DFH 120 minute clone

[scottland]

Ah, that makes sense why yours was drier. I'm adding 10lbs (160oz) of dextrose to a 1.100 beer, so it will definitely end up sweeter.

I'd be curious what your WWS recipe was, do you mind PMing it to me? I'm thinking about doing a clone of it pending how my 120min turns out.

 

[lastsecondapex]

Looks great. I've considered trying this, but will wait til I can do 10 gallons in a conical. I cracked a DFH 120 bottled in April 2008 on Sunday and, surprisingly, it was still hoppy. I agree with the additional bittering hops over Paxton's recipe. I will be subscribing to find out how this turns out.

 

[scottland]

The yeast tore through the double dose of sugar. Down to 1.018 today. I gave them another double dose today.
Current gravities: OG:1.124, SG: 1.024, ABV: 13.2%

 

[lastsecondapex]

Did you use the olive oil trick? How did that process work?

 

[scottland]

Ya, I did. It seems to be working so far, but I don't want to jinx myself.

Process: yeast normally use oxygen to break unsaturated fatty acids into mono saturated fatty acids. They use these fatty acids to build cell walls when they reproduce; this is a good thing. The idea was, what happens if you simply give the yeast the monosaturated fatty acids to start with. New Belgium brewery did a big research thing on it, and found it works.

The problem is the amount. They use 300ml of olive olive for 4,500L of yeast. That translates to .013ml of olive oil for a typical 5gal batch. Hard to measure. A medical dropper drops .051ml. So I try to use a little less than a drop of olive oil. I add that to the yeast in my starter.

I haven't added oxygen to this beer at any stage, and the only aeration I've done was pouring my starters to and fro, pouring the wort into the fermenter, and stirring the primary daily with the sugar additions. The yeast seem healthy, but Ive definitely got my fingers crossed

 

[lastsecondapex]

Cool, seems crazy that 1 drop could even dissipate enough in a starter.to positively affect all yeast. It'd be a great solution for avoiding the need for an o2 setup though.

 

[bmick]

Ah, that makes sense why yours was drier. I'm adding 10lbs (160oz) of dextrose to a 1.100 beer, so it will definitely end up sweeter.

I'd be curious what your WWS recipe was, do you mind PMing it to me? I'm thinking about doing a clone of it pending how my 120min turns out.

I'll look into it when I get a chance, although honestly after that initial taste this isn't so much a clone as in the same style, next year when it gets brewed again there will be some serious changes.

 

[scottland]

This beer is definitely an extreme test of it. White Labs states WLP099 can be difficult to use, and they state in needs heavy aeration, and recommend aerating 4 times as much as normal during the first 5 days of fermentation.

We'll see how far the olive oil fed yeast goes. It's bubbling about once every 1-2 seconds after the 12oz of sugar I added at lunch today.

 

[Jsmith82]

Congrats on brewing the beast. It's labor intensive and a 1 month marriage to a moody back-talking beer but in the end, when you have your first cold snifter and all of your work and efforts and time are sitting in front of you via 12oz form, it by far is very worth it. I only have 2 bottles left from my 120 clone, I wish I would have brewed more. The only thing I would have changed is the hops, definitely needs more all around IMO.

Best of luck climbing the ABV ladder and keeping your yeast hungry and live, you seem to have a really great pace going.

*subscribed*

 

[scottland]

Hey Jsmith, I remember you posting your results from Smuth10's thread. What do you think is a good final gravity for this beer to finish at? I tasted a sample of the 13.2% 1.018 beer today, and it was very dry. I was thinking 1.025-1.030 would be a good spot to finish in, do you think it needs higher?

 

[Jsmith82]

I tried to manage mine down into the mid 20's but unfortunately the yeast dropped on me before I noticed and I beefed it back up to 1.030 - 1.031 before realizing it was time to stop adding sugar. I would aim for mid 20's if I brewed it again, it would calm the sweet factor down though it would make the alcohol a little more up front but hey, it's a 20% beer, if you don't like al-kee-hol, go grab yourself a lager right . I traded a bottle with Smuth and I wouldn't be able to pick either from a line up the tastes were so close, except he had kegged his so it was carbed.

Bottom line in my opinion, lower FG then originally suggested, more hops, and a designated driver.

PM'd you.

 

[scottland]

Interesting note: Even having to buy the grains twice, I have $102 in ingredients in this beer. Figure $110 with propane, and salts, etc.

120 sells for $9.99 a bottle here. 50*9.99 = $499.5

So I made $500 worth of beer for $110. I feel very frugal.

 

[scottland]

Double doses of sugar last night and today. Gravity reading today was 1.018, so the yeast are still rocking. Today crossed the halfway point 5.5lbs of sugar in, 4.5lbs left to go.

After the sugar, Current Gravities: SG:1.137, SG: 1.024, ABV: 14.8%. Starting to get up there!

 

[shafferpilot]

now is where it could start getting tricky... be careful not to overload those yeasties cause if they stop, getting them going again is nearly impossible. Good Luck!

 

[scottland]

Definitely. I'm going to keep monitoring the gravity twice a day as I have been. I would be happy with a 16% beer as long as it's dry enough. I don't want 22% cough syrup.

 

[shafferpilot]

exactly!

 

[Jsmith82]

I don't want 22% cough syrup.

For the win.

 

[Zorin]

A medical dropper drops .051ml. So I try to use a little less than a drop of olive oil. I add that to the yeast in my starter.

I showed your post to my wife who an RN and she said you can goto the medical supply store and buy syringes that can dispense down to .00001ml. Hope this info helps.

Matt

 

[scottland]

I showed your post to my wife who an RN and she said you can goto the medical supply store and buy syringes that can dispense down to .00001ml. Hope this info helps.

Matt

That's fantastic news. Thanks a lot!

Update: the yeast are still hungry. Gravity this morning was 1.019. Added another 12oz of sugar last night and this morning.

Current gravities: OG: 1.149, SG: 1.025, ABV: 16.2%

 

[scottland]

Added 12oz doses last night and this morning. Gravity this morning was 1.021, up a little bit, but I only have 24oz left to add.

Current gravities: OG: 1.161, SG: 1.027, ABV: 17.6%

At this point, i'll be happy anywhere the yeast decide to quit. I just need to keep a close eye on the hydrometer, as I want my FG to be between 1.025 and 1.030

 

[lastsecondapex]

Looking good! Think it could get 20%?

 

[scottland]

The yeast still seem to be pretty active. I've been feeding them 12oz twice a day, which is double what most people have done. I think it's starting to slow down a little bit though. My primary goal is managing the FG. Its drier than I want now though, so I'll just keep feeding them sugar till the had enough.

 

[Reno_eNVy]

Did you taste the hydrometer sample? I just hope the mad amounts of sugar additions along with the Turbo-Powered yeast aren't producing odd flavors. Meh, even if that is the case I'm sure this batch is going to be aging for some time.

 

[scottland]

Ya. It's a little hot with alcohol, but fairly clean. Lots of hop, then the alcohol. That's to be expected since its so young. I've kept it fairly cool so I didn't expect too many off flavors. 63* with the WLP007, and now 66* since the WLP099 went in. Those are actual wort temps

 

[Reno_eNVy]

Oh okay. Those numbers seem pretty dang reasonable to me.

 

[shafferpilot]

hope for 025 or less. At 030 it'll be too sweet!

 

[bottlebomber]

The only thing I could recommend would be obtaining an amount of beer for testing, 50ml for example, and mixing it with equal amount of water for sampling, and doubling the results. I know its almost done at this point, but im guessing those samples aren't enjoyable to drink, and that's a lot of DFH120 to be dumping. Awesome thread, I've been inspired.

 

[scottland]

Fermentation slowed a little bit. Gravity is slowly climbing over the 12hr intervals. 1.023 tonight when I went to add more sugar. So I added only one 6oz bag for the first time. I've got three 6oz bags left. Current gravities: OG: 1.164, SG: 1.026, ABV: 18.1%

Crossed the 18% barrier!!

 

[broadbill]

I showed your post to my wife who an RN and she said you can goto the medical supply store and buy syringes that can dispense down to .00001ml. Hope this info helps.

Matt

Are you sure about that? 0.00001mL = 0.01uL No research/reference grade mechanical pipettor can accurately dispense that volume, so I'd be surprised that any sort of plunger-style medical syringe could do that volume.

 

[Jsmith82]

Crossed the 18% barrier!!

Congrats!