paulthenurse
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Yup
Sam Adams Utopias clone - Calling all big beer experts! Paulthenurse and yeager1977
- Thread starter JonAllenNH
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JonAllenNH
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FINALLY DONE! Two racks, one from primary to secondary for aging and one for bottling. KMeta in both. Flavor is great. It'll be a really nice sipping/after dinner drink. A little more oak than I'd intended, even still, but overall very good. Some slight funk, plumbs and dark fruit, cinnamon flavors and alcohol warmth all come through despite the oak being stronger than I'd wanted. Decided to go fancy on the bottles since the guy who paid for this experiment basically paid $100/bottle. Hand dipping Belgian cork bottles in silver metallic (no higher than an inch or two from the top so beer only touches glass) to (hopefully) block nearly 100% of light making it great for aging. Labeled it with normal paper from a laser printer, then enameled the whole thing (again staying an inch or more short of the top). Corked with Zork closures so it has a pull tab, a tight seal for aging and can easily be removed and replaced. Finished it all off with a dip in blue wax. Personally, I think it's beautiful and worthy of the beer inside.
Wow. Color me impressed. Even commercial breweries struggle with beers this big. What was the combined OG/FG on this beast?
Incidentally I read a blog post recently where a guy challenged allegations that homebrewers can't make beer above 20% ABV, and he killed it. His process was very similar to yours -- any connection, perchance?
JonAllenNH
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OG 1.212 to a FG of 1.000, rounded up to 28% ABV on the labels. I've never had Utopias, but my brother has. His big complaint about mine is that Utopias is thick like syrup and mine, obviously given the FG, is not. Drinks easy and it's smooth, though.
A connection in that I probably read it. I'm not sure which one you're referring to, but I read one that sounds very similar on Brew Your Own. Suffice it to say I read pretty much everything I could on brewing big beers before trying this one. Funny, now when I brew normal beers it's almost boring...Incidentally I read a blog post recently where a guy challenged allegations that homebrewers can't make beer above 20% ABV, and he killed it. His process was very similar to yours -- any connection, perchance?
gotbags-10
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What's with the kmeta? I've used it in wine obviously never heard of using it in beer.
howamidriving
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Those bottles look amazing! Set that on the shelf next any high end craft bottle and I'd be none the wiser.
I've been causally following this thread and I'm excited this turned out for you!
I've been causally following this thread and I'm excited this turned out for you!
JonAllenNH
Well-Known Member
It was a recommendation from PaulTheNurse. The owner of my LHBS seconded the recommendation. Much like in wine, it stabilizes the flavor and prevents oxidation. The oxidation was the big concern during the racking, though unlikely. In the log run, these are excellent cellar candidates so it stabilizes it for longer cellaring. Between the kmeta, the high abv and the bottles blocking nearly 100% of light and being corked with zorks and waxed...pretty sure it could be cellared nearly indefinitely.
JonAllenNH
Well-Known Member
I think next time I might shoot for 30% abv. See how far I can push the envelope. This round was only (ha, only) supposed to be 23.8% abv, then after a fast start to fermenting followed by a steady drop on the hydrometer it looked like it was going to stop around 26% (1.010FG) and then during the aging (after I'd given up on it going any lower as it held at 1.010 for about a week) the last bit snuck out for 28% (1.000FG). Crazy little drunk yeast.
kmeta is short for potassium metabisulfite. It is a reducing agent (opposite of oxidizing agent) that will bind dissolved oxygen and prevent oxidation. It will also inhibit or kill bacteria, preventing spoilage due to contamination. It is considered to have less of a flavor impact than sodium metabisulfite which results in sulfurous notes when used in high concentrations.
The drawback to kmeta is that it will inhibit (but not kill) yeast activity, so it may prevent bottle conditioning and carbonation when used at higher concentrations. I don't remember dosages off hand, but they are readily available from winemaking resources.
JonAllenNH
Well-Known Member
Fortunately, this brew is not getting carbonated. So I went for it.
JonAllenNH
Well-Known Member
It's not missed if it is. You can smell it from a mile away...Isn't it going to lack aroma without carbonation?
It's a really exciting project, loads of fun - presuming you find brew day fun, but also a lot of work. I suspended all other brewing for about two months so I could devote all my brewing time to babying this thing. End result, worth it. It's super complex in the flavor. I might do it again and simplify the recipe. The smoked malt probably isn't necessary. It's not really noticeable especially since I oaked it. I've already had a lot of requests from other people to make more. People have offered upwards of $75-$100/bottle. Of course, I can't sell it for profit. That would be illegal.
thatjonguy
Now with 57.93% more awesome!
It's not missed if it is. You can smell it from a mile away...
It's a really exciting project, loads of fun - presuming you find brew day fun, but also a lot of work. I suspended all other brewing for about two months so I could devote all my brewing time to babying this thing. End result, worth it. It's super complex in the flavor. I might do it again and simplify the recipe. The smoked malt probably isn't necessary. It's not really noticeable especially since I oaked it. I've already had a lot of requests from other people to make more. People have offered upwards of $75-$100/bottle. Of course, I can't sell it for profit. That would be illegal.
Selling it in any form or fashion is illegal. Profits have nothing to do with it.
MonkeyBot
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This is an awesome thread and something I'd like to try at some point. I had a question about your process though. Did you mix a gallon of the mild starter beer with this? It sounded like that was part of your process. Or maybe a more direct question is, could you give a rundown of your process? How close is it to the steps in the first post?
True, but friends can legally buy into the ingredients for a batch. The rule should be that they only get their share if they come help bottle!
thatjonguy
Now with 57.93% more awesome!
Debatable, this has been beaten beyond death in many threads so I'll spare you the information.
If you were planning to do something like that, you probably shouldn't post the evidence on a public forum, including what the bottles look like.
JonAllenNH
Well-Known Member
The mild was strictly a starter that also happened to be quite tasty to drink. Bonus. That's why I went through the effort of hopping it. Plus, the idea was that it was a lower OG version of the full batch so it would give SOME indication of the full beer's flavor...but not even close, so don't do it on that basis. What I DID do was to reserve some of the initial wort in half gallon mason jars for later additions. These additions were used to dissolve the brown sugar additions. Despite freaking out numerous times and nearly changing my plans about 100 times I stayed pretty true to the original plan. Good luck.
*EDIT FOR CLARIFICATION* I reserved some of the initial wort of the full strength brew, not the mild. This had a lower OG than 1.212, the 1.212 was a calculation based on the sugars (maple syrup and brown sugar) to the primary. Also, I went through 2 bottles of Oxygen (the little red bottles at Home Depot/Lowes) so make sure you have enough. Sorry, didn't seem clear when I read it again this morning so just wanted to make sure it was clear.
JonAllenNH
Well-Known Member
And be there for brew day! Someone has to keep an eye on the pot while I'm drinking a beer. I'm pretty sure the ATF has bigger concerns than a couple of homebrewers going halvsies on the grain bill of a 5 gallon batch...or in the case of Euphoria a 3G batch. In any event, the selling it was a joke regardless of for profit or not.
MonkeyBot
Well-Known Member
OK that makes much more sense. I'm not sure I'll get to try this soon but it's definitely something I want to try.
What I really want to do is try and clone Kosmic Mother Funk and use that to blend per the actual Utopias. The problem there is finding some KMF to taste and then making the clone. Adding Tetravis or something else that uses KMF in blending might just be the way to go for simplicity.
JonAllenNH
Well-Known Member
Yeah, being such a limited release it's hard to find reliable tasting notes on KMF too, in my experience, but I haven't checked in a while. I don't recall if I mentioned it in my write-up, but I did add Tetavis, I think 4 750ml bottles, to the primary after fermentation slowed and I added the EC-1118 champagne yeast. 1) It has KMF in it. 2) The flavors are the most complementary of the SA Barrel Series that has KMF in it. 3) It's bottle conditioned with SA Champagne yeast so, if the little buggers survived the high ABV, which they likely didn't, hopefully they imparted some of the Sam Adams brewery yeast profile.
21L at OG 1.216 is fermenting. After 1 week, down to 1.120.
