Is my Bastard Ready?

I just brewed this up 9 days ago.

16 pound two row
1/2 special B
1/2 biscuit
1/2 aromatic
1/2 caramunich
1.25 chinook at 75
1.25 chinook at 45
1.00 chinook at 2
1.00 chinook at 1

OG = 1.075

pitched two packs of rehydrated notty and fermented at 65 degrees
After 3 days she was done, FG = 1.015.

So I threw in the one ounce chinook dry hop on day 4 and it has been at resting every since on the primary cake.

So my question is this, I know it is a big beer, but could it possibly be ready for the bottle after just two weeks? I am thinking so... I may bottle it this weekend on day 14...the fermentation was so fast and healthy.

That seems really fast, but if the hydro says 1.015 on day 14 as well, then I would bottle. If the hydro reading has changed more than a point or two on day 14, I would give it another week, just in case.

Very simple. If your hydrometer reading today says 1.015 again, it's done. If it says lower, take a reading day after tomorrow. If it's the same, it's done.

The beer is certainly done, there is not doubt about that. It was the fastest fermentation I have ever witnessed of a beer that big. yeast nutrient, oxygen, and a ton of yeast. They did there job in a hurry, that is for sure. I think 11 days is adequate time to clean up after themselves. I will likely bottle on day 14.

My rule of thumb is, stable hydrometer reading, yeast starting to flocculate=beer done. The yeast are done cleaning up when they start to drop out, after all, they are not doing anything when they are pancaked on the bottom of the fermenter.

smizak said:

My rule of thumb is, stable hydrometer reading, yeast starting to flocculate=beer done. The yeast are done cleaning up when they start to drop out, after all, they are not doing anything when they are pancaked on the bottom of the fermenter.

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The yeast are flocced out completely, that is for sure. I have a very clear beer already. It was crazy how cleanly, and with such speed that this ale fermented. The only thing close to this that I ever saw was when I racked 1.095 OG RIS onto a pacman cake with nutrient. It was down to 1.018 after 3 days and starting to clear. These yeasts act very similar...notty and pacman.

Bottle it!

i am really excited abou this beer, I have never even had the the orignal bastard, so I won't even be able to tell if my clone is close, but I will be able to tell if it is tasty or not....I am sure it will be great.

The recipe looks great, so I'm sure you'll be close!

You will be really close!!!

Man, I can't wait to try this thing. I have heard so much about the bastard ale and there is none in North Dakota! So I guess I won't know the difference, but this should give me an idea. I listened to the Jamil Show Podcast and his recipe was wildly different, loaded with crystal malt and with chocolate too....didn't sound all that great to me.

I'm pretty sure they said they didn't clone it.

I really like Arrogant Bastard with spicy food. It has a big malt presence, almost bock-like, but those Chinooks cut through it really quick. The mixture of sweetness and aggressive bitterness just works with hot curries for me. They serve it at one of my favorite Indian restaurants, I get it every time.

Yeah Stone has not released AB or DB. Guess it will remain a in house recipe. But I think that recipe is really on point!!!! I did not have a AB to do a side by side.

Do you think a beer like this will be ready to drink after 3 weeks in the bottle? I bet it will be "bastardly" after 3 weeks in the bottle! It sounds like my kind of beer. I bet it will be awesome with some blazin hot buffalo wings!

smizak, you are correct...Jamil reported it as not cloned!

I bottled this up yesterday, it sure was finished. Final Gravity was 1.013, and there was a HUGE yeast cake, almost seemed a shame to waste it.

The sample tasted fairly decent for how young it is, certainly bitter and a tad fiery, it is %8 abv. Not much for hop aroma yet, but I think carbonation helps release that and make it more apparent.

Thats the exact recipe I have done, but doubled the batch and added 3 packets of Notty. It was the most ferocious fermentation I have ever seen. After a day very few bubbles so i dragged it into the hallway from the fermentation room for a little extra warmth. Once it started bubbling I put it back in the room. The next time i checked the airlock was dry, so I added more brandy to it that started bubbling ferociously. When I came home next I could hear hissing from outside the door. I found the airlock filled and almost clogged and a bunch of krausen on the wall, ceiling and anything in a 7 foot radius. I removed one of the caps from the orange carboy cap and a huge hiss of air escaped from all the built up pressure in there. Soon there was a bubbling flow of lava like krausen coming out the top (I took a video I will post when I figure out how). This was with 4 gallons of headspace in the top of a Sanke fermenter. After 9 days I racked to two carboys dry hopped one with 1.5 oz of Chinook, and the other with 1 oz willamete and .5 Chinook and added 1.5 oz of American oak as well.

The Chinook dry hopped went into a keg on Friday and the other got racked to another carboy till I had time to bottle. On Tuesday I bottled the Oaked Bastard adding some 2.5 oz bourbon to the last 2.5 gallons.

I got to try AB for the first time last weekend, can't wait to try out my own versions.

Wow, you gotta love notty! I was very suprised it dried my beer out like it did, I fermented cool, and mashed at 154...still took it way down! I think 1.013 is going to be about perfect!

After 6 days in the bottle I tried one. It is crystal clear, has an enourmous fluffy head and is AWESOME right now. A little hot from the %8 ABV, but the malt flavor/profile is very impressive. The special B and caramunich give it an amazing sweet depth behind the crazy hops. I can see why you all love this beer so much!