Attempting 40%+ ABV beer... "Barley Brandy"

[BrewN00b]

Almost.

Hey, I'll be here all week, folks, come back and bring your friends. Try the veal, it's great. And don't forget your waitresses, Tipping isn't a city in China.

PTN

Don't suppose you do bar mitzvahs?

Aw snap, lookie who owns pg 7!

 

[ChandlerBang]

Whew, just plowed through the whole thread. Freakin' awesome. I wouldn't have guessed that Cape's signature quote was this understated. It should be in bold at least. Geez.....

 

[Cape Brewing]

Another small surprise tonight.... The 099 put up a krausen. It was 1019 and I added a lb of maple syrup to bring it up a hair but I didnt think there would be enough fermentation going on to get a krausen but there is one.

Given how low the gravity already is, I am going to add a small amount of the "syrup" I am brewing tomorrow directly to it and primary the rest with the huge 05 cake.

 

[iaefebs]

Please keep the updates coming whichever way this turns out. If you could comment on ferment temperatures it would help also.

 

[paulthenurse]

Whew, just plowed through the whole thread. Freakin' awesome. I wouldn't have guessed that Cape's signature quote was this understated. It should be in bold at least. Geez.....

Is this farkin' n00b dissin' me? I'm gonna put him and the Rookie in a farkin' cage and poke 'em both with sharp sticks just to teach them a lesson.

 

[bottlebomber]

Are PTN and Cape frikkin brothers or something geeze you guys b!tch a lot lol. Cool thread. Can't wait to see if it works

 

[Scruffy1207]

Are PTN and Cape frikkin brothers or something geeze you guys b!tch a lot lol. Cool thread. Can't wait to see if it works

I like the rivalry. Rivalry is good for brewing.

 

[Reno_eNVy]

I like the rivalry. Rivalry is good for brewing.

Were it not for rivalry I would never have learned to crochet.

 

[ChandlerBang]

Is this farkin' n00b dissin' me? I'm gonna put him and the Rookie in a farkin' cage and poke 'em both with sharp sticks just to teach them a lesson.

Don't feel bad, I like the avatar.

 

[redcoat_or_rebel]

Were it not for rivalry I would never have learned to crochet.

careful, thems fightin' words.

 

[Cape Brewing]

I have kept fermentation temps pretty steady around 68-69 degrees.

 

[ComcastWineRookie]

Is this farkin' n00b dissin' me? I'm gonna put him and the Rookie in a farkin' cage and poke 'em both with sharp sticks just to teach them a lesson.

I have stayed outta this thread as much as I could and he still finds a way to jab at me. oh well, good thing I dont listed to the words of a Baboon

 

[lastsecondapex]

We tried this and got mixed results a few months back. FG measured .879 from a 1.097 brew. It was just really hot from the alcohol. We only did 1 gallon, but I suppose our observations apply to this...

You need a really thin-walled pot and a cheese cloth or strainer. We figured 10lbs dry ice per 1 gallon, surrounding the pot gets it cold enough to actively strain out ice. I'm sure that -6 degrees will not be cold enough to get it to actively freeze with the freezer door open, so you can sift out the ice.

 

[Cape Brewing]

Cool, and yeah, I am not really intending on using the freezer to actually freeze the beer... I simply want to use it to bring the temp down and then use dry ice. I figure I might as well let the freezer do some of the work.

Pots coming up to temp for the second batch now.

 

[motobrewer]

....aaaannnddd we have reached critical masshole.....

 

[bluemoose]

Couldn't have picked a better day. 93 in the shade? Enjoy the sauna!

 

[paulthenurse]

I like the rivalry. Rivalry is good for brewing.

There is no rivalry. You need to be equals to be rivals. Let's just leave it at that.

 

[bottlebomber]

I dunno man, you said yours was stalled at 1.075 and his dropped into teens after a few days... im just sayin is all

 

[DakotaRules]

Well the real truth as Flounder tells it, their gravity is at 1.090 and 1.080. I read another post from PTN saying that he added oak chips and he got a magical 20 point drop bringing it down around 1.050's. I would like to know the truth of that batch but so far Cape is by far leading this "rivalry"

 

[Cape Brewing]

Mashed in a while ago... going to go with at least a 90 minute mash. Keeping mash temp pretty low again as well. 148ish.

LOL... 40+ lbs of grain for a 4 gallon batch is funny.

THIS time I'll freakin' take a damn gravity reading BEFORE I shut the boil down.

All in all, I've made a mistake here or there but in hindsight, I'm am honestly thinking that they are working out for the better.

 

[Cape Brewing]

Couldn't have picked a better day. 93 in the shade? Enjoy the sauna!

My rig is mostly flip-a-switch and walk away. I spend about 90% of the brew session in the house with the AC going.

Besides... I have a penis so I don't cry over 93 degree weather.

 

[lastsecondapex]

Besides... I have a penis so I don't cry over 93 degree weather.

I believe it's actually the retention of one's testicles that makes the difference in this regard...

PS, this is not directed at anyone in particular in this forum. My career requires a lot of car time and those that ride with me piss and moan constantly about me not using the a/c. I ride with the windows down as much as possible. Back to frozen beer talk...

 

[Cape Brewing]

point taken... going to start running off the mash in a little while

 

[the_bird]

PS, this is not directed at anyone in particular in this forum. My career requires a lot of car time and those that ride with me piss and moan constantly about me not using the a/c. I ride with the windows down as much as possible. Back to frozen beer talk...

I'm assuming you're doing that for gas efficiency? I thought it had been shown that the negative impact of rolling down the windows (increased wind resistance) was just about equivalent to the negative impact of running the AC? Of course, this is from someone who has the terrible habit of running the AC with the windows partway down, because I hate the planet and everything.

 

[Cape Brewing]

Ya know... there's a perfectly good Masshole thread for JUST this type of high-brow debate

 

[bottlebomber]

Do you even sparge for a brew that strong or just collect the first runnings? You could probably make a 1.090 "small beer" off of 40 lbs of grain...

 

[Cape Brewing]

yeah, I'll do a small sparge.... actually about to do that right now.

 

[ComcastWineRookie]

why would we want to taint that thread when we can just taint this one?

 

[Cape Brewing]

ok... everything is in the boil kettle.

I ended up with 13 gallons of 1072. I am going to boil that down to a little over 3.5 gallons to give me an OG of a little over 1260 (yes you read that correctly).

I have 4 gallons of the 1128 wort from before so what I'll do is just sacrifice half a gallon of that to come out to an "average" of 1200ish. I know it isn't exact but it should be damn close enough.

"But there is now way you're going to be able to ferment a 1260 wort"

If I cut it with the first batch... which is now down to 1019 (prior to adding the lb of maple syrup) I should be able to without too much of a problem. That's why I had intended to do two batches all along.

So... I'll take about a gallon out of the 1019 that is sitting on the 099 cake, and add a gallon of the monster 1260. That should take off. I'll then add that gallon of the 1019 to the rest of the 1260 and toss it on the MASSIVE 05 cake that I have sitting on my counter. Hopefully the 05 will take that monster 1260 down a bit and then I'll slowly rack THAT to the 099 batch with oxygen shots all the way along.

We'll see. so far so good. Not 100% exactly to original plan but again, I think it might actually work out better this way.

 

[Scruffy1207]

ok... everything is in the boil kettle.

I ended up with 13 gallons of 1072. I am going to boil that down to a little over 3.5 gallons to give me an OG of a little over 1260 (yes you read that correctly).

I have 4 gallons of the 1128 wort from before so what I'll do is just sacrifice half a gallon of that to come out to an "average" of 1200ish. I know it isn't exact but it should be damn close enough.

"But there is now way you're going to be able to ferment a 1260 wort"

If I cut it with the first batch... which is now down to 1019 (prior to adding the lb of maple syrup) I should be able to without too much of a problem. That's why I had intended to do two batches all along.

So... I'll take about a gallon out of the 1019 that is sitting on the 099 cake, and add a gallon of the monster 1260. That should take off. I'll then add that gallon of the 1019 to the rest of the 1260 and toss it on the MASSIVE 05 cake that I have sitting on my counter. Hopefully the 05 will take that monster 1260 down a bit and then I'll slowly rack THAT to the 099 batch with oxygen shots all the way along.

We'll see. so far so good. Not 100% exactly to original plan but again, I think it might actually work out better this way.

this thread is epic.

 

[Cape Brewing]

down to 8.5 gallons in the BK

 

[viking73]

Definitely keeping an eye on this!

 

[Cape Brewing]

4.5 gallons.

Going to watch the B's

 

[DakotaRules]

Go B's!!!!!

 

[lastsecondapex]

Just thinking about the opportunity afforded here... You could really 1up PTN and force carb this and bottle from a beer gun. Fizziness increases inebriation...

 

[Cape Brewing]

Looks like 3.5 gallons. Burner off and chilling a sample for a gravity

 

[Cape Brewing]

Damn it. Only 1180. My volume on my site glass HAS to be off.

PTN was here and he took the pre-boil gravity.... 1072.

I ended up with more volume and less gravity in the first batch. It HAS to be a volume issue. I'll boil it down a bit more and see what I get

 

[Cape Brewing]

1210. Gettin close. Only boiling off tiny amounts now

 

[paulthenurse]

As I recall you busted my chops over the time it took Yeager and I to boil off our batch. Jeez, what are you using to cook the brew kettle, a couple cans of Sterno?

 

[Cape Brewing]

Its 9 effin 30. You guys go unil 2:00 am

AND I am going sixty effin points higher than you.