High-gravity brews can be fun to make, but they bring with them some unique challenges: 1) to get a highly concentrated wort, sparge water must be limited, resulting in low efficiencies and wasted sugars; 2) it is difficult to get a beer high in alcohol without either poor attenuation or hot alcohol; 3) In the highest of gravities, the addition of simple sugars leave the yeast without the nutrients they need, leading to off-flavors.
Challenge number 1 can be counteracted with the parti-gyle technique, but the problem with that lies in the fact that a high-gravity beer should be mashed low, and a low-gravity beer should be mashed high for proper attenuation.
To counteract these issues, I may attempt the following method:
To start, mash as usual for a high-gravity beer (lots of grain, low water/grain ratio), but mash a bit higher, maybe around 154 F. Collect only the first runnings from this mash. These running should comprise a bit over half of the pre-boil volume. For me, this would be 3.25 gallons.
Add a 50/50 mixture of 6-row and instant rice (or some other adjunct) to the grain and enough water for a low water/grain ratio and low mash temp. Mash low and long, perhaps as long 2 hours, even. It will take a while to convert. Mash out and use only the first runnings from this mash to fill out the preboil volume.
(It may be beneficial to do two separate boils so that the wort from the first mash doesn't sit warm for too long; the energy expended will remain similar in either the 1 boil or 2 boil method because the total wort volume is the same.)
One could then add simple sugars to the boiling wort as normal.
The benefits of this method, as I see them are:
1) All editions are first runnings, so the highest of gravities is possible.
2) Wasted sugars are mostly from rice, which is cheap and relatively flavorless.
3) The most flavorful maltose will have low fermentability, whereas relatively flavorless maltose will have high fermentability. This will give the desired high gravity (and the desirable phenols etc.) while conserving as much flavor as possible.
4) Alcohol should be high, but not hot. If done right, dextrins and sugars from the first mash will hide the alcohol but not be so abundant that the beer is cloyingly sweet (as is sometimes the case in Barleywines).
5) The vast majority of sugars are maltose and therefore are accompanied by nutrients needed by the yeast.
This method would only be beneficial for very high-gravity styles, such as Belgian Strong Dark. Sounds interesting to me. Anyone else have comments?
Challenge number 1 can be counteracted with the parti-gyle technique, but the problem with that lies in the fact that a high-gravity beer should be mashed low, and a low-gravity beer should be mashed high for proper attenuation.
To counteract these issues, I may attempt the following method:
To start, mash as usual for a high-gravity beer (lots of grain, low water/grain ratio), but mash a bit higher, maybe around 154 F. Collect only the first runnings from this mash. These running should comprise a bit over half of the pre-boil volume. For me, this would be 3.25 gallons.
Add a 50/50 mixture of 6-row and instant rice (or some other adjunct) to the grain and enough water for a low water/grain ratio and low mash temp. Mash low and long, perhaps as long 2 hours, even. It will take a while to convert. Mash out and use only the first runnings from this mash to fill out the preboil volume.
(It may be beneficial to do two separate boils so that the wort from the first mash doesn't sit warm for too long; the energy expended will remain similar in either the 1 boil or 2 boil method because the total wort volume is the same.)
One could then add simple sugars to the boiling wort as normal.
The benefits of this method, as I see them are:
1) All editions are first runnings, so the highest of gravities is possible.
2) Wasted sugars are mostly from rice, which is cheap and relatively flavorless.
3) The most flavorful maltose will have low fermentability, whereas relatively flavorless maltose will have high fermentability. This will give the desired high gravity (and the desirable phenols etc.) while conserving as much flavor as possible.
4) Alcohol should be high, but not hot. If done right, dextrins and sugars from the first mash will hide the alcohol but not be so abundant that the beer is cloyingly sweet (as is sometimes the case in Barleywines).
5) The vast majority of sugars are maltose and therefore are accompanied by nutrients needed by the yeast.
This method would only be beneficial for very high-gravity styles, such as Belgian Strong Dark. Sounds interesting to me. Anyone else have comments?
