First big beer?

[chrismcdaniel3128]

Hello everybody
Doing our first "big beer" this weekend. yay
just wondering if there were any hints, or extra tips on doing one.
Thanks
Chris

 

[deepcdan99]

Bigger beers are the same as the small ones. One good tip...drink them slower! Oh...and make a yeast starter if liquid yeast and make sure you aerate the crap out of your cooled wort.

 

[chrismcdaniel3128]

well that makes it easy enough, except for drinking slower

 

[BryceL]

Pure oxygen is the way to go for big beers if you can swing it...

 

[chrismcdaniel3128]

have an oxygen bottle but not a stone would i be gaining anything by just putting the end of the hose into the wort and turning it on slowly

 

[Edcculus]

All Grain? If so,

-make sure your calcs are down right and have a big enough mash tun.
-its ok to supplement with some extract if you miss your targeted gravity
-make a HUGE starter (use the Mr. Malty calculator).
-dont get impatient with the fermentation.

 

[DobrePivo]

Plan for a small beer off the second runnings. I made a nice 3% session bitter off the second running of a barleywine a few weeks ago. Had some extra Goldings kicking around, and a little extra 1056 yeast.

 

[chrismcdaniel3128]

All Grain? If so,

-make sure your calcs are down right and have a big enough mash tun.
-its ok to supplement with some extract if you miss your targeted gravity
-make a HUGE starter (use the Mr. Malty calculator).
-dont get impatient with the fermentation.

all grain
1.096 10 gallon mashtun
hope not
two packs notty
3 weeks fermentor keg wait til it tastes good?

 

[chrismcdaniel3128]

Plan for a small beer off the second runnings. I made a nice 3% session bitter off the second running of a barleywine a few weeks ago. Had some extra Goldings kicking around, and a little extra 1056 yeast.

what would a 1.096 give for second runnings guessing i pulled 6.5 gallons from the first runnings, or would i just have to check it and maybe have some dme on
hand? seems like kinda a waste to have to use dme

 

[chrismcdaniel3128]

but plus one on the idea
here's the recipe if that helps any
9.5 pale ale malt
4 white wheat
1' 4'' caramel wheat
1 honey malt
1 golden naked oats
6'' coffee malt
mash high
3 oz hallertauer 60 min
1 oz cocoa pwdr 5 min
1 oz vanilla pwdr flame out
two packs notty
3 weeks primary?
cacao nibs 1-8 oz in keg?
keg til it tastes good

 

[malevolent]

Gonna be packed in that 10 gallon mash tun pretty tight

 

[chrismcdaniel3128]

like em tight

 

[BLTalpos]

I'd suggest making a blow off tube instead of a standard airlock. Big beers can overwhelm the small airlock and nobody wants to clean-up their beer before trying it.

 

[Rivenin]

i did one recently with 22lbs of grain and got about 60ish% EFF... plan for lower EFF% then you normally would. or run more off and boil longer. got about 9%.
if you are doing a barleywine esc beer, just boil longer, the caramelized flavors are more wanted in that type of beer, plus that wheat would be interesting in i'm guessing that really good way.

 

[prrriiide]

Gonna be packed in that 10 gallon mash tun pretty tight

I get 24# in my 10 g rubbermaid with no problem. At 17# I'd start worrying about too much headspace.

 

[spearko520]

have an oxygen bottle but not a stone would i be gaining anything by just putting the end of the hose into the wort and turning it on slowly

if you can get something in the end of the hose that has a smaller orifice, you will get smaller bubbles and they will dissolve better. you can take a piece of 3/8 copper and crimp the end flat, so that just a little squirts out- even melt the end of the tub shut and put a bunch of pinholes in it with a hot needle. The high grav beers i have had best success with have had a very big starter, a lot of 02 (i usually aerate for the first three days) and sugar additions over the first week or two of primary. i also usually pitch with a clean yeast (like so4) and then throw in an 099 starter after a few days. doing the addition thing makes it hard to know your exact ABV, but you can get a rough idea where your gravity would be, had you started with everything that eventually goes in, and where you end up.

 

[spearko520]

I'd suggest making a blow off tube instead of a standard airlock. Big beers can overwhelm the small airlock and nobody wants to clean-up their beer before trying it.

+1 THAT! mopping ceilings is cool

 

[chrismcdaniel3128]

if you can get something in the end of the hose that has a smaller orifice, you will get smaller bubbles and they will dissolve better. you can take a piece of 3/8 copper and crimp the end flat, so that just a little squirts out- even melt the end of the tub shut and put a bunch of pinholes in it with a hot needle. The high grav beers i have had best success with have had a very big starter, a lot of 02 (i usually aerate for the first three days) and sugar additions over the first week or two of primary. i also usually pitch with a clean yeast (like so4) and then throw in an 099 starter after a few days. doing the addition thing makes it hard to know your exact ABV, but you can get a rough idea where your gravity would be, had you started with everything that eventually goes in, and where you end up.

would an aquarium stone work? or only s.s.

 

[spearko520]

mine is ss, but i know people that use aquarium stones- i guess boil it- i get mine boiling and then run a little gas through it (not too much or you'll be blowing boiling water all over!)

 

[chrismcdaniel3128]

brewed it fit in the mash tun just fine came out 1.089, fit in 5 gallons lite lager, and 10 deader guy ale, now that just barely fits in a 10 gallon tun