Achieving that big OG (1.12)

[Paradigm]

Hey all!

My first big beer was also a 1.12 OG'r and it's been aging since July, we're cracking the keg in December, pretty excited! For that one we did a step-up starter and added a lot of DME to get that daunting number.

My buddy and I are now considering a Barley Wine, which we also plan to smack up to 1.12, but we'd like to do pure grain. We've made our own Belgian Pale Ale recipe that we want to try tweaking agian, so we're going to make that with some high gravity yeast as our starter beer.

The main issue is: How do I get my gravity to 1.12 using all grain without a giant kettle and breaking the bank by cutting my sparge early?

I have a couple ideas:

* Do two 2.5 gallon batches back to back

* Boil the piss out of it

* Just add DME


Any ideas?

 

[ArkotRamathorn]

I hope you aren't putting piss in it that you have to try and boil it out.

I personally would just go with option 1 or option 3. If you don't have a mash tun big enough to accomodate the grain needed to hit that 1.120, which you will probably have to compensate because you'll need more grain to make up for a loss in efficiency. You could do 2 different batches but thats gonna be a long, long, long day.

I would just go for the easy option and pick up some extract to make up that difference. Nothing wrong with a partial mash barley wine.

 

[Brettomomyces]

A few things you can do to help reach those numbers.

Assume your efficiency is going to drop, because it will. Starting off at 10-15% lower when you're putting together your recipe will help hit those numbers. So if you're consistently getting 75% with average strength recipes, you might want to shoot for 60-65% in your recipe calculator.

Collect more wort than normal during the sparge. This goes hand in hand with an extended boil. The more wort you collect from the sparge the more sugar you're extracting. And then you're going to have to boil longer to reduce all that extra wort down to the final volume you need.

If you fly sparge, a slow sparge will help to get as much sugar out of the grain as possible. I'm still tweaking my setup, but I aim for a 90 minute sparge for a 10g rig. Last beer was about 90% efficiency. Also make sure you're using sparge water about 170F, the warmer temp helps with sugar extraction as well.

And keeping some DME on hand just in case is a good idea too

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

A buddy of mine mashed as much as he could to start an 8 gal boil and the boiled it down to about 3 gal to reach 1.200. Ended up with about 2 gal after trub loss.

 

[Dudest]

Couple pounds of sucrose dissolved in apple juice wouldn't hurt the flavor I in wine.

 

[cjgenever]

End sparge early and party gyle the second runnings and/or use LME/dme. If the extract is fresh it is as good as all grain

 

[Calichusetts]

I enjoy making pretty big beers, even bigger than that, here are some tips:

The double mash works perfectly if you want to get your standard volume. Just do a quick clean of the mash tun as you heat up the boil and do a second mash. You will start to get some serious kettle caramelization (at least I do) by the second boil and this can lead to some crazy boil overs. I scrap the bottom the kettle often and you really need to watch it.

5-10% sugar additions are not unusual during the boil. Often followed by a series of sugar additions during fermentation. I like dark brown sugar in the boil and maple syrup in the fermenter. There are threads/calculators to help you figure out how to calculate OG with fermentation additions.

Of course, you can just boil off past your normal volume to get higher.

Good luck

 

[BobBailey]

I'm planning a Barley Wine with about the same OG and plan on doing 2 no sparge mashes. I am also considering capping off the mashes and producing another beer, just not sure yet.
My last Barley Wine I just added enough water to the MLT after the mash to hit estimated pre-boil gravity before draining. With a 10 gal. round MLT I ended up with 4.5 gallons in the fermentor and a little less than 4 gal. bottled. I didn't allow for lower hop utilization than my original plan which was a normal batch sparge and longer boil so it turned out a little sweeter than planned. Surprisingly, even the last bottle after being cellared for almost 4 years, was still very drinkable. I soaked about 4 ounces of oak chunks from wine barrel staves in bourbon for 3 weeks and added for an extended secondary (about 4 weeks if I recall). The bourbon was great after being on that oak, but after recently trying Widmer Bros.' bourbon aged ale, I think this time the bourbon will go into secondary along with the oak.