Way, way, way over the top Sam Adams Utopia clone

CornyKegs 728
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Has anyone tried the brew yet? It has been over a month, that bad boy should be able to at least touch one persons toungue.
 
Paul has and so have I. Last tasting it was really still sweet. It mellowed a bit more when it dropped another 10 points. Hopefully I can get it down another 10
 
I've got an Imperial Alt that started out at 1.100 and then stopped around 1.035. I tried adding fresh yeast to no avail. I ended up buying some of White Labs super high gravity yeast. I let the tube sit at room temp for a day and then pitched it (no starter) and after about 3 days I saw some airlock activity, maybe a bubble a minute. This has gone on for about a month. I'm planning on kegging this up this weekend regardless of what the FG is. I didn't taste too sweet at 1.036 so I'm not too worried about the FG. It is going in a keg so I don't have to worry about bottle bombs. I'll bottle it from the keg in a couple months.

I read online that people weren't real happy with big beers fermented soley with the SHG yeast, but I figure that since most of the fermentation was complete the flavors will largely be from the original yeast.
 
Kegged it. FG was 1.008, so the high gravity ale yeast did the job. 13.6% ABV. Tasted pretty good. Wasn't very hot on the tongue until late in the taste, not up front, so that should mellow nicley over the next year or so.
 
OK boys and girls,
Chris and I got together last night and racked the Utopia.

1236861572.jpg


We had a HUGE layer of yeast and trub on the bottom of the fermentor.
1236861613.jpg


You can see from the shadow on the inside how far up in the fermentor the yeast came.

1236861650.jpg


Sort of messed up our plans, we figured on racking into two 6 gallon carboys and because we lost so much we ended up going into a 6 and a 3.

1236861695.jpg


A six, a three and a large Grolsch bottle. Yup, we have a touch of extra beer left over. And it tastes GREAT!!!!!! Very malty, nice bitterness, complex, not too sweet and very nicely balanced.

Best part of all? I'm bringing the Grolsh bottle to The Witches Brew tonight (Thursday), so if anyone wants to try some, that is the place to be. TWB is open 6-8 tonight, I'll be there when Steve opens the door.

(I'll beat NowhereneartheCapeBrewing to the punch... No charge!)

Sorry for the crappy pictures, took them with my cellphone. The beer is nowhere near as cloudy as it looks in these pictures, but we also were pretty liberal when it came to sucking up yeast. We're at 1.030 (17.5% ABV) and there is still some fermenting going on so we wanted to keep a layer of yeast in the bottles, both for future fermentation/cleanup and as protection from oxidation. This is going to stay around in the carboys for at least another year and so we're planning ahead. I put a few handfuls of oak chips in a mason jar and covered them with Knob Creek, we'll be adding them to the mix in a few months.

We also decided based on samples last night to make another batch of this next year. It's THAT good!


Paulthenurse
 
yeah... no charge for the sample of beer but the little fluckin' dixie cup it comes in is gonna run you $8.

Wish I could swing through for the $8 sample but I'm on my death bed over here... horrific chest cold.
 
Take a picture of it in a tulip or something this evening and then pour it into the dixie cups from there. We want to see the color through the glass if you can.
 
Great idea.

I'd try to get SWMBO to pose with it in some sort of revealing outfit but I like my testicles as they are, dangling a bit south of my belt. I don't think I would enjoy them nearly as much if they were a set of earings dangling from her ears, so I'm not going to suggest it. Just know that I DID think of how to max it out for you guys. But in the end I put my wanker between my legs and cowered like a 5th grade girl at the thought of asking her.

PTN
 
Rhoobarb said:
Yeah... update, update! I just read through all 38 pages on my lunch hour!
Click to expand...

Good God, man! What a phenominal waste of time! I WROTE half of those 38 pages and I'd rather stick needles in my eyes than re-read the whole thread, it would be kinder to my eyes.

Espescially since there is nothing new since we racked. We plan on keeping it in the two carboys for many more months to age and smooth out. It has a lot of potential but needs time.

PTN
 
Yo Yeager,

I have the oak chips swimming in Makers Mark for about two weeks now. Next week how about you pull a sample and bring it by TWB on Friday? We can see where we stand and I'll give you the chips to replace the sample you pull.

I'll also bring the Pliny by there on Friday.

PTN
 
Yeager took out a half pint from each of the two carboys and added the wood chips. I took one pound of medium toasted chips and put them in a pint mason jar and then filled it up with Makers Mark. After a few months all of the whiskey had been absored by the chips and they smelled absolutely heavenly.

Yeager is very happy with it, he said it has mellowed dramaticly and the maple is more prominent than before. I'll be having my first taste since we racked this Thursday at TWB at 6 oclock. I only get to stick a tongue in since I'm on my way into work immediatly after, but if any of you guys want to swing by then you can try some. Don't be late cause I'm bringing the bottle with me when I leave for work, I'll be gone by 6:15.

PTN
 
Yeager pulled thru and delivered as promised. A pint of Utopia was waiting at TWB this afternoon. Unfortunately I was on my way into work and it's really frowned upon to show up to work in an ICU reeking and reeling from beer so I had to content myself with just sticking my tongue in and sniffing. (Sounds like a fun night, eh?)

So right now it has a gravity of 1.030 or thereabouts. It was straight from the fridge into the hydrometer flask, I held my hands around the flask for 5 minuts or so to warm it up but it still felt cold to me. Even cold the hydrometer settled at 1.036. I believe it is still slowly fermenting, Yeager pulled the sample two days ago and put it into a Grolsch bottle and there was a definate pop when I cracked the top. It wasn't the sound of air being pulled into the bottle from a vacuum caused by a temperature differential, it was definately the sound of pressure being released. Color was dark amber, very clear.

The aroma is definately a smooth mix of malt and hops with a hint of the maple syrup. The alcohol is still too strong, it needs more time to settle in but it is nowhere near as 'smack you in the face' as it was before. I'm really looking forward to the woodchips and scotch integrating into this, it is going to really add a nice touch. The chips had a VERY pronounced vanilla after soaking up all of the Makers Mark, that is going to be wicked pissa in this.

In the mouth the malt is very prominant. It is still a bit sweeter than I'd like it to be but it is close to being right on. The bitterness stands up to the sweetness well. There is no cough syrup clingyness to this at all. It is sweet, make no mistake, but it is balanced, if that makes sense. I hope it does continue to drop, if it gets down a few more points it will be perfectly in tune. Steve said it reminded him of the barley wine the SSBC did a while ago 'but doubled.' The maple is much more noticable than a few months ago but no-where near near what the real Utopia is. For me that is ok, I thought that the real Utopia had too much maple. We got a two thumbs up from Keemo Sabe, PaulTheOriginal and a n00b at the shop.

A few random thoughts going forward...

It's still way too early to worry about this but Yeager and I have to decide what to bottle this in. 12's seem too small and 22's seem too big. I want resealable bottles, perhaps with T-top corks, so maybe 375 cc hock wine bottles are the answer. Do any of you know if we would be rejected out of hand for sending a bottle of this to a competition in a corked 375 wine bottle?

I'm thinking about whether or not to try to get this to carbonate. The original Utopia isn't carbed and doesn't need it. As our clone sits now it is fine flat, I'm just thinking out loud. My inclination is to leave well enough alone but there is a part of me that says to try to carb a bottle or two just for the hell of it.

On that same line of stream of consciousness thinking I wondered about perhaps dry hopping a small amount of this. I thinka small amount of something herbal and earthy might work. Definately not the citrusy nose of cascade, that would be out of place. I just might take a bottle and drop in a single pellet to experiment.

I think I'll swing thru Cape Brewings soiree on Saturday with the remainder of the bottle since most of the guys headed there were either at Chris's for the Utopia brewday or wished they were. I'm interested in other opinions.

Yeager and I already decided to repeat this again this January, it's good enough now to.

PTN
 
Upon further consideration I'm thinking that the pressure was a result of the CO2 that was still in solution coming out of solution when the beer was jostled while being transfered into the bottle. I think that if there still is some fermentation going on it is happening way too slowly for two days in the bottle to develop pressure. The beer looks extremely clear, there isn't an active ferment going on.

PTN
 
From personal preference and knowing how much alcohol and work went into this, you really think 12oz bottles are too large? If i could find them i would go with 7oz bottles. A single bottle would certainly get me quite uninhibited
 
I would think that 375ml bottles would be fine, that's just shy of 13 oz and most competitions want 12-16 oz bottles. Whether they allows corks or not is something you'll have to check.
 
I agree, a 12 oz bottle is much, much too much for a single person/single sitting. This stuff is around 18% ABV and 600 calories. That's why I want recorkable bottles. BUt 12 ounces seems like an amount that you could get thru in a reasonable timeframe without putting your liver on the DL.


PTN
 
Home at last and I can do more than just stick my tongue in it. Wow! It's a lot more alcoholic than I thought, now that I can actually swallow what I put in my mouth and it's not 35 *F. Not oppressivley so, but it has a burn to it. The malt and hops are still in balance, in fact it has a VERY nice late finish of smooth, malty vanilla and caramel. Me likey!

Here are a few crappy pics from my Iphone, Al took the Digi to NJ for the wekend.

In a glass. It's raining here (again) so the background is rain on the screen and sort of distorts the view, but that's what I got.
1245412098.jpg

Settling at 1.032

1245412128.jpg



This one gives you a good idea of the color.

1245412064.jpg
 
I just quick-read the whole thread and didn't find that answer I was looking for...
Total ingredient bill? Just the grain/hops/Maple Sugar and stuff, not all the incidentals.
SWMBO sounded kind of curious about this whole project, and asked how much it cost to make such a big beer.
 
yeager1977 said:
Also here is the latest recipe we are following tomorrow:
Utopias Clone
23-A Specialty Beer
Author: PTN and Yeager1977



Size: 10 gal
Efficiency: 75.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 816.83 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.234 (1.026 - 1.120)
|================================|
Terminal Gravity: 1.059 (0.995 - 1.035)
|================================|
Color: 21.82 (1.0 - 50.0)
|==============#=================|
Alcohol: 24.71% (2.5% - 14.5%)
|================================|
Bitterness: 43.4 (0.0 - 100.0)
|==============#=================|

Ingredients:
60.0 lb English 2-row Pale
15 lb 6-Row Brewers Malt
3 lb 2-Row Caramel Malt 60L
3 lb Toasted Pale Malt
1 lb Melanoidin Malt
4 lb Munich 10L Malt
1 lb German Smoked
1.8 lb Maple Syrup
2 oz Spalt Spalter (4.8%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
2 oz Tettnanger (4.5%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
2 oz Hallertau (4.5%) - added during boil, boiled 15 min
2 oz Hallertau Mittelfruh (4.5%) - added during boil, boiled 1 min
4.0 ea White Labs WLP099 Super High Gravity Ale

Schedule:
Ambient Air: 70.0 °F
Source Water: 60.0 °F
Elevation: 0.0 m


Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.5.2
Click to expand...


Here you go, except we used more maple syrup, 4 lbs I think.
 
I don't remember my exact reasoning off the top of my head and I'm busy at work right now (obviously not THAT busy) but I seem to recall concern that we would need the extra husk material as we were doing such a thick mash. As itwas we used the 6 row and a bunch of rice hulls and lautering was still a PITA. I'll try to find my notes tomorrow.

PTN
 
Doesn't six row also have more enzymes so that you might be able to fully convert this beast? Just another thought whether correct or not.
 

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