentables to make a 10% beer. Start with something that's designed to be a 10% beer.
2) Control your fermentation temps.
3) Definitely definitely definitely pitch enough yeast.
4) Oxygenate/aerate a LOT.

The key to good beer is good fermentation, and I think this is more critical in big beers. You need to keep the yeast happy, and this involves putting enough of them in there, keeping them at the right temps, and giving them the oxygen they need.

First question in my mind is why do you need to start with a high alcohol beer? Are you just trying to get a cheap drunk?

High alcohol beers take more effort and lots more time. You could be looking at 4 to 6 months from when you brew until they are good to drink and that is if you know what you are doing when you brew.

I'd suggest that if you want good beer that you start with a moderate alcohol kit and learn the process and the mix of ingredients and technique that make good beer. Once you have that down and some beer to drink, then go to the imperial beers if you still want. The reaction I get from people drinking my moderate alcohol beers is, "Wow, that is some strong beer!" Try making a good beer first and see what you think.

Price and time are not an issue. Ha if I was looking for a cheap drunk I could handle that easily. I'm just trying to learn a little more than I know (which isn't alot). Also I have a book with some recipes. Some say rack into secondary. Is that absolutely necessary? I still have one fermenter. I'm guessing you want to get it out of the spent yeast to lower chances of off flavors if you need it to sit for some time?

My first "high gravity" brew tasted like alcohol until it had conditioned for a while. It is still my favorite recipie that I have brewed. IMHO the primary taste of beer should NOT be alcohol.

xxjohn85xx said:

Price and time are not an issue. Ha if I was looking for a cheap drunk I could handle that easily. I'm just trying to learn a little more than I know (which isn't alot). Also I have a book with some recipes. Some say rack into secondary. Is that absolutely necessary? I still have one fermenter. I'm guessing you want to get it out of the spent yeast to lower chances of off flavors if you need it to sit for some time?

Click to expand...

Sounds to me like you've got the right mindset so far

Regarding secondaries: many people on this forum have dispensed with secondaries except for certain special circumstances. Having done both, I can say that they have some advantages, but that 80% of my beers are primary-only and average 2-3 weeks in the primary on the yeast with no ill effects. Many go longer. YMMV.

In regards to your earlier question about balancing alcohol, you've got a few options.
1. If you're looking for pure extract brews and going down the I/PA road (which I also love!), one easy answer is high hopping. By some definitions, a Double IPA is one that ups the alcohol to about 8% and generates somewhere north of 75IBUs by adding hops. I'd read about late hop additions, hopbursting, whirlpool hops, etc., to see how to get the most flavor and aroma from your hops. That being said, what you'll get--at least early on--is probably a harsh, bitter hop-grenade.
2. If you want to try some partial mashes (all you need is a bag to steep grain and some pre-milled grain), a better-quality way to balance alcohol (and hops, for that matter) is to increase the "maltiness" of your beer. Most basic American beers use simple 2-row barley because it's light in color and neutral in flavor. Pale extracts use the same. But there are all kinds of other grains you can use: maris otter (British) or continental pilsner (Belgium or Germany) base malts will add flavor, as will any number of specialty grains. Victory/Biscuit malt give a, well, biscuity flavor; Munich and Vienna malts bring some sweetness and breadiness; Caramel malts add--surprise!--a sort of caramel sweetness and, depending on the darkness, a sort of raisin-y flavor.

I'ma stop now.. but have just hit the tip of the iceberg on this. So you can see there's all kinds depths to plumb AFTER you get your basic game dialed in. Hope this is useful.

Thanks alot piratwolf. Very helpful info to help me try and experiment. I don't want to get too ahead of myself which I'm trying to express haha I still haven't even bottled my first batch. Just looking for useful tips when I feel like I'm ready to experiment and make a great tasting beer with a punch to impress some friends with a good skill. (although the getting really drunk doesn't hurt). But I'm not looking to just make a cheap quick beer to get drunk. I could buy four lokos for that ha. I'll spend what I need and age it for how long I need. Just trying to learn. Thanks alot. And I am pretty excited to get bottling next tuesday!

I'm on my fifth batch so far, so I'm not an expert, but hopefully I can still offer you some good advice:

1) High gravity beers need to condition - my third batch was an imperial stout that I don't expect to start drinking until next fall. From reading the forums, I seem to have far more patience than most new homebrewers.

2) What I've found with homebrewing is that, in order to improve and learn, you need to have feedback on your technique, setup, and methods. If it takes 12 months from grain (extract) to glass, the learning curve is enormous and it will take a long time to really get comfortable.

3) If you want to make a high gravity brew, get a second fermenter so that you can still brew while your beer is sitting for 4-6 weeks. Plus, a lot of the big beers really need the appropriate yeast strain, which is often unavailable in dehydrated form.

4) Learn to make yeast starters. Not strictly mandatory, but if you want to give yourself the best chance to make good, high gravity brews, definitely worth it.

5) Keep a good record of what you're doing - if a beer takes 6 months to be drinkable, there's no way you're going to remember what you did and why it turned it out the way it did.

There's a lot more to making high gravity beers than boiling tons of sugar and tossing a yeast packet in.

Thanks alot. Good advice. Haha and I know that it's more than sugar and yeast. Just trying to learn the best methods and ingredients.

I wouldn't recommend doing a high ABV beer to begin with if your motivation is simply "we like to drink." Instead of making 5G barleywine or imperial stout at 10%, make 10G or 15G of something that is 5% . You can make those in a hurry, relatively speaking, and they will taste better in the short term.

It should also be noted that darker beers with tons of alcohol and dark and roasted malts can also hide off-flavors and mistakes better than lighter beers. I'm not saying you can screw them up and it will taste great, just that off-flavors are more easily masked in higher ABV beers.