Massive Ales

I love all beers, great and small. But the small ones are usually for the (soon to be) wife and her friends. I like massive beers. 12% + behemoths. I've made a few in the 14% to 16% range and they've gone wonderfully. Ok, now to the important part.

I bottle condition everything. My past few beers over 11% haven't carbonated well. There is a tiny hiss when I open the bottle (after 2-3 months) and no bubbles to speak of. I've been following a similar process as before, but I'm ready to make some tweaks if there can be.

Current process: (as it usually is, some variation is possible)

Mash around 150

2 hour boil to condense to wort to 1.110 +

Cool with therminator to about 80 (my ground water is currently pretty warm)

Cool to 70 in ferm chamber, then pitch appropriate amount of starter slurry calculated by Mr. Malty

Primary at 68 for 3 weeks, then ramp up to 74 for another week

Secondary at 68 for 2 months

Add more yeast about 3 days before bottling

Bottle with ~ 4 oz cane sugar, then wait at least 6 weeks before even checking in on them

So, a few things I am wondering about.

Should I be adding yeast at bottling time instead of a couple days earlier?
Should I be skipping secondary?
Should I just start kegging?

Anything else?

At the amount of alcohol your beer have, most yeast will be at about their tolerance level and will have difficulty fermenting out the priming sugar. Since Champagne yeast is supposed to have higher alcohol tolerance but less ability to ferment maltose, this might be a solution as it can easily digest the priming sugar. You should do a little research on this instead of just taking my word for it though.

You should be adding yeast at bottling time. I've done that in the past for big beers, turned out great.

Thanks for the advice.

I've been adding champagne yeast a couple days before bottling, I'll try adding it at bottling time next time (rehydrated of course)

Kegging is more money but the beer will be carBed exactly how you like it and much less waiting for carbonation.
I would think that big beers would benefit.

You just need to find a yueast better suited to high alcohol environments. Most yeast wont fair too well past 10%

check out WLP090 and WLP099. Theres also the option of whiskey yeasts

m00ps said:

You just need to find a yueast better suited to high alcohol environments. Most yeast wont fair too well past 10%

check out WLP090 and WLP099. Theres also the option of whiskey yeasts

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I checked again, the IIIPA, Trippel and Barleywine are all carbonated. I added champagne yeast to the bottles about 4 weeks ago, and while I had no carbonation after 2 weeks, they're perfect now. I'll check 'em again in 2 more weeks and see if they're trying to overcarb or not, but as they are right now, they're excellent.

When I'm nervous about carbing, I add a little yeast nutrient to my priming solution.

ChelisHubby said:

Kegging is more money but the beer will be carBed exactly how you like it and much less waiting for carbonation.
I would think that big beers would benefit.

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He already said he bottles everything. Leave kegging out of it, please.



Just think if someone went into every thread where someone has a problem with their kegging equipment, and said "You should bottle. It's cheaper and all you have to do is wait a little longer. All that money saved can go to more beer!" It would be obnoxious, and that's why I personally don't do it.

Please refrain from being obnoxious in the future!

slym2none said:

He already said he bottles everything. Leave kegging out of it, please.



Just think if someone went into every thread where someone has a problem with their kegging equipment, and said "You should bottle. It's cheaper and all you have to do is wait a little longer. All that money saved can go to more beer!" It would be obnoxious, and that's why I personally don't do it.

Please refrain from being obnoxious in the future!

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Sorry my bad!

slym2none said:

He already said he bottles everything. Leave kegging out of it, please.



Just think if someone went into every thread where someone has a problem with their kegging equipment, and said "You should bottle. It's cheaper and all you have to do is wait a little longer. All that money saved can go to more beer!" It would be obnoxious, and that's why I personally don't do it.

Please refrain from being obnoxious in the future!

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True, but the OP also says...

bruteforce said:

Should I be adding yeast at bottling time instead of a couple days earlier?
Should I be skipping secondary?
Should I just start kegging?

Anything else?

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So I don't think that's obnoxious. I think I would find a better way to say what you said and refrain from calling other people obnoxious in the future, personally.

On topic, kegging might make things easier, but I believe that bottle conditioning offers some benefits to big beers. Long conditioning times in the bottle add a lot to the character and feel of the beer in my opinion, and a small amount of oxidation are actually desirable in some cases, such as barley wine.

Hmm, I actually missed that in the OP. My bad...

ChelisHubby said:

Sorry my bad!

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My apologies - I missed where the OP asked if he should start kegging.