Extreme Specific Gravity

[ahwinney]

I'm planning on brewing a 20% beer very soon, but I just realized that my hydrometer and refractometer don't read high enough (1.2-1.25). Any suggestions on how to measure it and subsequently the beers progress?

 

[Psylocide]

Get a bigger hydrometer.

 

[ahwinney]

I just had at thought. I'll use a measuring cup, dilute the wort by 50%, multiply that gravity by 2.

 

[fivepointslow]

Question is how are you going to keep the yeast happy and what type of beer? My buddy is begging me to do a DHF 120 clone.

 

[SmokeyMcBong]

you have to step feed and do the math I believe...

 

[ktblunden]

you have to step feed and do the math I believe...

Yeah, you can't just pitch yeast into wort that concentrated, this requires starting somewhere around 1.1 and adding dme and/or sugar additions periodically during fermentation. You also want to be sure you have the equipment to control fermentation temperature and be able to pitch the proper amount of healthy yeast. There's a recipe thread on here where someone made a DFH 120 Minute clone. Go review all the steps he went through and make sure you are equipped and able to do the same. Otherwise you'll end up with gasoline flavored cough syrup.

 

[Conan]

Yep, step feeding with sugar is the way to go. I think the Jamil Show did a DFH 120 show once, in 2009 or 2010. It may have been labelled High Gravity Brewing. Kyle

 

[Hello]

Regarding the idea of adding water to the wort and then multiplying by two, I don't know that it works that way. I could be wrong, but your better bet is to get a hydrometer that will read that gravity. Also, definitely look at that DFH 120 thread. All of the steps involved actually turned me off of making it.

 

[NTexBrewer]

http://www.bertusbrewery.com/2012/03/dogfish-head-120-minute-ipa-clone.html

Also, in Sam Calagione's book Extreme Brewing he has a recipe for a beer called Dema-Goddess Ale which is somewhere around 14 to 16%. The process is the same as DFH 120. Starting with a big beer and primary yeast and then adding a High Gravity yeast and feeding sugar over the remainder of the fermentation. Below is a link to the recipe and procedure.

https://books.google.com/books?id=5...e&q=sam calagione dema-goddess recipe&f=false

 

[ahwinney]

I'm assuming the concept behind step feeding is either to keep the yeast reproducing so there will be enough to finish the job and/or to keep the density low, so that the total sugar converted is enough, but the density at any point during fermentation isn't too high.

 

[ahwinney]

I have a different overall recipe, but I was thinking about following a procedure similar to this.

http://byo.com/boiling/item/51-21-alcohol-all-grain-beer

 

[ahwinney]

Also, any comments on yeast blends? I was planning a blend of WLP001 California Ale to ferment clean up to 13%, follow it with WLP099 Super High Gravity which can tolerate up to 25%. Now I'm considering an intermediate belgian to add subtle ester notes, which WLP099 might add anyway, but I don't know if there are many with intermediate alcohol tolerances. I did see that WLP530 Abbey Ale gets up to 15%, so that could be a welcome addition before adding WLP099.

 

[Calder]

Regarding the idea of adding water to the wort and then multiplying by two, I don't know that it works that way. I could be wrong, but your better bet is to get a hydrometer that will read that gravity. Also, definitely look at that DFH 120 thread. All of the steps involved actually turned me off of making it.

Should work for hydrometer readings. All you are doing is measuring density. I don't think you could get anything meaningful with a refractometer.

As noted, you will probably kill the yeast if you pitch it into wort that high

 

[passedpawn]

Regarding the idea of adding water to the wort and then multiplying by two, I don't know that it works that way. I could be wrong, but your better bet is to get a hydrometer that will read that gravity. Also, definitely look at that DFH 120 thread. All of the steps involved actually turned me off of making it.

It does indeed work that way. Diluting, measuring, then doubling the fractional part will work.

I.e., dilute into equal part water, measure 1.080, the beer is 1.160.

 

[cjgenever]

Typical lab procedure is to dilute by a known amount and measure. Accuracy is important because each measurement introduces human error and the error of your equipment.

You will need to step feed though. Listen to

Brew strong high gravity brewing (3 episodes)

And can you brew it/ Jamil show DFH 120 min ipa