what's needed for high alcohol beers?

[1990dtgl98]

So, after my wedding this weekend, SWMBO is allowing me to drop some serious money on doing a huge IPA. I'm planning on doing something in between a Dogfish 90 and 120 IPA. Around 14-15% ABV. Ton of hops.

But, am I going to far? :cross: What's needed for a 15%ABV beer? Special yeast, or constant aeration? I know most ale yeasts can handle 10-11 and push it to 12% ABV, so should I maybe stick to a IIPA that keeps it under 12%?

Basically, I'm trying to determine if its worthwhile to go for that 15% mark, or tone it down and save (??) a lot of money and/or time.

Thanks guys!

 

[homebrewer_99]

What you need to realize that a 15% brew takes a long time to age enough to make the brew enjoyable.

Now, if you should change you mind and brew maybe 2 batches of 7% then your wait should be about 1/2 and you'd have twice as much brew to enjoy.

 

[skidaddytn]

At that %, you might even need to try freeze distillation... I'd go for a 8-9%.. much easier and faster..

 

[1990dtgl98]

No fun guys, no fun.

I happen to be a fan of high alchy beers....

 

[lostboysbrew]

We are in the same boat. We have a Double IPA that comes in at about 9% and we are messing with the next batch to push 15%+...........you will need to pitch a high gravity yeast, or a champagne yeast to get it up.........you have to add sugars in stages though and keep measuring.

We plan on using an additional DME boil to add to our already fermented IPA to continue the fermentation. after that we plan on just throwing sugar at it to keep it going. However if you get to much int here and the yeast stops, your stuck with a sugary beer, which is NO GOOD!

Good luck!

 

[HBHoss]

28 pounds of 2-Row base malt will give you a 15% ABV beer. I just played around in BeerSmith and with that one change it upped the gravity to 1152. Total grain bill was 31 pounds.
btw, congrats on the wedding!

 

[MarsColonist]

it is hard to get beers that high in alcohol to not be cloyingly sweet. need to finish in the teens, IMO.

can you fit that much grain in your mash tun and still have a 1.25 qt/lb H2O/grist ratio? mash low and long (145°F for 90 minutes or more) for more fermentables, add table sugar to the fermentation (in sugar water form), pitch a huge starter of high gravity yeast, oxygenate right before pitch, then again a number of hours later as you see the krausen starting to form (when you just start to see the foam, not in the middle of the heavy foam).

also Brewstrong is doing a multipart series on high gravity brew.. they have done 2 of 4

 

[steinsato]

Jamil just did a 2-3 part show on brewing big beers. Lots of tips on how to brew a big beer successfully. Check out his archives from just the past 3 weeks. www.thebrewingnetwork.com These shows were on Brewstrong.

 

[olllllo]

A right-sized pitch of healthy alcohol tolerant yeast.
Sometimes a brewer will use additional malt and sugar in the primary during fermentation.

 

[Justibone]

I think you'll have to use multiple types of yeast, and add your ingredients in stages. I've never done it, though... but I'll guarantee getting double-digit ABV while brewing beer is going to be a pain.

 

[strat_thru_marshall]

Pitch a big ol starter of WLP001, it'll get you up there if you use a big enough healthy starter. Good luck with the brew...make sure your MLT and BK can hold the volume you'll need...it'd suck to mill 28 pounds of grain and then overflow your MLT!!

Also, Id recommend you find a recipe online or in a book that is tried and successful. With the amount of $ you'll drop on ingredients and time spent I'd be not fun to find out your recipe was no good.

 

[nigel31]

Definitely check out Jamil's show. +1 for that.

Massive starter (see his site: www.mrmalty.com for starter size and quantity of yeast to pitch).

You may need to pitch another starter once the first is done. Possibly.

Congrats on your marriage. And in finding a mate who's happy that you're a homebrewer.

She's your wife, not your SWMBO. Take pride in that--you married her, right? "Wife" has a much more manly/chivalrous/romantic ring to it than "swimbo"; doesn't make you seem p-whipped, either, but proud that she's yours. IMH.... Then again, if she's one of those "must be obeyed" sorts, good luck with her.

But I digress. Happy brewing, for real.

 

[Justibone]

She's your wife, not your SWMBO. Take pride in that--you married her, right? "Wife" has a much more manly/chivalrous/romantic ring to it than "swimbo"; doesn't make you seem p-whipped, either, but proud that she's yours. IMH.... Then again, if she's one of those "must be obeyed" sorts, good luck with her.

I personally use SWMBO as a tongue-in-cheek kinda thing. If you don't care for that kind of joke... *shrug*

SWMBO likes it, though!!

 

[wildwest450]

She's your wife, not your SWMBO. Take pride in that--you married her, right? "Wife" has a much more manly/chivalrous/romantic ring to it than "swimbo"; doesn't make you seem p-whipped, either, but proud that she's yours. IMH.... Then again, if she's one of those "must be obeyed" sorts, good luck with her.

But I digress. Happy brewing, for real.

Dude, it's a tongue in cheek acronym, that's commonly used on this site. Get a hold of yourself. I tend to find it a tad on the weenie side, but scolding people for using it will get you nowhere fast.


.

 

[jacefive]

Just to throw this out there, the only time I ever got bottle bombs was using WLP high gravity yeast on a 7.5% beer. It seemed stable, a few days at FG, but 6-8 weeks in bottles had them popping. Guess you may want to rouse the fermentation vessel or freeze the bottles when you're happy with carbonation, or of course, force carb. Anyway, this yeast lives up to its name.

 

[maida7]

I would not make a 15% beer with all malt. It's gonna be very sweet and cloying. You should use 20% simple sugars to help with attenuation. BUT add the simple sugars during the ferment. Start the ferment with the barley base beer and then feed the fermenter sugars just after you think it has peaked.

Also make sure the barley wort is mashed low and long so it's very fermentable. Your gonna need to give special consideration to how you get such a high gravity wort out of your mash. I'd think seriously about not sparging. If you sparge your gonna have to do a super long boil to concentrate it. The long boil is gonna make for lotsa carmelization.

Temp control is also very important. If your ferment goes slightly cold for a day it will send all the yeast to sleep. You need to really warm things towards the end to make sure the yeast stay active and fully attenuate the beer.

The biggest beer I've made is 9%. I don't see the appeal of a 15% beer.

 

[BrookdaleBrew]

I think you'll have to use multiple types of yeast, and add your ingredients in stages. I've never done it, though... but I'll guarantee getting double-digit ABV while brewing beer is going to be a pain.

I just brewed my first double digit ABV beer and had no trouble at all. Did an IIPA that got to 11.3% no problem. It all depends on what yeast you use and how big of a starter you make.

 

[1990dtgl98]

Pitch a big ol starter of WLP001, it'll get you up there if you use a big enough healthy starter. Good luck with the brew...make sure your MLT and BK can hold the volume you'll need...it'd suck to mill 28 pounds of grain and then overflow your MLT!!

Also, Id recommend you find a recipe online or in a book that is tried and successful. With the amount of $ you'll drop on ingredients and time spent I'd be not fun to find out your recipe was no good.

I actually think I'm going to do a 3gal batch just because the amount of hops I want to use for it would be rediculously out of my price range for a 5gal batch.

I also decided to keep it around 10-11% as it will be my first big beer, I didn't want to go toooooo overboard.

Would a vial of white labs be enough for a 3gal batch, or would I still need a starter?

And I think I'm still going to try my own recipie, I'm the weird one that wants to have everything about the beer my own, not just actually making it, but creating it too.

She's your wife, not your SWMBO. Take pride in that--you married her, right? "Wife" has a much more manly/chivalrous/romantic ring to it than "swimbo"; doesn't make you seem p-whipped, either, but proud that she's yours. IMH.... Then again, if she's one of those "must be obeyed" sorts, good luck with her.

But I digress. Happy brewing, for real.

As the others said, its tongue-in-cheek. It works though when I brew, as she has a love-hate relationship with me on those days.

Just to throw this out there, the only time I ever got bottle bombs was using WLP high gravity yeast on a 7.5% beer. It seemed stable, a few days at FG, but 6-8 weeks in bottles had them popping. Guess you may want to rouse the fermentation vessel or freeze the bottles when you're happy with carbonation, or of course, force carb. Anyway, this yeast lives up to its name.

Will keep that in mind :rockin:

I just brewed my first double digit ABV beer and had no trouble at all. Did an IIPA that got to 11.3% no problem. It all depends on what yeast you use and how big of a starter you make.

This thread was revived from a while ago. I think I decided on a -10-11% ish beer. I wanted to get into the double digits for the cool factor, but didn't want to jump the gun as I've never done such a big beer. Maybe if 11% goes well enough, I'll step it up to 15% down the road. :cross:

 

[maida7]

I don't think 1 vial of yeast is enough. I would highly recommend making a starter. Use the yeast pitching calculator on mrmalty.com to figure out what size starter to make.

 

[strat_thru_marshall]

I don't think 1 vial of yeast is enough. I would highly recommend making a starter. Use the yeast pitching calculator on mrmalty.com to figure out what size starter to make.

Agreed. 1 vial would be about right if you were doing 3 gallons of 1.040 wort. Being over 1.100 I would for sure use a starter or at the very least pitch two vials.