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How high have you gone?

  • 1.050 OG or below (I am weak!)

  • 1.051-1.070 OG (nothing special)

  • 1.071-1.090 OG (I've dabbled in the dark arts)

  • 1.091-1.110 OG (serious business)

  • 1.111 OG or above (I'm insane)


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Torchiest

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I'm curious what the biggest beers everyone has brewed have been. I brewed an imperial stout today, and it came out bigger than I expected, a massive 1.105 OG! My previous biggest were a dark belgian that was 1.090 and an imperial IPA that was 1.089. How big have you guys gone?
 
One of my very first beers came in at 1.106, but never finished or carbed. Since then my biggest has only been 1.075, although I do have a RIS in the works at 1.090
 
My RIS was about 1.090 and an IPA I made was 1.074. I definately want to create some bigger beers, but right now I just want to get my kegs filled up with daily drinkers.
 
love drinking the big IIPA's but the biggest I've done was 1.082. It stuck fermenting at 1.030 and would never carbonate. mostly high seventies seem to work best for me........... someday though
 
Barleywine that diddn't finish. 1.090. Poured it on a yeast cake that just finished a 1.075... guess the little guys were just too tired. I want to someday make a beer at 1.178 and go for the 18% mark. I need to borrow someone's oxygen or get that set up first. They have yeasts that go that high now so why not try? If it dosn't finish out i've still got syrup for my pancakes!!!
 
My 2006 Barleywine clocked in somewhere around 1.114 and attenuated to almost 12% ABV, all malt pitched on a WLP-001 yeast cake.
 
I brewed a barleywine Saturday, measured 1.096. :D

I was shooting for 1.100, but gave up sparging after 7.5 Gallons.

Pitched on a Nottingham cake, and am trying to keep it at 62 in a cooler with ice packs. It warmed a bit overnight and made its way up the blowoff tube 12" but didnt make the bend to the bucket o starsan :)

Looking forward to trying one of these this winter.
 
My 1.074 Big Bourbon Barrel Brown that's bubbling away in the basement right now is the biggest I've made. Hoping to get it down to 1.016.
 
I made My Christmas Stout yesterday, it landed in at 1.089 and the Braggot that I did along with it came in at 1.070 (Nothing too wowee)

This is not counting my 1.100 Extract stout that I did when I first started brewing, it doesn't count because it was a mistake.
 
I like me a big beer every once in a while...which is why bottling still has great merit, even to those who keg.
 
I just bottled a 1.072 Saison that finished at 1.010. 8.21% according to Promash. I only ended up with about 3.5 gallons in the fermenter, so it only took one rehydrated pack of T-58 dry yeast and was going after 3 hours. I let it ferment at about 80 though. I was wanting to try out this yeast to see if it was a good replacement for liquid belgian yeast. I figure if it is good enough for De Struise it should be ok for me. I will give a review when it is carbed.
 
One of my very first beers came in at 1.106, but never finished or carbed. Since then my biggest has only been 1.075, although I do have a RIS in the works at 1.090

HEE HEE;)

No yeast I know of (aside from wine or champagne, which will never touch my beer) will have anything left after fermenting a beer that big.

I bottle carbed my biggest one, but I did a bastardized krausening get it to.

I put new yeast into the priming water/sugar and waited untill it got fairly foamy before racking and bottling.

It still crapped out before carbing very much, but it was perfect for an imperial stout.
 
My first few n00b batches were just light DME up to 1.1 (along with hops, yeast and water). I figured it was a nice round number and I like heavier beers so what the heck.

This was before I captured my local hungry hungry hippo wild yeast strain, owned a hydrometer, or knew the difference yeast nutrient makes. No wonder they were syrupy!
 
I did a American Strong Ale and ended up with 1.094, it seems to stall at 1.030. After a week I roused the yeast cake and got a couple of more points down. I love big beers, but fermenting them is a challenge! Even with starters and the proper yeast cells and controlled temps, getting beers down below 1.020 is tough.

Eastside
 
OK y'all, my biggest so far is 1.060 and that was an accident. :D

Do any of you guys do continuous O2 at the start? I've heard a dose of O2 every 12-24 hours for the first 3-4 days helps for really big beers. As does pitching a, oh, 4 or 5 gallon starter. :)
 
1.088 (080808 RIS) is my highest to date, with a 1.070-1.075 (we were dabbling with a refractrometer, and skipped the hydro so I don't have an exact number) stout coming in 2nd place. But both of those will be SMASHED next month when I brew up the 09-09-09. Big beer city! Woot!

What's weird is that I've only brewed one (maybe two) batch BELOW 1.050, out of 21 batches thus far. So they've all been 1.050-1.070 except for 2 in either direction! :D
 
1.125 Technically a hop wine. Champagne yeast and an eight month ferment.
1.091 for a barleywine. Pitched on the cake from a Brown.
 
HEE HEE;)

No yeast I know of (aside from wine or champagne, which will never touch my beer) will have anything left after fermenting a beer that big.

I bottle carbed my biggest one, but I did a bastardized krausening get it to.

I put new yeast into the priming water/sugar and waited untill it got fairly foamy before racking and bottling.

It still crapped out before carbing very much, but it was perfect for an imperial stout.

You guys are scaring me about bottle carbing my barleywine (OG 1.096). I am planning a long secondary, so I was planning on pitching a bit more yeast, but I may have to look into something a little more tolerant than nottingham. If it finishes where I hope (~1.020) that should put me close to its upper limits. Any recommendations for a nice neutral champagne yeast to bottle carb?
 
I dunno, I added a packet of Nottingham to the secondary for my Strong Dark Belgian, which took it from ~1.033 to 1.025 in a month before I bottled it. This was a beer that started at 1.090 btw, and was in primary for a month as well.
 
You guys are scaring me about bottle carbing my barleywine (OG 1.096). I am planning a long secondary, so I was planning on pitching a bit more yeast, but I may have to look into something a little more tolerant than nottingham. If it finishes where I hope (~1.020) that should put me close to its upper limits. Any recommendations for a nice neutral champagne yeast to bottle carb?

Yiikes don't use champagne yeast to bottle carb, you'll have bottle bombs. I'd add more of the original strain to be safe, if you get too much attenuation, you're in trouble...
 
My highest was 1.069, on my IPA. However, I plan on doing a pretty big stout that should come in around 1.075. I haven't had a lot of beers above 8% that I would want 2 cases of...most of my stuff is in the 5-6% ABV range.
 
Well, with my IIPA, I did run into a bit of trouble because I didn't drink it all before the hops puttered out and the taste degraded, but with the dark Belgian, it has only gotten better, and having all that strong beer has been fine, since it's okay to take my time with it and not feel rushed. It's been aging more than a year now and still delicious.
 

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