Evil idea to celebrate new mash tun….

At long last, and against all hope, I have acquired a 10-gallon by dang beverage cooler! (I have despaired of ever finding one around here, and have completely given up on a legally acquired Sanke keg)… To celebrate the retirement of my pathetic 5-gallon mash tun, I want to brew up a fairly big beer. I was considering throwing a bunch of Golden Promise, and a bit of roasted barley at it and doing a Wee Heavy…. And then I thought, how about a Double Bock brewed as an Ale; call it “Debacle” (Dee-Bock-Ale…. yeah I know… cheesy as shucks)…. Then it hit me… how about I brew up a real monster…. Something that bears a passing resemblance (but only in passing) to a Belgian Dark Strong Ale…… throw the style guidelines out the window, and put some dang hops in there! Make it dark, not as reliant on sugars, have a much more restrained yeast presence, and only moderate carbonation…. basically mangle the style beyond recognition…. and more to my tastes. Sounds like fun to me…. tasty too….for a mutant brew…. I just about wore out the buttons on my calculator, and went through the better part of a pack of “yellow stickies” on this one (my brewing software will not work on my machine at work, dang Windows 7 compatibility issues… grrrr) but after a good bit of head scratching this is what I have come up with…..

“Apocalypse Ale”
For a 5-gallon batch:
11.5–pounds Pilsner malt
2-pounds Munich malt
0.5-pounds Special B
1-pound white wheat malt
0.25-pounds Carafa III
1-pound turbinado sugar
¼ cup molasses (wonder what that weighs??)
0.5 tsp black pepper
1.5-oz styrian goldings 60-min
0.5-oz styrian goldings 30-min
1-oz saaz 5-min. or maybe spalt…..
T-58 yeast (2-packs) rehydrated… then again, maybe I should just throw some Notty at it…
15-min. protein rest at 128 degrees, strike in at 1.2-quarts/pound with 4.58 gal at 139.7 degrees (assume grain at 70)
Step up to 149 degrees for 60-min with 2.37 gal. boiling water
Batch sparge
90-min. boil, sugars added last 10-min.
Should give me an O.G. in the mid-upper 80’s… like maybe 1.086 or 1.087… (big enough to be arrogant, but not overbearing…)
Color should be in the neighborhood of 23 SRM or so… probably end up darker, my hand calculations are not real reliable for color… Morey has been known to let me down…
Bitterness should be like 44 IBU (wonder if I should bump this up to more like 50… hee hee)
APV should be a good bit over 9%
I obviously need to check my numbers with the computer, but this seems evil enough to be unique, but still be enjoyable……… A beer to sip by the fire while the Zombies scratch at the door……….
So, what do you think????

I laughed at the "Debacle" name...

A little more bitter than I would like, but like you said, "mangled beyond recognition".

You're gonna need to age this bad boy, methinks.

throw some coriander in that joint. why not? its the apocalypse

stick with the t-58, or its liquid equivalent. Belgian flavors are key if you are making a mutant.

honestly though, ur recipe looks great! Let us know how it turns out.

*mutters*

Brewers on this board and frickin' coriander....

*grumble*
*mutter*
*glare*

Thanks guys.
I think I will stick with the T-58, even though it's kind of a PITA....
I'm also now considering cutting back just a bit on the bittering hops, and bumping up the late addition hops.... 'cause it will need some age, and I want the late hop additions to come through.

"Debacle" will be on-deck for the next batch.... still working out that one.
Can't wait for my "Oink-Toberfest" to get out of my fermenter.....

SWMBO would like an Oink-toberfest theme... lol!

Hah!..... I liked the name.... besides... what else would you call an American styled Octoberfest (and as an Ale at that) brewed by the "Piping Pig Pub"??????

one of my co-workers gets real grouchy when the commercial stuff is no longer available, so I thought I would at least try to get him through 'til spring..... one bottle at a time....

OK guys…. I’m going to escalate this concept. I’m so hyped up about this beer (so hyped up that I have also upgraded the rest of my system; new propane burner and brew pot) that I am going to do a three beer “New Mash Tun Celebration Series” following the same precepts…. Fairly big, different, unique, throw the style guidelines out the window, but no funky ingredients… Dark names, Dark Beer….. all calculations shall be done by hand, and all are to have late “Noble” hop additions…
Must be the Celt in me, but I like the symbology of doing three…
Anyway… this one, “Apocalypse Ale”, will be number one in the series, and will probably be the biggest…. Next I’ll do the “Debacle” (recipe under development)…. Still muddling around what to do to finish off the series……

Dark & noble... good call!

I even whipped up a label for it....https://cdn.homebrewtalk.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=41238&limit=recent
I have a tendency to get carried away......

OK, so I got this Brewed yesterday! It was a very smooth brew-day, and the new set up works great! I went with the recipe in the first post with the Saaz hops for the late addition, and the T-58 yeast. I really like the color so far. It took over an hour and 45 min. to boil down to volume, so I was a little pressed for time there at the end.... folks were just starting to show up for the game... so I didn't get an O.G. reading, would be off the scale on my hydrometer anyway, and would have to be extrapolated.... but from the wort I would say I was pretty dang close to the calculated estimate. It is now happily bubbling away.... so is the Mead I started on Saturday... life is good.

Update: I took a gravity sample after almost 3-weeks in the fermenter. I was very surprised that it was already down to my predicted F.G. I will take another sample here in a week, and if hasn’t dropped any more. I’ll go ahead and bottle. It took a great deal of willpower to not take a few more “samples”… wow, does this stuff have the potential to be spectacular! Even green and flat it sure does taste good! Not quite as much hop presence as I was after, but very well balanced…. Going to be hard to be patient.

Bottled 03/14/11
tastes pretty dang good so far.... let you all know how it turned out after it has conditioned for a few weeks.

we need photos, where are the beer Porn ?

-=Jason=-

Hah! Ok, but let it carb up first.... it is very dark, with somewhat ruby highlights, so it just might photograph well with a light behind it. I'll see if I can find a glass that doesn't have a lot of carbonate "scale" all over it......... stay tuned....