Blended beer bottle bombs?

So this is my 5th and 6th batch of beer, 5th batch bottling. I was going for something along the lines of a Dogfish Head Bitches Brew clone. I brewed an Old Rasputin clone and the DFH recipe for Tej.

The Old Rasputin was aging in the secondary for around 5 months, and the Tej was sitting for around 1 1/2 months.

I was worried about the yeast from the Old Rasputin clone (didn't even think that the Tej yeast (which is a mead strain) would be able to carb it up) and therefore at bottling I added some generic champagne yeast to the bottles.

My conern is that I totally fogot that the Tej is just about made up entirely of honey. I am worried that the champagne yeast is going to chew through more than just the bottleing sugars. Am I correct in this assumption? Both hit the final gravity marks specified in the recipes.

I just want to know if I should be checking it out until I get the correct CO2 and then keep them cold crashed in my chest freezer, or if since both beers hit the FG, that the sugars are complex enough that I shouldn't worry too much about bottle bombs and the champagne yeast eating other sugars.

Any tips/advice would be helpful. Thanks!

I am worried that the champagne yeast is going to chew through more than just the bottleing sugars. Am I correct in this assumption? Both hit the final gravity marks specified in the recipes.

Click to expand...

as long as it was finished fermenting, it shouldnt matter. the regular yeast should have finished up almost everything in the honey. i know its a popular theory (which -in theory- could possibly happen) that if you bottle with a different yeast strain then you fermented with, the different yeast strain could pick up other types of sugars the first strain left behind... but ive never heard one single piece of evidence of this actually happening in the real world.

at 6+ weeks, all the sugar that could have been eaten, would have been. champaign isnt much different from regular yeast, its just more active. they all eat approximately the same sugars.

Thanks for the response. That is pretty much the same answers I have gotten while doing my own research. The only reason I posted to ask the question is that I am fairly unfamiliar with Mead Yeast. I wasn't sure if the yeast acted entirely like the ale yeast. Thanks again and I will keep the thread updated with what I find out in the weeks to come.

It should be an interesting beer hopefully it comes out sort of like Bitches Brew, lol

I also used only 2.8 oz of priming sugar in a 5 gallon batch as I wanted to keep the CO2 level low. So hopefully no bombs

mind posting your recipes for both? sounds interesting been meaning to get my hands on bitchs brew

I sure can. Here is the basis of what I used for each of the beers. For the Old Rasputin recipe, I messed up and got all of the hops for that beer as Northern Brewers Gold hops (didn't know the ones listed were actually two different hops, I looked quick at my sheet when at the LHBS).

I found this recipe online, it wasn't confirmed as a clone, but I thought it would be a good start.

Beer Style
Russian Imperial Stout

Recipe Type
All Grain

malt & fermentables
% LB OZ MALT OR FERMENTABLE PPG °L
81% 14 0 American Two-row Pale 37 1 ~
6% 1 0 CaraVienne 35 21 ~
6% 1 0 American Crystal 90L 33 140 ~
3% 0 8 Chocolate Malt 34 475 ~
3% 0 8 Brown Malt 32 65 ~
1% 0 4 Roasted Barley 25 300 ~
17 4
Batch size: 5.0 gallons
Original Gravity
1.092 measured
(1.094 estimated)
Final Gravity
1.023 measured
(1.024 estimated)
Color
36° SRM / 71° EBC
(Black)
Mash Efficiency
73% measured
(75% used for O.G. estimate)
hops
USE TIME OZ VARIETY FORM AA
boil 60 mins 2.0 Brewer's Gold leaf 9.5
boil 30 mins 1.0 Northern Brewer leaf 7.9
boil 5 mins 1.0 Brewer's Gold leaf 9.5
boil 5 mins 1.0 Northern Brewer leaf 7.9
Boil: 6.5 avg gallons for 60 minutes
Bitterness
80.7 IBU / 19 HBU
ƒ: Tinseth
BU:GU
0.86
yeast
American Ale
ale yeast in liquid form with medium flocculation and 75% attenuation
American Ale

I used an aquirium pump to aerate the beer for about 45-50 min.
I also believe I added yeast nuitrient to it (I wasn't in the habit of taking notes at this time, that has changed moving forward).

I brewed this and then once done fermenting I put it in secondary for a few months (probably around 5). 5 days before I was ready to bottle the beer I added some cold brewed Hawaiin Kona Reserve coffee. (I wanted to change it up a bit and add some complexity, and I thought the coffee flavor with the T'ej would blend well)

This portion of the beer makes up 2/3 of the ratio.

The 1/3 left is for the T'ej honey beer. I found this from Dogfish Head. The Gesho root was hard to find, I ended up ordering it from Brundo (http://shop.brundo.com/product.sc;j...240AED.qscstrfrnt04?productId=38&categoryId=1)

What I found:

DFH's version of a t'ej(Ethiopian Meade). Non traditional as it uses
malt and doesnt ferment the gesho root in the t'ej. Also ignore the
hops they're only there to allow me to save this recipe. The bittering
will come from the Gesho root. To make bring 6 gallons of water to a
boil remove from heat and add honey/malt extract. Return to boil and
reduce to 5.5 gallons. Cool to pitching temp, rack, and pitch. Allow 3
days of fermentation to happen, then siphon half 2.5 gallons into a
pot, place gesho into grain bag, bring to t'ej to a boil and simmer
liquid and gesho for 15 min. Remove gesho, cool to under 75 degrees
and return portion to fermenter and allow fermentation to complete.
Rack to secondary for 2 weeks for cool condition then bottle. Ready to
drink in 2 weeks. Will age well. Courtesy of Extreme Brewing by Sam
Calagione show less


% LB OZ MALT OR FERMENTABLE PPG °L
72% 8 0 Honey 35 1 ~
28% 3 3 Northern Brewer Gold Malt Syrup 36 4 ~
11 3
Batch size: 5.0 gallons
Original Gravity
1.079 / 19.1° Plato
(1.071 to 1.083)
Final Gravity
1.020 / 5.1° Plato
(1.017 to 1.021)
Color
4° SRM / 8° EBC
(Yellow)
hops
USE TIME OZ VARIETY FORM AA
boil
Boil: 6.0 avg gallons for 60 minutes
Bitterness
2.1 IBU / 1 HBU
ƒ: Tinseth
BU:GU
0.03
yeast
Sweet Mead/Wine
ale yeast in liquid form with low flocculation and 75% attenuation
Alcohol
7.9% ABV / 6% ABW
Calories
261 per 12 oz.
misc
USE TIME AMOUNT INGREDIENT
primary 3 days 10 ounces Gesho Root

I ended up using on 8oz of the Gesho whole root as I didn't want to order a second and end up with 6 oz extra wasted.


When it was time to bottle, after the intial blend, I decided to see how it would taste in reverse. I blended 2/3 T'ej and then added in the rest of the RIS and then bottled. I wanted low carbination so I used 2.8oz table sugar for the priming sugar. I bottled this last week, so when I crack one open over labor day weekend I will update with how it came out.