Boiling after fermentation

[simontja]

Hey.

I mainly brew imperial stouts nowadays, as it's my favourite style, and I personally love to session drink it.

Usually with my homebrews I experiment with infusions of cocoa nibs/whole coffee beans / chopped up vanilla beans / chilis and so on to make stouts by infusions. The way I do infusions is boiling it and concentrating it to later add to the other half of the 12 oz bottle. (I split up 6 oz, boil it with infused spices, but it in french press, cool it down with spices, and then mix it with 6 oz of the other beer.

What I reach with this is usually a low ABV beer with huge mouthfeel and a very heavy roast feel and, in my opinion a much better beer.

My question would be that I would brew a 10-12% abv stout, and use that as mash in a new stout, then boil it down, making the alcohol go down, and making a much thicker, much more tastier 12% stout, which might be very expensive, but for me - personally worth it - if it's world class.

In my experiments of very very small tests (usually 12 oz) it turns out great, has anyone actually tried this in bigger scales?

 

[rafaelpinto]

Dude, I had the same idea but never tried it. Take a look: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/bo...re-water-then-doing-all-process-again-444649/. People didnt really help on this thread. I dont know why, but innovation (reinventing the wheel hahahah) is not often seen as a good thing.

I am really interested on what will come out of this. The fact that you already to it 50% with your RIS is a good indication that it might work.

Please do it, dude!

 

[zeptrey]

Couldn't you just blend batches I'd think that would be easier? Just mash one batch high at 156-8 or so the other lower 151-3. One for mouthfeel and one for Gravity.

**EDIT** I'm also guessing that unless you boil most of the alcohol out of the beer before you mash that could cause some issues. Yeah not sure why'd you try that. Especially with an already good beer.

 

[simontja]

Couldn't you just blend batches I'd think that would be easier? Just mash one batch high at 156-8 or so the other lower 151-3. One for mouthfeel and one for Gravity.

**EDIT** I'm also guessing that unless you boil most of the alcohol out of the beer before you mash that could cause some issues. Yeah not sure why'd you try that. Especially with an already good beer.

I'm personally willing to pay around 2.50 dollar a good 12 oz homebrew, as the beer I'd otherwise buy cost well above that.

The thought was that the beer which has fermented, and then boiled to remove the alcohol content would pretty much be used as mash water, basically a lot of great intense flavour, without alcohol (positive for me, the better taste with the lower alcohol, the better).

 

[ph0ngwh0ng]

I don't know about mashing with boiled beer. Too many variables (pH, chemical compounds lost in the boil, etc.) to be sure about anything. I'd say try it, you'll see.

You could, however, just scale up your 12 oz to half a batch of RIS infused post-fermentation (btw you don't have to reach boiling temps to evaporate alcool EDIt: oh unless you want to concentrate it, overlooked that..). Mix it back with your other half and voila. You can then bottle carb (maybe by repitching a bit) or force carb.

 

[rafaelpinto]

Im dying to hear the results. I cant do it at the time. But if it works with you, try a Hunnapus clone with this method!

 

[zeptrey]

I'm personally willing to pay around 2.50 dollar a good 12 oz homebrew, as the beer I'd otherwise buy cost well above that.

The thought was that the beer which has fermented, and then boiled to remove the alcohol content would pretty much be used as mash water, basically a lot of great intense flavour, without alcohol (positive for me, the better taste with the lower alcohol, the better).

Ah... the initial question made it sound like the unboiled beer would be used to mash. Also made it sound like you still wanted a 12% abv brew. Still I am thinking blending two different stouts would do the same and you can adjust on fly while blending. Get you a nice Imperial Stout going then a session stout and blend away.

 

[simontja]

Ah... the initial question made it sound like the unboiled beer would be used to mash. Also made it sound like you still wanted a 12% abv brew. Still I am thinking blending two different stouts would do the same and you can adjust on fly while blending. Get you a nice Imperial Stout going then a session stout and blend away.

The beer would still be around 12%, but using an imperial stout which the alcohol has vaporized off instead of water in the mash, then trying to stabilize 5.2 ph and ferment again.

 

[m00ps]

I would think that the final result would be acrid and undrinkable. Putting all those roasty flavors through the entire process again would make it too concentrated and the flavor would deteriorate. Kind of like if you leave a pot of coffee on for an entire day and come to try a cup the next morning, its not super strong but tasty, its just burnt and awful

I think you'd have better luck doing an Eis-Stout and freezing off a portion of it. Wouldnt that accomplish basically the same thing? Plus its a time-[proven method that makes an extremely smooth high ABV brew

 

[simontja]

I would think that the final result would be acrid and undrinkable. Putting all those roasty flavors through the entire process again would make it too concentrated and the flavor would deteriorate. Kind of like if you leave a pot of coffee on for an entire day and come to try a cup the next morning, its not super strong but tasty, its just burnt and awful

I think you'd have better luck doing an Eis-Stout and freezing off a portion of it. Wouldnt that accomplish basically the same thing? Plus its a time-[proven method that makes an extremely smooth high ABV brew

I want a 10 abv stout with a really big intense malt flavor, making an eis-stout would impair the alcohol levels.

You're probably right with the roast levels, I'm probably better of using quite low amount of roasted malts and lots of crystal malt for the stout.