Question about an Old Stock Ale Extract Recipe

[Pie_Man]

I originally posted this on the Recipes page, but it might be more appropriate here as I have a few more questions I'd like to add.

Hello Everyone. So, I really like North Coast's Old Stock Ale, and I found an older post with the recipe listed below. I'd like to know if anyone has tried this recipe and what their results were. Also, the note's to recipe say, "you need to boil your first gallon of wort very hard for 30 to 45 min." What exactly does that entail? Do I boil all the DME in just one gallon of water for 30-45 minutes? That doesn't seem right because the recipe calls for 13lbs. of DME. Please help. Also, this will be my third batch of home brew. Does this recipe seem doable at this point? I'm a little concerned since this is a high alcohol beer, but I don't know if that concern is warranted. Thanks in advance, this forum has been a great help.

Original Thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/north-coast-old-stock-ale-clone-help-98357/

Recipe:
Category: Strong Ale
Subcategory: Old Ale
Recipe Type: Extract
Batch Size: 5 gal.
Volume Boiled: 6 gal.
Mash Efficiency: 72 %
Total Grain/Extract: 13.00 lbs.
Total Hops: 3.0 oz.
Calories (12 fl. oz.): 460.6
Cost to Brew: $49.50 (USD)
Cost per Bottle (12 fl. oz.): $0.93 (USD)

Ingredients
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5 lbs. Dry Amber Extract
4 lbs. Dry Light Extract
4 lbs. Dry Dark Extract
1.5 oz. Fuggle (Pellets, 4.75 %AA) boiled 60 minutes.
1.5 oz. East Kent Goldings (Pellets, 5.00 %AA) boiled 10 minutes.
Yeast: White Labs WLP001 California Ale

Notes
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BrewCrAzY Clone Recipe of one of my favorite big beers. To get the rich
carmely flavor you need to boil your first gallon of wort very hard for
30 to 45 min. Ferment at 67F.

Vital Statistics
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Original Gravity: 1.114
Terminal Gravity: 1.026
Color: 18.24 SRM
Bitterness: 37.9 IBU
Alcohol (%volume): 11.7 %

 

[McGarnigle]

It's definitely to caramelize the wort a bit, but it cannot be 13 lbs. in one gallon of water. I think the person who wrote it just didn't explain it.

It is otherwise set for a full boil. Can you do that, or do you only do a partial? I'd be worried about low IBUs if you overcrowd the wort.

I don't know..maybe I'd just take a few pounds of extract and boil in 1g of water for 30 minutes before starting the boil for real.

I'm not sure about that recipe. You'd definitely need a starter, or even brew it to pitch on an existing yeast cake. It uses amber and dark malt and no specialty grains, which is suppose is OK, but not what most of us do. It will likely take a long time to taste good.

 

[McGarnigle]

All right, more research (I'm bored at work) shows the exact same comment for the all grain version (below). I suspect it just carried over. In all grain, you'd have 6-7 gallons of wort post-mash and could take just 1g and boil for 30-40 minutes first before boiling the rest. That's probably the idea. So you could just take 2-3 lbs or DME and boil in a gallon of water before doing the main boil.

http://www.beertools.com/html/recipe.php?view=6481

 

[Pie_Man]

Thanks, for the help. I've been doing partial boils and then adding water to create a 5 gallon batch. I'm able to boil about 2.5 gallons. So, maybe I'll boil about 5 pound of DME for 30-40 minutes and then add the remaining DME and complete the recipe. Do you think a partial boil would turn out okay with this recipe, or should I hold off until I have the equipment to do a full boil?

 

[McGarnigle]

You can o a partial boil, but you might also try late extract addition. Hold back several pounds until the last 10 minutes or so of the boil. So you'd basically be adding the extract at three different times.