When I did my test batch, I boiled 1.75 gallons down to .5 gallons. It took the full 90 minute boil. It was a full rolling boil the whole time and wanted to boil over the whole time! This was on the stove. With a wider pot it could go a bit quicker though. I'm planning on boiling down the first runnings over the entire 120 minute boil for the big batch.
12-12-12 Wee Heavy Recipe Formulation
- Thread starter smokinghole
- Start date
Help Support Homebrew Talk:
When I did my test batch, I boiled 1.75 gallons down to .5 gallons. It took the full 90 minute boil. It was a full rolling boil the whole time and wanted to boil over the whole time! This was on the stove. With a wider pot it could go a bit quicker though. I'm planning on boiling down the first runnings over the entire 120 minute boil for the big batch.
Me too. Now to MR Malty to figure out how much slurry to pitch.....
My real issue is I've never brewed an all grain this large before. I have a new mash tun that will easily hold this - but I've never used it before. So to use up some days off before the end of the year I'll be taking a day off next week to brew up a version of the 9-9-9 Barleywine to test my system.
So on second thought this isn't an issue it's an opportunity.
As to the boil down question - I did a reduction for my 70/- a few weeks ago. I used my kitchen stove and it's 7K BTU mid-sized burner and it took about 1.5 hours for it to boil from about 1 gallon to a quart or so. For this batch I'll probably use the "power" burner (15K BTU or so)on the same stove and be a bit more aggressive on the heat and on the reduction. I'm planning 2 hours for this part of the job - but if you use your first runnings the pot can be on the stove while you finish your sparge steps and start your actual boil...should be plenty of time.
I'm getting excited
de5m0mike
Well-Known Member
I already put a 1.8L (~1.050) starter on the stir plate for 3 days. It's in the fridge now to separate the yeast from the wort. I plan to Decant and then add a second 1.8L starter before brewing. My question is, what would be the ideal time to get the second one going so it's in the height of activity when I pitch it?
bottlebomber
Well-Known Member
de5m0mike said:
With yeast that's already been roused recently, I would make the starter in the morning, brew, chill, and by the afternoon that thing is going to be chugging at full bore.
Is it too late for me to get in on this? When I first saw the posts, I was just moving to AG and felt there was no way I could manage this complexity. Having about 40 gallons of AG brews under my belt, I now feel like I know my equipment and process well enough to handle it. I have most of what I need already, just have to get the yeast (no problem).
![Craft A Brew - Safale BE-256 Yeast - Fermentis - Belgian Ale Dry Yeast - For Belgian & Strong Ales - Ingredients for Home Brewing - Beer Making Supplies - [3 Pack]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51bcKEwQmWL._SL500_.jpg)
bottlebomber
Well-Known Member
Piratwolf said:
Not at all, I don't even think the majority of us have brewed it yet
mrdauber64
Well-Known Member
I only have a 5 gallon mash tun. Could I do this recipe by splitting the grains into two 12.5 lb mashes and only using the first running and second runnings? I normally do two batch sparges so I would leave the 3rd runnings in the grains. Would this work? If I typically get 70% efficiency, what would my gravity be? I am fairly new at all-grain, so I've never done multiple mashes to get a high gravity beer. Would I be better off just adding DME to the boil?
bottlebomber
Well-Known Member
mrdauber64 said:
I don't think anyone would exclude you for using some DME, but why not make an experiment out of it, for the good of HBT - you can make a batch using 12 pounds of grain, and just mash and sparge are normal. Heat up your wort to denature temp. And then run another batch using your wort as your strike and sparge water. Then maybe run a small sparge with plain water to rinse. It should work, and I know there are a lot of people on the forum with 5 gallon coolers who would love to know if you could.
OP
OP
You could certainly split the mashes. That's what I've done in the past for my over the top RIS.
Ok - You should certainly read through the last 30 plus pages to see all the thought that went into this recipe - but I think this post (#247) https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/12-12-12-wee-heavy-recipe-formulation-271379/index25.html#post3409524
Has the two "agreed" upon recipes, I think most of us are going with the more simple recipe - but I could be wrong.....
Anyhow - Welcome to the swap
OP
OP
Heating up strike water now. My yeast growing is going well. I have a mason jar almost full already. Grain is all milled and I'm just waiting for 8gal of strike water to heat up to 175 so I can get this mash going.
KingBrianI
Well-Known Member
Good luck!
acuenca
Well-Known Member
Do/are most of you using oxygen infusion systems for brews this big, shake and stir, or aquarium stone?? Just want to get the best and healthiest yeast attenuation possible...
Cromwell
Well-Known Member
I always use oxygen from Home Despot. But for this I made a big starter as well as oxygen and nutrient.
OP
OP
Oxygen stone for this beer. My day will be slightly longer thanks to doing a 7.5 gal batch. I have to boil down 3 gallons of first runnings not just 2 which should make today fun. Hit my mash temp at the border of 154/155 depending.
acuenca
Well-Known Member
Alrighty then... what like 1-2 minutes? (for the O2?)
OP
OP
Well my brew went well. I boiled my 3 gal down to under 2 qts. My OG is at 1.114 which is a bit higher than I had planned for but I'll just roll with the gravity. I have it in the garage with the temp stabilizing at 54F waiting for some yeast. The wort tastes awesome. I will let it sit tonight and toss the yeast in tomorrow morning first thing. I suspect this thing will ferment something crazy. My first runnings were boiled down till I only got one drip basically to fall off the spoon I was stirring it with. The main kettle boiled for 4 hours and due to the intensity of the boil I had to add about .5gal of water to the boil in the last 30 min.
Was anyone wondering how my oak conditioning experiment was going? Probably not, but I'm going to update you anyway!
If you remember, I was aging both a toasted oak stick, and a toasted and charred oak stick in two jars of corn whiskey. The color is much different as you'll see, and probably expected, but the biggest difference to me is that the the two taste completely different as well.
The corn whiskey with the toasted oak stick is much lighter in color, and the aroma is still of the corn cob and husk the white spirit had. There musty corn aroma has definitely mellowed and reduced, but there's not much oak making it into the aroma. The flavor has picked up oak though, and I was surprised by how much it tasted like scotch whisky. The corn character is all but gone from the flavor leaving mostly the light oak flavor you get in scotch. If there was a bit of peat smokiness in there, many would probably mistake it for scotch, in fact.
The corn whiskey with the toasted and charred oak is of course much darker, but the aroma and flavor are where it really shines. The aroma is smooth, sweet and the corn character is gone. In it's place are the aromas of toasted marshmallow, raisins, and caramel. It's pretty great. The flavor is similar. Much smoother than the other jar, and with much more flavor from the oak. It is the hands-down favorite for me.
Here are the pictures.
I just wanted to kick this to the front of the thread again because I think it's awesome information and I will be doing this to my 12-12-12 in the coming months. Any chance you can get the process put in the wiki KB?
I brewed my 12-12-12 four weeks ago and after a four week primary I have moved to a glass carboy for a nice long bulk age. I am planning on a 6 month bulk age and then a 6 month bottle age.
OG was 1.115 and FG is 1.026 for an approximate 11.6% abv. For what it's worth the hydro sample was incredibly good.
OG was 1.115 and FG is 1.026 for an approximate 11.6% abv. For what it's worth the hydro sample was incredibly good.
KingBrianI
Well-Known Member
I wouldn't know where to start to put this in the wiki. I could copy all the info to a new thread though, so that it wasn't buried.
azscoob
Brewpub coming soon!
I regret to say I STILL have not brewed this, mama has kept me too busy around the house. I'm going to try for a midweek latenight or Saturday at 4:30am brewday, I'm even going to wear my kilt while I brew this wee heavy.
OP
OP
In retrospect I would have hauled ass and got started on this brew much earlier or at least more set up for it than I had. I finished at 6pm in the dark. I started heating water around 8am but then needed to refill a propane bottle. Not thinking it was sunday I was surprised to find it was sunday and my hardware store I fill my bottles at was closed till 11. Then a friend was on the way and I needed a hand to lift my sparge water bucket up.
bottlebomber
Well-Known Member
I think I used every bit of 4 gallons of propane on this beer
OP
OP
Same here. I keep three on hand so that I can have one for the burner, one for my grill and the third as backup. I'd love to get the smallest bottle allowed with a non-OPD valve. That way I can fill up less and pay a little less for the fill.
azscoob
Brewpub coming soon!
makes me rethink the midweek angle, if I start in the wee hours of the weekend I should get a good brewday out of it, 2 burners, 2 keggles, a transfer pump, what could go wrong???
(Here comes the stuck sparge, leaky keggle valve, frozen propane regulator, hose rupture on the pump and boilover that leads to a fire....)
azscoob
Brewpub coming soon!
Golddiggie
Well-Known Member
Got my version on deck for this weekend's brew session... Planning on making my starter in another day, or two, so that I have enough time to cold crash it so that I'm just pitching yeast cake into the wort. Planning 6-8 weeks in primary, followed by some time on oak (2-4 months) before sampling again and going from there.
My grist/recipe is deviating [at least] a bit from the recipe shown here, so I'm not really sure if it will go into the sampling or not.
My grist/recipe is deviating [at least] a bit from the recipe shown here, so I'm not really sure if it will go into the sampling or not.
bottlebomber
Well-Known Member
Just checked the gravity on mine, its down from 1.105 to 1.026/1.027. Pretty sure that's as low as its going to get. Not as low as I wanted, but it is 76% attenuation, which I guess is fine for this yeast. It tastes hot and vinous, but delicious. This beer is going to need a year. With the higher than expected FG and the low IBUs this firms up my indecision on the oak - it's getting it. It is going to need the tannins to cut through some of the sweetness, I'm not so much into sweet beer.
