American Strong Ale (extract) Recipe

[hellawaits77]

Planning on brewing an American Strong Ale / Barleywine for my next batch. Created this recipe based on personal preferences (I like hoppy strong ales with fruity notes, slight notes of chocolate, and aren't overly sweet) and researching Arrogant Bastard/Double Bastard ingredients. Doing 3 gallons rather than the standard 5 to save some $, and I'm running out of room in my apartment for beer. Fiance is starting to get irritated by the fact there's bottles in most rooms in the house .

Recipe Type: Extract
Batch Size (gallons): 3
Original Gravity: 1.107
Final Gravity: 1.030
Expected ABV: 10.1%
IBU: 93
Boiling time (minutes): 60

LME
9 lbs Pilsen Light LME

Steeping Grains
.25 lbs American Chocolate Malt
.25 lbs Special B Malt

Yeast
11.5 g US Safale-05 (according to the Mr Malty calculator, I only need one package. Should I grab another one, and maybe add a few more grams, just to be sure? Or, I was thinking I could clean the yeast from the Pale Ale I'm fermenting, and use some of that.)

Hop Schedule
.5 Magnum @ 60m
.25 Chinook @ 30m
.5 Citra @ 15m
.25 Chinook @ 10m
.5 Chinook @ 5m
.5 Citra @ 5m
.5 Citra @ Flameout
1 oz. Chinook (Dry Hop)
1.5 oz Citra (Dry Hop)

Thoughts/comments/suggestions? Thanks in advance!

 

[kingwood-kid]

I think your OG is wrong; I get twice the 1.056 you listed, with an FG a few points lower than your 1.030, although in the same ballpark. The one pack of yeast would be fine, although just about any yeast might have some difficulties with an ABV in the 10-12 range. I'd probably drop a pound of the extract and replace with table sugar after fermentation slows, just to be sure the beer finished dry enough.

 

[hellawaits77]

You're right, I typed in the wrong OG from my recipe calculator, it's actually 1.107.

Intetesting note about the sugar addition. I had planned on adding dextrose post boil. Excuse my n00b-ness, but how is it more beneficial for dryness to add the sugar near the end of fermentation, as opposed to post boil?

 

[kingwood-kid]

It doesn't change the dryness, but its easier on the yeast. You pitch based on the gravity without sugar, then add the sugar when the yeast has finished eating the more complex sugars from the grain.

 

[hellawaits77]

Ok, I see. Thanks for the info!

Any suggestions from others?

 

[hellawaits77]

Question - with a big beer like this, will there be an issue with bottle carbing? My DIPA (8.3%) came out fine as far as carbonation, even though I undercalculated my priming sugar - but this is a little bigger. I don't currently keg (nor do I plan on it in the future - don't want to spend the $). I happened across a thread where the brewer had severe issues with a big beer like this not carbing, even after months. Is this common?

One brewer suggested to add a small amount of dry yeast (I'm assuming maybe 2-3 grams, as more would almost certainly cause bottle bombs) to the priming sugar prior to bottling. Is this something I should do, or am I just worrying too much? Any help is appreciated!

 

[kingwood-kid]

You should be okay to bottle as is, but adding some fresh yeast is cheap insurance. More yeast won't make bottle bombs; the yeast will eat all the sugar you add, and nothing else. It's possible carbonation will take a little longer than normal, but others have reported using the same yeast at 12% or higher without any issues.

 

[hellawaits77]

You should be okay to bottle as is, but adding some fresh yeast is cheap insurance. More yeast won't make bottle bombs; the yeast will eat all the sugar you add, and nothing else. It's possible carbonation will take a little longer than normal, but others have reported using the same yeast at 12% or higher without any issues.

Thank you. I'm going to add a few grams just to be sure.