20%abv beers and using dextrose

[coolitamigo]

My goal at some point is to create a 15-20% abv barley wine using the methods in the dogfish 120 ipa clone. The use of 11 lbs of dextrose per 5 gallon batch and only about 16 lbs of pilsner makes me wonder what that corn sugar will do to the taste. Will this be productive to making that overpowering sweet alcohol taste? Seems odd but I really appreciate that in the 120, and find some barley wines lacking the boozy burn.

Also curious on if I should just use an english or american standard 2 row instead of the pilsner, since I think that is more typical of the style? Another thing is instead of following the insane hop schedule of the 120 I was thinking of trying the warrior/willamette combo that stone uses in Old guardian (only about 75 percent sure it was willamette, but sounds good to me with warrior bittering). Let me know any suggestions you may have.

 

[Oldsock]

Certainly sounds reasonable, but I might go with more malt (I'd go Maris Otter since you are getting so much gravity from the sugar). Adding some dark crystal might be a good idea as well for added caramel flavor. At that ratio you are getting close to 50% sugar by extract. A simpler hop schedule would certainly turn out comparable results, most of the things DFH does are about marketing rather than making good beer.

Other than that just make sure you have the rest of your process down before attempting it. Pitching rates, aeration, fermentation temps etc... Good luck.

 

[Pete08]

I used 23 odd pounds of barley, that was base and specialty grains, and once it was settling down I fed it twice with equal amounts of dme, organic cane sugar, and turbinado sugar for a total of 4.5 additional pounds. I don't have my stats handy, but altogether came in at 18% with 110 ibus. My terminal gravity was 1.024.

 

[coolitamigo]

I used 23 odd pounds of barley, that was base and specialty grains, and once it was settling down I fed it twice with equal amounts of dme, organic cane sugar, and turbinado sugar for a total of 4.5 additional pounds. I don't have my stats handy, but altogether came in at 18% with 110 ibus. My terminal gravity was 1.024.

yeah after reading about how turbinado can add hints of that raw flavor to the beer I have been thinking of using a mix to get it to a higher gravity.

thanks for the readings. I'll try this recipe with some dark crystals as soon as I get my keggle cut.. 5 gallons wont cut it.