10%+ ABV beer with strong hoppy aroma, but not IBUs?

[agurkas]

From the moment I started homebrewing, I have an obsession higher ABV beers. I also love love love the strong complex hoppy aroma.
Any suggestions for the recipes I should make?
I have Clone Brews book, but I am not finding anything fitting the profile. I could dry-hopp the heck out of barley wine, but I really don't want to wait 6+ months to even find out if I did OK.

 

[Gavagai]

Lagunita's Brown Shugga is the closest thing to your description that I can think of. The following is a recipe from the Jamil Show. (I've not brewed it.)

6 Gal. batch
OG: 1.099
FG: 1.023
SRM: 17.5
IBU: ~55
ABV 10.1%

16# American Two Row
3.8# Wheat Malt
1.05# Crystal 60L
1# Munich 10L
0.3# Crystal 105L
0.23# Crystal 150L
0.61# Dark Brown Sugar @ 30min

44g Willamette 4.1% @ 90min
10g Nuggets 12.7% @ 45min
31g Willamette 4.1% @ 45min
3.5g Nuggets 12.7% @ 1min
11g Liberty 4.5% @ 1min
22.5g Centennial 8% @ 1min
21g Cascade 6.5% @ Dry Hop
21g Centennial 8% @ Dry Hop
21g Liberty 4.5% @ Dry Hop

Mash Temp: 155F, Boil Time 90min
English yeast : WLP002/WY1968
Ferment Temp: 64F

 

[agurkas]

Looks like a full grain recipe. I am still at partial mash skill level.

 

[Gavagai]

There's nothing there that can't be converted. Here's a shot:

5.5 pounds light DME
4 pounds wheat DME (adjust the ratio of these two depending on the percentage of wheat in your extract, this is based on ~60% wheat)

Do a mini-mash with the pound of munich, then the rest is the same. Should get you close.

 

[godfathermg57]

I suggest you get another carboy and make quicker beers in one and use the other to condition high gravity stouts, barleywines, DIPA's, etc. This will make patience easier. Otherwise I would never be able to wait a few months to begin drinking a high alcohol batch.

Also, the 6month thing is really to make the bottles shine. Between you and me you leave in the secondary for about month and then once in bottles, crack one open once a week. For one you get to drink your beer, understand how it develops, and you have like 48 bottles, so you can afford to space them out.

 

[agurkas]

So if I do like a barley wine, the trick is to get it off the trub and have it age in the secondary for several months, not the bottles?

 

[dcp27]

the longer you let it age the better it will meld together, but it's certainly still drinkable within a few months

 

[Golddiggie]

So if I do like a barley wine, the trick is to get it off the trub and have it age in the secondary for several months, not the bottles?

The 'trick' is to let it go at least a month in primary. You could rack to secondary, after 4-8 weeks in primary. Also consider adding some oak chips in secondary, for 2-8 weeks. Once you're happy with how things are going, you could bottle and let carbonate/condition for a month, or two, before trying one. I believe that higher ABV brews need longer to carbonate than more modest ones...

I would also make sure to use a yeast that has a tolerance above what the brew is expected to hit. That way you can carbonate with sugars and not need to keg and carbonate with CO2 (you can still bottle once it's carbonated, but it requires more hardware to do so).

 

[05m50dan]

Also very important with doing a big brew is to add significant amount of yeast. If you are using dry yeast, use more then one pack. I did an Imperial Stout with liquid yeast. I did the same recipe twice, once with a full gallon yeast starter (5 gallon batch) first, then the second time with just an activator smack pack. The first brew fermented in about 5 days and tasted fantastic. The second brew slowly fermented over about 2.5 weeks, and the final result wasn't as good. [Or proper fermentation of a big brew you need lots of yeast.

 

[Golddiggie]

Any brew with an OG of above 1.060, using liquid yeast, would benefit from a starter... So that's a good chunk of what I've already made... I've just defaulted to making a starter for my yeast, to make sure it's in a good way before I pitch it in... Any brew that I'm making with an OG of above about 1.085 gets a larger starter.

I also let any brew that's got an OG of above 1.065 go at least 3-4 weeks in primary. Under 1.065 I give at least 2-3 weeks in primary (tasting and taking hydrometer readings to ensure it's "ready" for bottles).

I have a Braggot recipe in the works with an OG of about 1.122, FG estimate is 1.033, so almost 12% ABV... I'm planning for at least one month in primary (probably end up closer to two months). With another 1-2 months aging on oak. Then I'll probably put it into a corny to age for another 3-4 months before bottling it up. I hope to have it ready before the holiday season 2011 (so November/December)... In order to hit my target time frame, I'll need to start it before the end of March...

 

[agurkas]

The Braggot recipe sounds VERY interesting.

Question: for 10%+ ABV beers, is liquid still measurably better yeast, or is going dry yeast route is the way to go?

 

[Golddiggie]

The Braggot will be using 6 pounds of Maris Otter 2 Row for the base malt, plus two pounds of British Crystal Malt (.5# I, .5# II, 1# Dark I) all mashed around 158F of 60-90 minutes, plus 12 pounds of honey (type TBD)... I'll be using Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale yeast. I pick the yeast strain by it's profile and if it can do the job. Right now, I'm using only Wyeast for my beer's, but I've been using Lalvin dry yeast for my meads. I will make a starter for the Braggot, plus use some yeast nutrient, to help things progress along. It's going to be interesting with the merged brew type (part beer, part mead, all goodness)... With the hops I'll be using, I should hit about 25 IBU. By the time it's done, and ready to be consumed, you might barely detect the hops. But, I'm good with that. I'd rather know to increase the hops for the next time, than have to let it age for X more months before it's drinkable (in my opinion). Plus, 25 IBU's is dead center for the style range (0-50)...

I wouldn't say one type (dry or liquid) is better, or worse, than the other. It's more of a personal choice. Plus, how comfortable you are with the strain of yeast.

I do keep a couple of packets of EC-1118 on hand at all times though. Especially when something big is fermenting. Never know when you'll need to use a late addition yeast to finish the job. I might end up needing to add a packet of that to the Braggot before it's done fermenting. Unless I reduce the OG a little, to get the ABV just under 12% (the approximate limit for the 1728 yeast)...

 

[agurkas]

Hey Golddiggie,
Do we have any homebrewer meetups here in Boston area? On the West coast they have groups that regularly meet and taste beers. Would love to find something like that here.

 

[Golddiggie]

Hey Golddiggie,
Do we have any homebrewer meetups here in Boston area? On the West coast they have groups that regularly meet and taste beers. Would love to find something like that here.

There is, and I'm a member (see my card? )... We had a brew day yesterday in fact, at my place. We sampled everything that's not yet bottled (the one batch in bottles isn't ready yet)... That included three types of mead, an Old Ale, a (now) BarleyWine, and an Irish Red Ale. We brewed a Boddington's Pub Ale clone for the brew of the day...

Today, I'm bottling the Irish Red Ale. We figured the Old Ale needs to be on oak for another 2-4 weeks. The BarleyWine will be ready for bottles, as soon as I can hunt down ones that I'll be happy with, and will work.

I might be hosting another brew day on 2/13/11 (busy on 2/12/11)... If not that weekend/day, then probably the following weekend. We will be brewing at the Strange Brew event on 2/26/12. Going for a 10 gallon batch of Cream Ale. I'll have my propane burner by then, as well as either a 60 or 80 quart pot (with a steamer basket)... We'll be using the BIAB method then too... Should be interesting with 22 pounds of grain.

 

[dcp27]

Hey Golddiggie,
Do we have any homebrewer meetups here in Boston area? On the West coast they have groups that regularly meet and taste beers. Would love to find something like that here.

you can check out http://www.wort.org/

We don't have our next meeting lined up yet cuz things are a lil hectic with setting up the Boston Homebrew Competition next month.

 

[Golddiggie]

For the Boston HomeBrewers MeetUP group... No cost to join...

For the original question about getting more hop aroma in the brew, I would just either dry hop (a little at a time, until you're happy/hoppy with it) and not use a lot of hops during the boil (for the 60 minute hop boil time)... You could have some during the last 20 minutes, to get a bit of flavor in there. Also add some at flame-out/during (or after) chilling the wort.

For the dry hopping, I would make sure that the brew is fully fermented before doing it. So, post month 2 during the process. Then, when you're happy, rack off of the hops. Before bottling (a good month or so ahead) take a sample and see if you want to add some more hop flavor, or not. If you use pellet hops, I would use a hop bag for them. I have some chrome ball bearings that could be used to weigh the hop bag down, if it's needed.