High Gravity IPA with with Champagne Yeast

Quick question. I'm thinking of doing a high gravity IPA with specialty grains, liquid pilsner extract, and dextrose. Let's say I'm shooting for 15%. I like dry beers but my guess is this will be extremely dry. Thoughts? Should I go with a California Ale Yeast first and then hit it with the champagne yeast? Should I try adding something that add non-fermentables like lactose. Any thoughts on specialty grains that will add as much body to this as I can before drying it out?

Recipe I'm thinking like this.

Steeping
1 lbs caramel 10L
4 oz Carapils

10 lbs liquid pilsner extract
3 lbs Extra Light DME
4 lbs Dextrose

Hops

Amarillo 2 oz 60 min
Simcoe 2 oz 60 min
Amarillo 2 oz 30 min
Simcoe 2 oz 30 min
Cascade 2 oz 5 min

White Labs Champagne Yeast(doing a start)

My first reaction to your post is that if you try to brew a 15% extract beer, you will boy need to worry about it being too dry.

I would use mostly pale lme, a half pound of Munich, half pound of crystal 40, and 1 lb dextrose Max.

Also, a 8-10% beer will be much more manageable. Many more things come into play as your beers get bigger than that. Huge starters, super yeast, and pure oxygen are often required.


Mike

Also, ferment initially with beer yeast and use temp control. Finish with champagne yeast if you need.

I also just read your hop schedule. Is that for a full boil? Seems like 4 oz of hops at 60 minutes might be a little much.

mlg5039 said:

My first reaction to your post is that if you try to brew a 15% extract beer, you will boy need to worry about it being too dry.

I would use mostly pale lme, a half pound of Munich, half pound of crystal 40, and 1 lb dextrose Max.

Also, a 8-10% beer will be much more manageable. Many more things come into play as your beers get bigger than that. Huge starters, super yeast, and pure oxygen are often required.


Mike

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Nice. So with an extract the likelyhood of it drying out drops? I think cutting the dextrose back might be a good idea. Why pale instead of pilsner lme? Just wondering.

mlg5039 said:

Also, ferment initially with beer yeast and use temp control. Finish with champagne yeast if you need.

I also just read your hop schedule. Is that for a full boil? Seems like 4 oz of hops at 60 minutes might be a little much.

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It works out to 136 IBUs. It might be over doing it some.

A. Ferment the beer with a yeast you like to normally use, Wyeast 1056, WLP001, whatever. Once that ferments out, then pitch the second yeast.

B. Don't use Champagne yeast, i've heard it can finish very, very dry, and take a long, long time to reach FG. Try WLP099 - Super High Gravity Yeast

C. Consider incremental feeding. Don't add all the fermentable sugar right away. Add some canned wort, honey, maple syrup, or dextrose once the yeast chew through most of the maltose.

D. Here's my thread where I'm cloning Dogfish 120 Minute https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/dfh-120-minute-clone-259314/ I'm currently at about 20.6% ABV. Lots of info there that might help. Obviously use less corn sugar than I did if you want 15% ABV

Nice, looks like adding the dextrose to the back end is a much better idea. Thanks. That link is awesome, that looks amazing. I'll go with a California Ale Yeast and see where I am and then hit it with a second starter if an when ready.

McBrewskie said:

Nice, looks like adding the dextrose to the back end is a much better idea. Thanks. That link is awesome, that looks amazing. I'll go with a California Ale Yeast and see where I am and then hit it with a second starter if an when ready.

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Safale US-05 is a super easy way to go if you use Cal Ale yeast. You can just pitch like 3 packets, and not have to make a starter.