OG on IIPA was a little high...1.115

[MathiasMicrobrew]

We are actually having a family vacation in Kill Devil Hills sometime mid July! So might see ya around! Haha that's a decent amount of time to age something of that caliber lol

 

[SoupNazi]

I have been saving flip-top bottles for months. I have 13 of them, and each holds just over a pint, so I should get about half the batch in them.

Though easy, its advised to NOT carb your beer in swing top bottles. They are not meant for the pressures of carbonating beer, only carbonated beer.

 

[MathiasMicrobrew]

I have done 10 or so batches with 1liter swing tops and bottle carbed and they always tuned out great! I got first place with an oatmeal stout in a swing top lol

 

[peterj]

Though easy, its advised to NOT carb your beer in swing top bottles. They are not meant for the pressures of carbonating beer, only carbonated beer.

I've never heard that before. How would it be any different than bottles with caps? And swing top bottles usually have thicker glass so I would think they could handle higher pressure than regular bottles.

 

[Bamsdealer]

Agree, that may be the case with some swing top growlers. But Grolsh bottles for example have thick glass and have been prized by homebrewers for years.

 

[LowNotes]

The bottles I have were from Trader Joes, this is it exactly:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/cheap-swing-top-bottles-380522/

I too hadn't heard that swing-tops aren't good for bottle conditioning...It will only be about half the beer in swing-tops, the rest will be regular bottles. I guess I can put them in a tupperware bin when bottle conditioning just-in-case, but I really was hoping to use these.

Has anyone used these specific bottles from Trader Joes successfully?

 

[SoupNazi]

The bottles I have were from Trader Joes, this is it exactly:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/cheap-swing-top-bottles-380522/

I too hadn't heard that swing-tops aren't good for bottle conditioning...It will only be about half the beer in swing-tops, the rest will be regular bottles. I guess I can put them in a tupperware bin when bottle conditioning just-in-case, but I really was hoping to use these.

Has anyone used these specific bottles from Trader Joes successfully?

Swmbo works at trader joes. they have an italian red ale in a swing top for $3. I use a lot of these for bottling carbed beer and kombucha.
I would be very very cautious about using the tjs swing tops for carbonating, for they have been thinning the glass wine bottles just to keep the charles shaw wine at $3- no joke! Got to cut costs somewhere!

 

[roguemc]

OMG thats awesome hope it ferments under 20

 

[Herky21]

If it is too sweet try oak aging. The wood should add some tannins and a drying mouthfeel. Usually work best in sweet beers anyways.

 

[Chingis74]

I made a barleywine with S-05. I made my own clone of Bigfoot by Sierra Nevada. It was supposed to ferment down to around 10%ish. It went further and took it to 11.4%. I wouldnt worry about the yeast not being able to handle it. Just a matter of how much good yeast is in there. I pitched 5 packs of the stuff and it did well.

 

[LowNotes]

If it is too sweet try oak aging. The wood should add some tannins and a drying mouthfeel. Usually work best in sweet beers anyways.

Hmmm, that is an interesting idea. I've never used wood chips before, but since I am going to be bulk aging it already, it wwould certainly be easy to do in this case.

I racked it to secondary last weekend, and am now just waiting another 5 weeks before adding my dry-hop.

One problem is I still don't have a FG...I don't have a good graduated-cylinder to do gravity readings, and I obviously dont wat to plop the hydrometer into a carboy. Normally I take readings straight in the bucket, one right at pitching time, and then my FG after transfering to the bottling bucket...

I suppose I could transfer it from the carboy to a bottling bucket for the last month of aging...take my reading and if it is high, add wood chips/cubes. Or hell, maybe I will add the wood no matter what...are there any downsides to adding oak to an IIPA/Barleywine like this? Hell...I suppose I could even split the batch up and add wood to one, but not the other, so there can be a side-by-side comparison at the end, but that might be more work than I want to do, especially since I only have about 3g to start with.

 

[Herky21]

Well if you add chips you only need a week or two. You could try taking a sample and adding a chip to it for about 15 minutes to see if the flavors meld. In tests that I've done, you can get a pretty good idea how the wood will taste when you are using small samples. The wood flavor can impart very quickly.

The downside to having an IPA with oak could be a too much perceived bitterness. As your's had such a high OG and presumably will have a high FG then this shouldn't be a problem.

Obviously, tasting it now will give you an idea as to whether or not it is too sweet for you. I see no downside in oaking, just make sure you sanitize and dont add too much. Subtlety, is the key. 1-2 oz. in a 3 gallon batch would probably be good. But again, a test in a glass of it may be a good start. The actual FG doesn't matter that much compared to the flavor, IMO.

 

[LowNotes]

What is the preferred method of sanitizing the wood? Boiling? If so is there any risk of boiling too long and removing flavoring compounds? Do you pull the boiled wood out and add, or just dump the boiled liquid in with the wood?

 

[Chingis74]

What is the preferred method of sanitizing the wood? Boiling? If so is there any risk of boiling too long and removing flavoring compounds? Do you pull the boiled wood out and add, or just dump the boiled liquid in with the wood?

You can hit them with some quick sanitizer or my personal favorite, soak them in some whiskey and then dump into carboy

 

[trojandux]

You could always put it on Brett. It will break down more of the unfermentables, and then eat them drying it up. It might add a funk but could be something fun to play with.

 

[LowNotes]

You can hit them with some quick sanitizer or my personal favorite, soak them in some whiskey and then dump into carboy

OOoooo, I like the soaked-in-liquor idea. Would whiskey be good with an IPA though, or would something with less flavor like vodka be better? I tend to pair whiskeys/bourbans with porters/stouts in my mind, but maybe that is just me not thinking outside the box. Are there any beers that pair well with rum? Spiced rum is probably my favorite liquor (I mostly stick to beer/wine though....all of my bad drunk experiences were from liquor) but I don't know if the spices will lend itself to beer. I guess there will be minimal flavors being imparted anyways...so it likely doesn't matter.

 

[LowNotes]

You could always put it on Brett. It will break down more of the unfermentables, and then eat them drying it up. It might add a funk but could be something fun to play with.

I have plans to do a sour beer soon, I think for this one I'll just live with the results and learn from it. It is my first IIPA so I want to try and see it through without making any radical changes.

That said if it is nasty after all my aging, putting it back in a bucket and tossing in some Brett might be a better alternative to tossing it all. This beer was damned expensive to brew.

 

[Herky21]

I used spiced rum for a Breakfast stout and it came out well. I'm not sure how the flavors would translate for an IIPA. Non-spiced might work or a flavored vodka, like grapefruit, might fit well though. Just make sure you don't go overboard. I wouldn't use very much of any liquor personally. A little goes a long way.

 

[LowNotes]

Hmmm, flavored vodka might not be a bad idea if I see something at the store that should blend well. And I would only be adding a very small amount, in fact I would only soak the wood in it, and then add the wood chips, no actual liquid. So it is probably moot, but if I have to sanitize it anyways I figure it might be worth giving it a whirl.

Now I have a decision...drive 20 minutes each way to the homebrew shop...or order something online and pay for the shipping. I just placed a big order a couple weeks ago, so I don't need anything but wood. D'oh!

 

[peterj]

If you don't want the alcohol flavor and just the wood, I would just steam the cubes in a small amount of water in the microwave then dump the wood and water and all into the beer. This is a really good article that tells you a lot about wood aging: http://morebeer.com/content/using_oak_in_beer. It also tells you the best way to sanitize the wood. I would definitely give it a read!

 

[psymonkey]

Wow! Was that a recipe for 10G? Definitely going to follow this as it develops

 

[LowNotes]

Hehe, nope, it was actually for 4g since I couldn't get all that grain in my brew pot with my usual amount of strike water for 5g in the fermenter. There's a whole lot of sugar in that wort, that is for sure.

So I did a little reading of the BJCP style guidelines for English/American IPA/IIPA and English/American Barleywines, and based on what I read there I am now backtracking on using wood while aging, as wood flavors were specifically stated to NOT be part of the style. Normally, I am all for experimentation and don't care if something fits a specific "style" as long as it tastes good, but since this is my first foray into high gravity ale I am trying to get something close to the "official" taste as a benchmark. Also, based on what I read my beer will almost certainly fall into the American Barleywine category, which does allow for some hop flavor and bitterness, as opposed to the English Barleywine which is mostly malt influenced.

I need to double check the dates, but I think I will be adding my dry hop next weekend, and bottling 2 weeks after that. I'll try and take some photos on bottling day, and will definitely post my FG since that is really the big question mark for this beer. It has a really nice dark amber color right now, but that is about all I know about it!

 

[psymonkey]

Almost 20 lbs of grain plus corn sugar for a 3 gallon batch..man, my beers are child's play - this is hardcore! I think you're in QuadIPA territory - awesome!! KEep us posted

 

[UnDeadly]

I'm a little late to the party here, but on carbing with swing-tops...

I have used a variety of swing tops with good, but not perfect, results. The long, thin German Altbier bottles, the more standard pint bottles, and 32oz swing top growlers. I have had great results with the two smaller sizes, but only batting around .600 with the big boys.

The reason is not the glass, nothing has broken on me, it's the seal itself. PSI spikes during bottle conditioning, as the yeast produces CO2 faster than can be absorbed back into the liquid. So for a period of time there, the pressure is quite high in the bottle, and the seal fails. The majority of the CO2 then escapes, leaving you with little to no carbonation returning to the liquid.

RukusDM did an experiment on it, which can be seen here:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/bottle-carbing-idea-final-data-review-205862/

 

[Chadwick]

I would love to see how this turns out. I have an attempt at my first barleywine in the primary right now. OG was 1.2+ something. I was shooting for 1.100 and apparently over shot it by a little. lol.

 

[s4l]

Any updates?

 

[LowNotes]

No it has been in secondary for 1.5 months now. I meant to dry-hop it this past weekend, but got sidetracked with guests and gardening stuff and will be doing it tonight instead. 2 weeks on the dry-hop and then I am going to bottle it and age for 3 months. It has been a long slow brew, and I am dying for it to be ready...for now I am just happy that there are zero signs of infection, and the beer has a nice, fairly dark and rich color in the secondary.

I will definitely be posting an update on the FG when I bottle it, and try and throw a few pics together as well. I have been collecting more of the TJ's swingtops for bottling, and will eventually post results on carbing in those as well.

 

[LowNotes]

Oh, well I guess there is one sort-of update...

I checked my primary thermometer when doing a more recent brew, and I think it might have been off by 4-5 degrees in the high direction. I calibrated it against 2 other thermometers and it was about 4 degrees hot, so it is looking like my mash temp of 158* may in reality have been closer to 154*.

 

[Travestian]

Oh, well I guess there is one sort-of update...

I checked my primary thermometer when doing a more recent brew, and I think it might have been off by 4-5 degrees in the high direction. I calibrated it against 2 other thermometers and it was about 4 degrees hot, so it is looking like my mash temp of 158* may in reality have been closer to 154*.

Glad to hear this for your sake. Both for this beer and future brews. I'm looking forward to hearing how this monster does turn out. Thanks for the updates!

 

[nucciocioccio]

Another option could be to find a barrel used for wine and simply put your beer in it, then let it age for veeeeeeeery long time (a year?). Is something many professional brewers do in Italy, obtaining a lactic acid fermentation that dries and sours the beer, resulting with something similar to a liquorous wine like porto or marsala. Only need a used barrel, space, time and patience.