How low is too low, Final Gravity for IIPA

[permo]

Too make a long story short, I pitched a ton of healthy rogue pacman yeast, I created a highly fermentable wort by mashing at 150 and I incrementally fed 2 pounds of corn sugar to the fermenter 3-4 days after fermentation had started.

My OG was 1.090 or so on this beer...I think I must have done things too well! The rogue yeast is a beast, I am currently sitting at 1.012 FG and over %10 ABV. I have 100 IBU in this hog as well...

My question is, will %10 ABV or even a little more just be to rediculous for a IIPA....to fiery or unpleasant to drink possibly? My fermentation temperature was 62-65 degrees througout fermentation so I am not anticipating any off flavors from that...but SHEESH that yeast is a beast.

This is my first IIPA and I know that my OG was on the high end of the style, and now my FG is on the low end for the style...I suspect it still drops another point or two as well....I think it will end up at 1.010 FG and %10.5 ABV..........I am not sure if I should be exicted to bottle and drink this thing or be scared!

I can post the recipe again if need be.

 

[LVBen]

I just made an IIPA with an OG of 1.084. I hope it drops to at least below 1.014. I've got about 100 IBUs also, and I think 100 IBUs is near a good balance for high ABV beers.

 

[MVKTR2]

I think it will really depend on your recipe as to how it effects the drinkability of the brew. I can't imagine you won't have some alcohol character with it being that big and finishing that low. I believe lagering, even for 2-3 weeks, will help with that if you find alcohol prominent when sampling. Having said that if you have enough malt character, especially crystal & moderately roasted malt, then it should still be balanced.

My personal taste are that I enjoy a fairly dried out bier. I generally mash at 149-151 and have had pale ales and blondes finish at 1.007. Yet I like a good malt backbone. My favorite IPAs are Hop Rod Rye and Victory IPA which I find to have suitable malt character to balance the substantial hop character. I find them more palatable than Racer 5 or some other very fine IPAs, and prefer the more balanced drinkable biers.

Schlante,
Phillip

 

[slowbie]

IIRC, Bell's Hopslam finishes at 1.010, and I would consider that to be my favorite beer right now. It comes in around 10% as well, so yours should be fine.

If you don't like it you can send it all to me.

 

[KyleWolf]

I wonder what the difference is between your calculated ABV and what may actually be there. Since you were adding sugar in increments during primary you were changing what the OG would have been. With that basically pure fermentable, it isn't surprising I guess it finished dry.

Though I will say, that beer sounds like a heavy hitter and I imagine it will take great.
As slowbie said, the hopslam isn't far off from what you have there, I think you will be just fine

 

[smokinghole]

I'm not nearly your alcohol but my PTE clone is dryhopping right now and at transfer to secondary it was at 1.013 I suspect it to end up closer to 1.010 or a tad lower.

 

[petep1980]

My PTE finished either 1.006 or 1.008. I had a APA once finish that low and it was borderline undrinkable. At bottling with the PTE clone I added 8oz malto-dextrine for some body. It was much better. Of course the IBUs were much greater than the APA, so that may have masked some alcohol profile.

My OG was also not nearly as high as yours.

 

[permo]

I wonder what the difference is between your calculated ABV and what may actually be there. Since you were adding sugar in increments during primary you were changing what the OG would have been. With that basically pure fermentable, it isn't surprising I guess it finished dry.

Though I will say, that beer sounds like a heavy hitter and I imagine it will take great.
As slowbie said, the hopslam isn't far off from what you have there, I think you will be just fine

Well, the 2# of sugar is %100 fermentable, so I just added 2# sugar to my original recipe in beer smith, I then took how many points that upped my OG estimation, and added those points to my orginal measured OG, before the sugar. In my 5 gallon recipe it raised it .018 or so.

The scary part about this beer, is that the yeast was still in suspension after 9 days.......so still chewing away at fermentables probably.

15 pound two row
1/2 pound caramel 120
1/2 pound cara/pils
6 oz munich
6 oz victory

that's the grain bill - the color looks so nice and golden orange........the hop bill is in intense with summit for bittering and chinook/willamete/cascade for aroma and flavor. 10.5 oz total hops.

then the 2# sugar after the fact.

I also wonder if I should dry hop, I am actually hoping that this beer will cellar/age well...so I know the dry hop will fade over time and may not be necassary.