first timer wants to make Ziegenbock

[jimboeric]

Optimator does sound hard to make. I think if I can get close to Ziegenbock (which lets face it, is a fairly inexpensive beer)with 7% alc I will be doing good. When I made wine I used a strain of yeast from the orient tokay(sp) yeast. It yeilded 18% alc, and I simply brought the specific gravity up with table sugar. It worked great in all wines. What I'm curious about, most used montrachet(sp) yeast which would die at about 11-12% alc. Should I buy some strain of beer yeast which can survive in a high alc environment? If so, what kind? That plus the darkest sounding starter ingredient kit with extra malt extract ought to do it, you think? Thanks, Jim

 

[the_bird]

Almost any standard beer yeast will survive past 7%. You use a wine yeast, you won't have beer.

 

[GoatFarmersInternational]

I'm afraid that I'm not familiar with the particular beer you are trying to clone, but my suggestion would be to just go on down to Austin Homebrew Supply and tell them what you want to make, I'm sure they'll put you on the right track (if the AHB store is anything like their online store, which is pretty decent).
And yeah, any beer yeast should be fine in a 7% ABV brew, just stay away from using any table sugar or you'll end up with a lot of beer that you'll not want to drink.

 

[jimboeric]

So the jist of it is, just use the yeast supplied with the ingredient kit, but add MORE malt extract(I saw a bag of it for sale online) to bring the specific gravity to a certain level? Or what would be your malt sugar of choice?
Jim

 

[DeathBrewer]

just add some extra DRY malt extract. depends on your ingredients, but if you just want extra alcohol i'd go with extra light.

or pilsner, whatever...they're all pretty fermentable.