11-11-11 1.11 og?

So 11-11-11 is a week away and I'm considering attempting some type of 1.11 OG brew. I can't do all grain. Any suggestions? Is it possible? (ps I need to purchase beersmith, I know)

i suggest you use dry yeast or two liquid vials of high flocculation yeast.

Dogphish said:

i suggest you use dry yeast or two liquid vials of high flocculation yeast.

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yeah that still wont be enough yeast.

it's possible, but your process has to be great, your yeast must be healthy, and your pitching rate must be right. You need to control fermentation perfectly.

In fermentables you will need 15lbs of Light Malt Extract, 1lb crystal, 1lb corn sugar, .5 lb Cara Munich. The key is healthy yeast, when I go big I pitch 2 packs of Safale-05. This might need more, or make a BIG starter.

you need to aerate the hell out of the wort, too. if you don't have an oxygen tank, the best you can do is to siphon out of the brew pot and let the wort fall a few feet into the fermenter with plenty of splashing. maybe put a clothes pin on your siphon tube in order to maximize the splashing/bubbling/aeration.

yeah, totally.

You may even wish to consider getting a sterile aeration system to use an aquarium pump to do some of the lifting for you.

How about the use of brown sugar/molasses/honey/candi sugar? Also, I'm not set up with a stir plate. Will 3 packs of yeast do? how much hops to balance everything out? I'm considering doing just a 3 gal batch. I'm sure this won't be a session beer!

As for aerating, I usually shake the hell out of my carboy for a minute or so. As for fermentation control (mainly temp), I'm not set up for adjusting temps. Mainly its in my basement on a concrete floor (right now pretty steady at 66). What else needs to be controlled, and if it isn't controlled well, what will the result be?

once again, i strongly suggest you trickle the wort out of the brew pot into the fermenter. shaking for a minute will not cause enough aeration for the yeast to properly multiply.

Mr. Malty estimates that you need at least 4 vials of yeast for a beer that big. You really probably need to at least get the aquarium pump and aeration stone to properly oxygenate this one. If you don't already have that or don't have access to it real cheap you might as well just get an oxygenation kit and buy small bottles of oxygen from Lowes/HD/etc. I've seen strategies with big beers where some people will even oxygenate the wort twice. Once right before they pitch and then again a day or two later. You don't have to worry about oxidation because the yeast will pick it up to help them grow some more.

I just did a 1.1 and the main thing was I transfered between two buckets a couple times to get it good and airated then pitched 1 packet of dry yeast. I did this batch on Thursday and she is still bubbling away and smells great!

Would you mind if I looked at your recipe?

Got my recipe created. We'll see how it goes!

Here is a recipe. What do you think? 10lbs pilsner, 10 lbs 2 row 2 oz aromatic, 3 oz chocolate. White labs farmhouse blend platinum yeast. Brewbuilder says it would be 1.110 OG 11.25 SRM and ABV of 11.53. About as close to 11-11-11 as I can get.

This is what I threw together. Please critique.

9 lbs Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 4 66.7 %
1 lbs Corn Sugar (Dextrose) (0.0 SRM) Sugar 6 7.4 %
8.0 oz Caramunich Malt (56.0 SRM) Grain 3 3.7 %
1 lbs Honey Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 2 7.4 %
1 lbs Brown Sugar, Dark (50.0 SRM) Sugar 5 7.4 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 30L (30.0 SRM) Grain 1 7.4 %
1.50 oz Northern Brewer [8.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 7 10.1 IBUs
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 11 2.2 IBUs
1.00 oz Nugget [13.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 10 7.9 IBUs
1.00 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 9 8.5 IBUs
1.00 oz Willamette [5.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 13 0.9 IBUs
0.50 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 12 -
4.00 oz Oak Chips (Secondary 7.0 days) Flavor 16 -
1.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Primary 3.0 days) Other 15 -
1.00 oz Galena [12.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 8 9.9 IBUs
2.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) [50.28 ml]

That comes out to 1.110OG, an estimated ABV of 12.5%, 39.3 IBUs, and 18 SRM

I was going to do the white labs high gravity yeast but it called for making a starter using 9 vials. I went dry, and it was just over 2 packs with no starter.

I'm a noob to the big beers, and I've only made a few of my own recipes, so if anything stands out, i'm all ears!

I did a 1.105 OG RIP. Made a BIG ASS starter and it got it down to about 1.026... that was the QYEAST Scottish Ale Yeast, btw...

This is a cool idea!

You might consider making a 3 or 4 gallon batch instead of five. Cuts down cost, amount of yeast needed, etc. It'll be a monster beer in many ways, so making less will make your whole process easier. And, as you said, this ain't no session beer!

"All your home brew are belong to us!"

OP - food for thought, have you thought about adding your sugars through primary additions? This is the method Dogfish Head uses for their 120 minute IPA - it sounds slightly intimidating however believe me, if I can do it - anybody can. Simply brew your big beer and pitch an American Ale strand yeast built up in a huge starter, let it go for a couple of days, then once a day (the DFH120 clone calls for twice) you sanitize everything, decoct around 2 cups of wort, stir in your sugar additive for that day, then carefully pour it back into the primary. Day 1-2 build up another starter using the Whitelabs Super high gravity yeast so by day 3-4, you can pitch that into your primary. You only have 2lbs sugar up there, that could be split into 8 small additions, or 4 if you wanted.

I would need the support of a more knowledgeable member on my next statement however I feel constantly feeding the yeast sugar and bombarding your wort with a massive starter of WL-1099, you'll be able to get that FG down out of the 20's. The problem with these big beers or at least to me is the sweetness. My 120 was very sweet - good at cold temps however a temp drop in the glass would bring out the sweetness and alcohol.

Keep the yeast hungry, keep them eating, keep them working.

Anyhow, my recommendations or things to consider:

Sugars:
- decocting wort and adding sugar additions daily into primary, pitching a second yeast (w/ starter) 3-4 days in to fermentation

Hops:
- Move your Nugget from 30 to 60, then move your Columbus from 30 to 10. Consider cutting backon a bittering hop, perhaps the NB. I would also recommend another ounce (or 2) at the end of your boil, say 1oz Cascade at 7min and 1oz Columbus at 3min
- Consider dry hopping (1-2 ounces, Cascade and Willamette had always gone well together for me)

Good Luck! I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with in the end.

Also, as for a label (just thinking about this) you should find a font online, something really creepy, print some flat black labels then in white lettering apply the following to it centered:

11-11-11

Nothing else, no names, no ABV or brewdate, just the numbers. Something about that would just be creepy, and kind of badass - like the beer .

Cheers!

Brewed a Maharaja clone last night using about 2#s of unneeded DME, apparently. OG was 1.111.

Pitched at 60 degrees onto a cake of WLP090 (san diego super yeast), oxygenated with O2 for 90 seconds. Warmed to 62 and 4 hours later oxygenated again. Warmed to 64 before leaving the house...hopefully everything is going smoothly when I get home.

Thanks Jsmith for all the info. When you say decoct, do you mean simply remove some wort from the fermentor then add 1/8 or 1/4 of my corn sugar brown sugar mix then dump back into the fermentor?

Also, I've never made a starter. I have some twist top growlers. Should I do 8oz extract, a few cups of water and a vial of yeast then use a small stopper and airlock and shake it a few times a day?

Another thing, with the O2 being so important but I don't have a pump, does it hurt to shake everything up daily through fermentation or do I need the yeast cake settled on the bottom?

Thanks for the direction on the hops, I'm still trying to get them figured out.

You've got it. My method - I would fill up a 1/2 gallon bucket with hot water + sanitizer, place a glass measuring cup (mine was for 2 cups), a ladle, and a small whisk in the bucket and leave it for 10 minutes. CAREFULLY open your ferment bucket, using the ladle take out about 1-1.5 cups worth of wort placing it into your cup. Add your sugar addition into the cup and using your whisk, stir it carefully to mix it thoroughly. Pour lightly back into your ferment bucket and close the lid.

Again though - not sure if that method will even be of use to you, or necessary. However it does work, in theory to me it seems it would be less strenuous on your yeast.

As for your starter, boil up 2 cups of water with 1/2-3/4 cups DME a couple days before your brew day (if you use a liquid yeast pack after all for the first pitch, smack it open 24hrs before making your starter). Transfer this over to the vessel you'll be building your starter in (I use a large mason jar), bring it down to optimal pitching / fermenting temperature, pitch your yeast into it then cover the top with foil. Here lies the fun part, I'm guessing you don't have a stir plate? I don't either. Place the starter in a safe dark location (no light!) in a room that you'll frequent. Every time you walk by, pick it up and carefully swirl it, then put it back. By brew day you should have a yeast party going on.

As for aeration, just be sure to aerate the hell out of the wort before your first pitch - you should be fine from there.

Hops - I personally don't really get a lot from mid boil additions therefore I like to place 1 nice bitter addition on the front, then blast the last 15 minutes. It's given me good results on higher gravity beers I've brewed in the past.

I have a question for curiosity's sake if this is a partial boil: with such a high gravity, can you get that many IBUs in there? As I understand it, there is a ceiling of about 100 IBU, but that would be less I imagine as gravity goes up. Plus, if you're boiling 3 gallons and diluting up to 5, that means your max IBU could only be about 60 independent of such a high gravity. I don't have Beersmith here at work, but the online calculators I used out of piqued interest did not reflect the ceiling.

Beersmith gave me 39 ibu's. Ps, I'm naming this "Eleventy." Thanks a ton for the advice!!

Starter made (properly I hope), ingredients purchased, brew beers in the fridge, buddies on the way. Lets hope this goes well!

Pics or it never happened.

With me, a good brew day always has some sort of screw up. As I was so focused on the 1.11og, I forgot that I still had to add 2 lb of sugars (brown and corn) with my second yeast, so my recipe on beersmith included those 2 in the 1.11, however when I measured before pitching (and without the 2lb of sugars that will be added later), I forgot about them, and added enough water to get it to 1.11. Now I only have about 3.5 gal in the fermentor, but more sugar to add. Should I A-add water to it now and give it a good swirl before the first fermentation peaks or B-add the sugars with boiled and cooled water. Either way, how can I get the water mixed in without oxidation? Its always something when I'm stepping out of the box.

Wasn't prepared to help with that scenario :cross:

If it were me I would leave it as is, get the second starter up ASAP and pitch it in - That was a hefty OG. You'll have a great beer without the added sugars, just not as much of it, but that's not necessarily a problem when you're brewing up a batch of rocket fuel - it's not a session beer. I would set the focus point on getting the yeast some backup and getting that FG down.

As to boiling up another 1.5 gallons water and adding then trying to feed the sugars; I'd be hesitant. I've never added water after the fact, I'm sure it can be done though but it's not something I would plan to do. Perhaps somebody with a little more experience can chime in on that.

I read a few posts about the water addition, and many felt that it'd be fine real early in fermentation. I added the water and watched the yeast do it's thing through today. It seemed the yeast was slowing down and the gravity was 1.025 so I pitched the high gravity yeast starter and my first addition of the sugars. I'm splitting it into 4 additions so they should be finished Thursday. I used a carboy instead of a bucket so the hardest part is going to be getting the wort out. My turkey baster sucks so I might use my auto syphon. The fun continues! I'm worried about carbonation as I just found out that I overcarbed (somehow) my chocolate coffee stout. I don't have kegs, although I may end up getting one if it's a bit easier to tweak over time.

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Before my final sugar addition, I gave this a taste. Gravity was at 1.022 (where it's been before all 3 additions so far). You first get a nice citrus note followed by a winey tingle on the tongue then some good hop bitterness at the end. I'm officially super excited for this. I can't decide on dry hopping or not. How long should it stay in the primary?secondary? I'm thinking 3 more in the primary then 3 in the secondary. Will the yeast survive enough to bottle and carb after all that? I'm real nervous about it carvbing properly.

3 1/2 weeks in the primary and i'm down to 1.016! The late pitch and sugar additions worked great. It has cleared up really well. Its been sitting on the toasted oak chips for long enough now, so I think i'm going to transfer it to the secondary on Sunday. (I have a party Saturday and I want my buds to see what a primary looks like (the wife wont let me brew Thursday to have some active fermentation for the party)). The taste is great and not crazy strong or heavy. I'm SUPER thrilled with this beer. I'll bottle around new years.

Update- Bottled today (appropriate- 11-11-11 brew, 1-1 bottle). It has a nice citrusy aroma and flavor, a fair amount of bitterness and again, the citrus is prevalent. Surprisingly for a 14% beer, there's no real big wine or alcohol burn at the end. It has quite a dry finish. I'm going to leave it in the bottles as long as my patience will allow me but i'm real excited to see how it tastes carbonated.

So I had some carbing issues and my patience wore out after 4.5 months so I added champagne yeast to the bottles and low and behold the little buggers carbed right up in 3 weeks. The citrusy hoppiness is gone but it tastes like a minty snickers bar now. Stellar!!!

About 3 weeks ago I took 2 of the 11-11-11 brews and poured them into a Mr. Beer bottle, added a little champagne yeast, tightened the cap and gave the bottle a swirl. Checked it last night, that bottle is rock solid so carb completed! I'm popping it in the fridge today and giving it a go probably next weekend-ish. I'll answer back and let you know....

That's funny you just posted that because last night, after my 3 bottle test worked, I uncapped all my eleventies, added champagne yeast, and recapped. Most hop flavor is gone. It's like a minty snickers now. Good luck drinking 32 oz!