DFH 120 minute clone

I tried to manage mine down into the mid 20's but unfortunately the yeast dropped on me before I noticed and I beefed it back up to 1.030 - 1.031 before realizing it was time to stop adding sugar. I would aim for mid 20's if I brewed it again, it would calm the sweet factor down though it would make the alcohol a little more up front but hey, it's a 20% beer, if you don't like al-kee-hol, go grab yourself a lager right . I traded a bottle with Smuth and I wouldn't be able to pick either from a line up the tastes were so close, except he had kegged his so it was carbed.

Bottom line in my opinion, lower FG then originally suggested, more hops, and a designated driver.

PM'd you.

Interesting note: Even having to buy the grains twice, I have $102 in ingredients in this beer. Figure $110 with propane, and salts, etc.

120 sells for $9.99 a bottle here. 50*9.99 = $499.5

So I made $500 worth of beer for $110. I feel very frugal.

Double doses of sugar last night and today. Gravity reading today was 1.018, so the yeast are still rocking. Today crossed the halfway point 5.5lbs of sugar in, 4.5lbs left to go.

After the sugar, Current Gravities: SG:1.137, SG: 1.024, ABV: 14.8%. Starting to get up there!

now is where it could start getting tricky... be careful not to overload those yeasties cause if they stop, getting them going again is nearly impossible. Good Luck!

Definitely. I'm going to keep monitoring the gravity twice a day as I have been. I would be happy with a 16% beer as long as it's dry enough. I don't want 22% cough syrup.

exactly!

scottland said:

I don't want 22% cough syrup.

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For the win.

A medical dropper drops .051ml. So I try to use a little less than a drop of olive oil. I add that to the yeast in my starter.

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I showed your post to my wife who an RN and she said you can goto the medical supply store and buy syringes that can dispense down to .00001ml. Hope this info helps.

Matt

Zorin said:

I showed your post to my wife who an RN and she said you can goto the medical supply store and buy syringes that can dispense down to .00001ml. Hope this info helps.

Matt

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That's fantastic news. Thanks a lot!

Update: the yeast are still hungry. Gravity this morning was 1.019. Added another 12oz of sugar last night and this morning.

Current gravities: OG: 1.149, SG: 1.025, ABV: 16.2%

Added 12oz doses last night and this morning. Gravity this morning was 1.021, up a little bit, but I only have 24oz left to add.

Current gravities: OG: 1.161, SG: 1.027, ABV: 17.6%

At this point, i'll be happy anywhere the yeast decide to quit. I just need to keep a close eye on the hydrometer, as I want my FG to be between 1.025 and 1.030

Looking good! Think it could get 20%?

The yeast still seem to be pretty active. I've been feeding them 12oz twice a day, which is double what most people have done. I think it's starting to slow down a little bit though. My primary goal is managing the FG. Its drier than I want now though, so I'll just keep feeding them sugar till the had enough.

Did you taste the hydrometer sample? I just hope the mad amounts of sugar additions along with the Turbo-Powered yeast aren't producing odd flavors. Meh, even if that is the case I'm sure this batch is going to be aging for some time.

Ya. It's a little hot with alcohol, but fairly clean. Lots of hop, then the alcohol. That's to be expected since its so young. I've kept it fairly cool so I didn't expect too many off flavors. 63* with the WLP007, and now 66* since the WLP099 went in. Those are actual wort temps

Oh okay. Those numbers seem pretty dang reasonable to me.

hope for 025 or less. At 030 it'll be too sweet!

The only thing I could recommend would be obtaining an amount of beer for testing, 50ml for example, and mixing it with equal amount of water for sampling, and doubling the results. I know its almost done at this point, but im guessing those samples aren't enjoyable to drink, and that's a lot of DFH120 to be dumping. Awesome thread, I've been inspired.

Fermentation slowed a little bit. Gravity is slowly climbing over the 12hr intervals. 1.023 tonight when I went to add more sugar. So I added only one 6oz bag for the first time. I've got three 6oz bags left. Current gravities: OG: 1.164, SG: 1.026, ABV: 18.1%

Crossed the 18% barrier!!

Zorin said:

I showed your post to my wife who an RN and she said you can goto the medical supply store and buy syringes that can dispense down to .00001ml. Hope this info helps.

Matt

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Are you sure about that? 0.00001mL = 0.01uL No research/reference grade mechanical pipettor can accurately dispense that volume, so I'd be surprised that any sort of plunger-style medical syringe could do that volume.

scottland said:

Crossed the 18% barrier!!

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Congrats!

bottlebomber said:

The only thing I could recommend would be obtaining an amount of beer for testing, 50ml for example, and mixing it with equal amount of water for sampling, and doubling the results. I know its almost done at this point, but im guessing those samples aren't enjoyable to drink, and that's a lot of DFH120 to be dumping. Awesome thread, I've been inspired.

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The samples go right back in the fermenter. My hydrometer, test tube, and turkey baster soak in star stan all day long. That way I can test the gravity twice a day and not worry about wasting all that beer.

Fermentation is winding down. 1.022 today. I added another 6oz dextrose brining it back up to 1.025. I actually hope it stops soon. 19-20% ABV with the FG around 1.025 would be perfect.

Current gravities: OG: 1.167, SG: 1.025, ABV: 18.6%

scottland said:

The samples go right back in the fermenter. My hydrometer, test tube, and turkey baster soak in star stan all day long. That way I can test the gravity twice a day and not worry about wasting all that beer.

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That's a fine idea. Especially with that much alcohol and yeast activity, your chances of infection are very slim.

subscribed. cant wait to see how this one turns out

1.022 tonight. I added the last 12oz I had planned, bringing me to 1.028. I'm hoping the yeast choke off half way through that sugar addition.

Current gravities: OG: 1.174 SG: 1.028, ABV: 19.1%

I've got another pound of dextrose if need be. I want the FG north of 1.020, but ABV south of 21%

Are you going to be bottle priming this stuff? What are your plans for that?

Keg, force carb lightly, then bottle.

Do you have a beer gun or something? I want to try to do this, but im going to have to try to bottle prime so I might not get to take it to the max like your doing. That 099 will go to 25% supposedly, and I believe it after seeing what your doing. Any other yeast would have crapped out long ago. However the yeast will be traumatized after this

Nope, I just bottle straight from the tap with the pressure turned way down. Works great, I've had beers placed first in comps bottled that way.

Bottling conditioning..... It's possible, ill start with that. You'd want about 1/4 to 1/3 of a cup of dextrose for a 5gal batch worth of Co2. I just have no idea if the yeast would restart at that ABV even if you quit feeding them before stopped. Bottle conditioning definitely adds another layer complexity.

scottland said:

Nope, I just bottle straight from the tap with the pressure turned way down. Works great, I've had beers placed first in comps bottled that way.

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Do you just have regular perlick taps? This interests me, I am going to need to do it in the next few months with a imperial stout I made... How much head rolls over the end of the bottle? Where do you fill to?

broadbill said:

Are you sure about that? 0.00001mL = 0.01uL No research/reference grade mechanical pipettor can accurately dispense that volume, so I'd be surprised that any sort of plunger-style medical syringe could do that volume.

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It's rare to have to use something that small for medication dispensing. I was just giving him an option of going over to the med supply to find something that might be less of an issue when measuring than an eyedropper.

Cheers,
Matt

lastsecondapex said:

Do you just have regular perlick taps? This interests me, I am going to need to do it in the next few months with a imperial stout I made... How much head rolls over the end of the bottle? Where do you fill to?

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Do a search on HBT for Bowie Bottler. I got one and it works great.

bottlebomber said:

Do you have a beer gun or something? I want to try to do this, but im going to have to try to bottle prime so I might not get to take it to the max like your doing. That 099 will go to 25% supposedly, and I believe it after seeing what your doing. Any other yeast would have crapped out long ago. However the yeast will be traumatized after this

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I bottle primed my batch. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being normal carbonation, I got about a .5. A more vigorous pour into the glass helps revive what little head you can get without force carbing but without a kegging system, it's just too much to get the yeast going again, or at least it was for me.

On another note though, this beer doesn't really drink like a beer, or to me it doesn't. Because the ABV is so high, the sweetness, the bitterness of the hops, for not getting any carbonation at all bottle priming it's really not all that bad, more like drinking an interesting liquor.

lastsecondapex said:

Do you just have regular perlick taps? This interests me, I am going to need to do it in the next few months with a imperial stout I made... How much head rolls over the end of the bottle? Where do you fill to?

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Picnic taps, but I have a friend with perlicks, and it works fine for him too. The proper way to do it is to use a counter-pressure filler like the bowie bottler, or make a BMBF, but I'm lazy, and my approach works great.

The trick is, turn your co2 down to where the beer barely comes out, like 3-5psi. Also, it helps if the inside of the bottle is still wet with star stan; dry bottles foam more when filled. I get about 1" of foam in the neck of the bottle, always cap on top of the foam.

Zorin said:

It's rare to have to use something that small for medication dispensing. I was just giving him an option of going over to the med supply to find something that might be less of an issue when measuring than an eyedropper.

Cheers,
Matt

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My point was they don't make syringes capable of dispensing 0.013mL (13uL). I think you and/or your wife are mistaken. At least too my knowledge....just trying to save some folks a trip to a med supply store.

I'm all eyes if you can show me one though

Ya, i figured that was a super small drop, and wouldn't be done without a micropipette. I did find a 20ul fixed volume micropipette on ebay for $25. That's only overdosing by a little bit, and i'm sure it's MUCH more accurate than what i'm doing now.

I'm looking at a catalog from USA Scientific that lists a 0.1-2.5 ul pipette with 0.002 ul increments. It unfortunately costs $199.

bja said:

I'm looking at a catalog from USA Scientific that lists a 0.1-2.5 ul pipette with 0.002 ul increments. It unfortunately costs $199.

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Ya, that's out of my price range. But i might consider $25 with $6 shipping.

I use a sterilized paperclip. Dip the tip in OO and let a single drop fall in my starter. I'm sure it's over doing it, but considering that the yeast will use what they can and the rest will end up being decanted off, I don't see an issue with it. Not to mention a single tiny drop will have no ill effects on a 5 gallon batch.

scottland said:

Ya, that's out of my price range. But i might consider $25 with $6 shipping.

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Seriously? I mean its homebrewing, how scientific does it need to be? (Im really not trying to be rude btw) can't you just take a sewing needle and dip it in, swirl it around in some water and make that part of your starter? I assume that even with this new trick people will still be oxygenating anyway...