Devil May Cry (10.10.10 Edition) - Official Recipe

spin02 said:

I received my ingredients yesterday. If everything works out, I will brew next weekend.

Did anyone boil the sugar additions?

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You should boil whatever sugar you decide to add, not only to sanitize it, but also to prevent the dissolved CO2 coming violently out of solution due to all the nucleation points on the sugar granules.

KingBrianI said:

You should boil whatever sugar you decide to add, not only to sanitize it, but also to prevent the dissolved CO2 coming violently out of solution due to all the nucleation points on the sugar granules.

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Thanks for the info. Makes sense.

spin02 said:

I received my ingredients yesterday. If everything works out, I will brew next weekend.

Did anyone boil the sugar additions?

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I did. I finished my brew session about 8 hours before my wifes back surgery so I went the route of adding the suger to the boil instead of waiting and doing a later feeding of the fermentors. I still need to check the gravity but the rate it was working during primary I think it will have still done pretty good. I'll probably check Sunday, would like to find a glass eye dropper to get the samples for the refractometer so I can flame it before touching the beer.

Damn! Down to 1.011 from a nailed OG of 1.100. 11.69%!! Holy moly, and even after only two weeks this tastes pretty great. I'm going to secondary tomorrow, half will get some Brett C. Yum.

Got mine bubbling right now, about 6 hours after pitching 1 L of Wyeast 1388. Brewed 10/10/09. Drink 10/10/10. Damn, that is a long wait. It had better be good!

I brewed mine Sunday. Started quickly, starting @ 66 F and will ramp it up after all the sugar is added. If it's not blowing off anymore 'll prob add the first pound of sugar tonight.

It's early in the ferment but so far this yeast (edit: the Flanders Golden Ale PC strain) doesn't seem to have the thick, mousse-like, 'top-cropping' krausen that some of the top-cropping yeasts I've used. My starter didn't have it, the 'Enkle' didn't have it, and the FFT doesn't have it either (not sure why I did an FFT since it won't have any sugar in it).

Brewed mine yesterday, pitched yeast at 70 degrees at around 7:30 pm last night. This morning there was already a thick layer of krausen on the top and it was bubbling like mad!! :rockin:

Cheers.

Roman

Another sugar question

I was planning on pitching low (64F) and trying to get it to warm up after a few days to help with attenuation and esters. If I add the first lb of sugar after the krausen begins to fall, will I have to cool the beer down into the 60s to contain fusels?

I'm thinking maybe I should hold it steady around 68, then after the last sugar addition raise it up to 75. I want a good amount of the pear character of duvel

Thoughts?

I have my stuff and a Belgian Pale Ale in the fermenter. Now to find a day to actually brew this up! Maybe not 10-10-09, but close!

Figured I'd post my results (I cheated and brewed on 9/20 instead of over the weekend - sue me)

After the boil I wound up with just under 5 gallons of 1.082 wort - my efficiency stunk something awful that day. Nonetheless I pitched the decanted remains of a large starter of Wyeast 1388 and got my volume to just about 5 gallons. I pitched at 65 F and allowed the temp to naturally rise during the course of fermentation.

After 8 hours I had noticeable activity in the carboy, and when I woke up the next morning, there was about an inch of krausen on top of the wort. Fast forward 4 days and the krausen had completely disappeared. I freaked out a little, but took a gravity reading and it was 1.030.

I gave the yeast one more day, then began a 4 day series of a daily additions of 1 lb of cane sugar in 1 pint of water (boiled and cooled of course). Ultimately this brought my Golden Strong to a final volume of 5.5 gal and an adjusted OG of 1.102.

Today I racked into secondary and the gravity had dropped to 1.008! Freaking 92% apparent attenuation! Just wanted to share.

well how did it taste!?

I'm thinking maybe I should hold it steady around 68, then after the last sugar addition raise it up to 75. I want a good amount of the pear character of duvel

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That's what I'm doing. I didn't want to risk a second/third/fourth blowoff everytime I added sugar so I kept mine at 66 F for the first 3 days (Sunday/Mon/Tues...1# sugar on Mon and another on Tues) then let it creep up to 68 yesterday and added the last pound of sugar. I plan to let the whole waterbath slowly warm up to room temp over the next couple of days then let it sit there for at least 2 more weeks.

My FFT (which was just the original 1.076 wort, no sugar, same yeast) finished at 1.008 so it looks like it's pretty much on target.

KingBrianI said:

well how did it taste!?

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Pears and some pineapple. I was kinda thrown off by it initially, but after the sugar additions the flavor has mellowed somewhat.

I've done triples before where I added the sugar during the boil and wound up with an overly alcoholic tasting beverage, so I decided to add the sugar during primary with this batch. Honestly, this beer is 12.3% ABV and I can't detect that when I drink the hydrometer sample. Any beer that I brew from now on that calls for sugar additions will receive said sugar after the krausen has fallen.

CaptYesterday said:

Pears and some pineapple. I was kinda thrown off by it initially, but after the sugar additions the flavor has mellowed somewhat.

I've done triples before where I added the sugar during the boil and wound up with an overly alcoholic tasting beverage, so I decided to add the sugar during primary with this batch. Honestly, this beer is 12.3% ABV and I can't detect that when I drink the hydrometer sample. Any beer that I brew from now on that calls for sugar additions will receive said sugar after the krausen has fallen.

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I still haven't brewed yet. My schedule is actually going to keep me from brewing until the first weekend of next month. If I read right, you let it get down to 1.030, then started the sugar additions? Not a big deal, I can get all of the details from you if you are going to be at the next meeting.

By the way, did you sign up for the BJPC study group?

Brewed mine on Friday night. Had my friend over and it was sort of a last minute thing. Should have prepared the night before, but I thought I had it all under control.

So I'm just getting it boiling and go to toss in my hops. I dump the 1 ounce of Galena in and... Did I mention I was only doing a half-batch? Yep, twice as many bittering hops. I scoop out what I could.

Oh well, it's going to sit a year, right?

Other than that, it went pretty well. I prefer brewing without my friend, because he is just distracting. If he would learn a bit about brewing, instead of just coming over to chat about random crap... Oh well, I do enjoy his company, just makes the brewing more difficult.

While I welcome the cooler weather it required that I broke out the space heater just to keep the fermenter warm enough. Not a usual practice in Florida!

Interesting how we are adding the sugar differently (even post-boil). I wonder what difference it makes if you let the krausen fall before adding sugar (like CaptYesterday) or if you start adding it earlier in the fermentation (I added the first of three 1 lb additions on day 2, then day 3 and day 4)?

I racked the second half off the trub to a secondary carboy yesterday so I could grab some of the yeast to pitch into Il Bastardo, a beer consisting of all the leftover wort from the brewfest at my house. I will be sure to save a 12oz for each of my tradees to try.

Waiting for the yeast to drop so I can take a gravity reading... I hate drinking yeasty samples! Judging by the lack of visible activity since pitching the Brett into the first half, the gravity must be super low.

Jesus... is the WL Golden Ale a fast fermenter? I brewed my Belgian pale saturday morning, pitched a decanted 1L starter around 4PM. My ferm closet is about 63F. I had active fermentation by 11pm. The krausen had already fallen by the time I got home from work yesterday. It's at a very slow bubble now. I moved it to a warmer room today to make sure it dries out ok.

Much like Saccharomyces, I hate yeasty samples, so I'll have to wait to check the gravity to make sure I got a healthy fermentation.

Hopefully if all goes well I'll rack to secondary this weekend and brew up the GS.... what im calling "Before the Devil Knows You're Drunk"

Edcculus said:

I still haven't brewed yet. My schedule is actually going to keep me from brewing until the first weekend of next month. If I read right, you let it get down to 1.030, then started the sugar additions? Not a big deal, I can get all of the details from you if you are going to be at the next meeting.

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Yes, the gravity was down to 1.030 before I started adding sugar. I had planned on adding it after high krausen (while there was still some krausen) but by the time I got home from work on day 4 of fermentation the krausen was completely gone but the yeast were obviously still active. Even after the krausen fell, the top of the beer in the carboy was effervescing like crazy.

After that I started adding 1 lb sugar dissolved in 1 pint water every 24-36 hrs.

Bah. I forgot about adding the sugar. I did that yesterday and noted the gravity was 1.010. I put the 1.5 lbs (1/2 batch) in and it took off immediately! There was no delay between the CO2 coming out of solution and the start of the sugar fermentation.

On a less positive note: I tasted the sample and it was not only mediciney and hot, but very harshly bitter. I'm debating on whether to brew up another 1/2 Batch and combine in the secondary, or just dump and pitch another batch on the cake, or just let it sit in the secondary for many months...

Well, the Pale that I made at the brewday for a yeast cake seems to taste pretty good. Kegged that yesterday and was pretty pleased with the results for lack of planning and scrambling for ingredients.

Just mashed in!! I turned this into an 8 gallon batch to max out my equipment... but, i kinda over-maxxed it. I should have added water and grain in two or three separate batches. Oh well, it's all (mostly) in there now. Now comes the waiting...

Ended up with about 7.5 gallons of 1.080 wort. This was the first time using a banjo burner and it really made all the difference... with a good vigorous boil, I got a much, much better cold break. I brewed Sacc's BPA last weekend as a starter beer, and split the slurry and pitched it into two separate ale pails. Unfortunately I didn't quite get the slurry divided up evenly, so one got a bit more than the other... but they both took off pretty quickly. Within 3 hours they were bubbling faster than anything I've ever brewed.

C4PNJ4ZZ said:

is the WL Golden Ale a fast fermenter? I brewed my Belgian pale saturday morning, pitched a decanted 1L starter around 4PM. My ferm closet is about 63F. I had active fermentation by 11pm. The krausen had already fallen by the time I got home from work yesterday. It's at a very slow bubble now. I moved it to a warmer room today to make sure it dries out ok.

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In case anyone finds this in a WLP 570 search
I just pulled a sample of the Pale ale starter, 1.015. My mash was pretty messed up so I'm not too worried about the high gravity. The sample tasted pretty good, slightly tart and phenolic

The carboy hasn't had any activity for a week. The active fermentation was essentially done in 4 days. It was a very vigorous fermentation. Looks like i'll be bottling and brewing on saturday.

FWIW, my brew with the Wyeast Private Collection Flanders Golden Ale went pretty slowly but that may be due to the timing of the sugar additions. I started adding 1# per day after only maybe 30 hours of strong fermentation. I brewed it about 19 days ago and it's just now starting to clear.

I'm thinking about going ahead and bottling this up soon so I can free up my carboys. Should I consider adding yeast to the bottling?

EDIT: Holy crap! I just took a gravity reading and it's down to 1.000! I made booze water. It was at 1.011 when I transferred to the secondary a month ago. And it tastes mighty boozy.

Finally got the first 5 gallons of 10 brewed this weekend. Pitched a 4L starter of the Flanders Golden yeast. It was going like mad only a few hours in. My only hiccup was that I realized I was out of hop sacks. I tried straining through a metal mesh strainer, but it got clogged up quickly. I ended up with a lot more hop material in the fermenter than I would have liked. I'm going to start my sugar additions tomorrow, then try to get it off the trub for bulk aging.

Does anyone have a plan for bottling? I figure I'll learn from everyones mistakes since I'm a little behind. I want to bottle condition in Belgian/champagne bottles. Do you think the yeast will have enough oomph to give good carbonation at this high gravity and a few months aging? Would it be a better idea to try and bottle ~2 months in?

jacksonbrown said:

I'm thinking about going ahead and bottling this up soon so I can free up my carboys. Should I consider adding yeast to the bottling?

EDIT: Holy crap! I just took a gravity reading and it's down to 1.000! I made booze water. It was at 1.011 when I transferred to the secondary a month ago. And it tastes mighty boozy.

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I just kegged mine (brewed 10/11/09) and it was at 1.004. My FFT was 1.008 and it had no sugar but I only let it go for a few days. This yeast seems to just keep going and going.

I actually mashed high to try and prevent this but this yeast is a monster.

Edcculus said:

Finally got the first 5 gallons of 10 brewed this weekend. Pitched a 4L starter of the Flanders Golden yeast. It was going like mad only a few hours in. My only hiccup was that I realized I was out of hop sacks. I tried straining through a metal mesh strainer, but it got clogged up quickly. I ended up with a lot more hop material in the fermenter than I would have liked. I'm going to start my sugar additions tomorrow, then try to get it off the trub for bulk aging.

Does anyone have a plan for bottling? I figure I'll learn from everyones mistakes since I'm a little behind. I want to bottle condition in Belgian/champagne bottles. Do you think the yeast will have enough oomph to give good carbonation at this high gravity and a few months aging? Would it be a better idea to try and bottle ~2 months in?

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Just add some yeast at bottling... you don't need to use the primary yeast, a yeast like S-04 in the bottling bucket would work great. I plan to bottle all 10 gallons in Belgian bottles with corks in the spring using half a sachet of S-04 per 5 gallons. I'll be aiming for about 3.2 volumes of CO2.

I'll be making up a starter with the flanders golden ale yeast I saved and adding a bit at bottling to carb mine up. I'm afraid anything else wouldn't be able to handle the 13.3% ABV it's sitting at and that FGA yeast doesn't seem to quit.

Edcculus said:

Does anyone have a plan for bottling? I figure I'll learn from everyones mistakes since I'm a little behind. I want to bottle condition in Belgian/champagne bottles. Do you think the yeast will have enough oomph to give good carbonation at this high gravity and a few months aging? Would it be a better idea to try and bottle ~2 months in?

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I'm planning on force carbing to 3 or 4 volumes, then setting the psi at 1 or 2 and dribbling into 22 oz bottles. Hopefully the bottles don't explode...

I took about a month of from brewing because of a house move. The Belgian pale ale I had made as a starter on 9/18/09 was still in the primary! So on Thursday I transferred it to a secondary until i have time to bottle or keg and I brewed this bad boy up. My highest gravity beer to date. Everything went smoothly but missed the gravity a bit. Came in at 1.100.

I was a little afraid of the 2 month old yeast cake but about 6 hours after putting the fresh wort in it was a bubbling away. I can't wait to sample it in a week or two. The gravity same had lots of promise.

You guys weren't kidding. This yeast is a monster. I brewed last Saturday, then began my sugar additions on Tuesday (1lb boiled in 2cups of water every 24 hours). Out of curiosity, I took a reading today. Its already down to 1.004. With a theoretical OG of 1.112 from beersmith after my sugar additions, that gives me close to 14%ABV and 96% apparent attenuation.

Its REALLY boozy and has some pretty strong esters. Too bad I have to wait a year to taste this thing in its full glory.

Edcculus said:

You guys weren't kidding. This yeast is a monster. I brewed last Saturday, then began my sugar additions on Tuesday (1lb boiled in 2cups of water every 24 hours). Out of curiosity, I took a reading today. Its already down to 1.004. With a theoretical OG of 1.112 from beersmith after my sugar additions, that gives me close to 14%ABV and 96% apparent attenuation.

Its REALLY boozy and has some pretty strong esters. Too bad I have to wait a year to taste this thing in its full glory.

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Yeah, I transferred mine to secondary this past week and it was down to 1.007. Even though the alcohol presence was strong, it wasn't off-putting. And the low gravity and high bitterness didn't overpower all of the malt presence. The overall impression was of a very sweet beer. Mine is around 13.5% ABV right now and should be awesome in a year.

Yea, I noticed it was overall pretty sweet too.

I'll be bottling mine up this weekend. I'm going to be making a starter with some of the flanders golden ale yeast I saved from the belgian pale ale I made with it and adding a bit of that to the bottling bucket. I think I'll probably carb to 3 volumes though I wonder if slightly higher might be better?

KingBrianI said:

I think I'll probably carb to 3 volumes though I wonder if slightly higher might be better?

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What kind of bottles are you planning on using? I can't seem to find the thread discussing it, but IIRC there's a practical limit for carbonation levels in regular 12 and 22oz bottles.

I don't want to have to bottle all of mine (I made 8 gals) in expensive ass 750ml bottles if I don't have to.

MacBruver said:

What kind of bottles are you planning on using? I can't seem to find the thread discussing it, but IIRC there's a practical limit for carbonation levels in regular 12 and 22oz bottles.

I don't want to have to bottle all of mine (I made 8 gals) in expensive ass 750ml bottles if I don't have to.

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I've done 3 volumes several times with no bombs, though I've never gone over. I want this beer to really have a nice head pop up when poured. Mine will all be in 12 and 22 oz bottles though. 750 mL is too big a serving for me, especially with it sitting around 13.5% ABV!

KingBrianI said:

750 mL is too big a serving for me, especially with it sitting around 13.5% ABV!

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Haha, exactly why I am using all 750s for mine. If I am forced to split it with a buddy, I will keep my hands off of it and let it age a lot longer!

I'd suggest doing enough 12 oz. bottles to send in the swap (and competitions if you are so inclined). It would be hard for me to not waste some if when I was doing the comparisons I had one or more 750 mL bottles. I like doing everyone's in one sitting to be able to better compare them.

Kingbrian,
Seems that Flanders Golden Ale yeast doesn't want to flocc out. I dunno what other yeast you could use for bottling to get it more clear. Maybe WY3787, that produced a fairly clear Tripel for me. They say Notty is high alcohol tolerant but this just seems too high. My understanding is that Brouwerij Van Seenberge filters out the main ferment yeast and bottles with something else. Just something to consider.