paulthenurse
Fecal Transplant Super Donor
- Joined
- May 14, 2007
- Messages
- 12,278
- Reaction score
- 2,208
Yup
Good luck Its a fun brew day, get a bunch of friends together and really make an event of it. The memories and the laughter will last a lot longer than the beer.
FINALLY DONE! Two racks, one from primary to secondary for aging and one for bottling. KMeta in both. Flavor is great. It'll be a really nice sipping/after dinner drink. A little more oak than I'd intended, even still, but overall very good. Some slight funk, plumbs and dark fruit, cinnamon flavors and alcohol warmth all come through despite the oak being stronger than I'd wanted. Decided to go fancy on the bottles since the guy who paid for this experiment basically paid $100/bottle. Hand dipping Belgian cork bottles in silver metallic (no higher than an inch or two from the top so beer only touches glass) to (hopefully) block nearly 100% of light making it great for aging. Labeled it with normal paper from a laser printer, then enameled the whole thing (again staying an inch or more short of the top). Corked with Zork closures so it has a pull tab, a tight seal for aging and can easily be removed and replaced. Finished it all off with a dip in blue wax. Personally, I think it's beautiful and worthy of the beer inside.
OG 1.212 to a FG of 1.000, rounded up to 28% ABV on the labels. I've never had Utopias, but my brother has. His big complaint about mine is that Utopias is thick like syrup and mine, obviously given the FG, is not. Drinks easy and it's smooth, though.What was the combined OG/FG on this beast?
A connection in that I probably read it. I'm not sure which one you're referring to, but I read one that sounds very similar on Brew Your Own. Suffice it to say I read pretty much everything I could on brewing big beers before trying this one. Funny, now when I brew normal beers it's almost boring...Incidentally I read a blog post recently where a guy challenged allegations that homebrewers can't make beer above 20% ABV, and he killed it. His process was very similar to yours -- any connection, perchance?
What's with the kmeta? I've used it in wine obviously never heard of using it in beer.
What's with the kmeta? I've used it in wine obviously never heard of using it in beer.
Fortunately, this brew is not getting carbonated. So I went for it.The drawback to kmeta is that it will inhibit (but not kill) yeast activity, so it may prevent bottle conditioning and carbonation when used at higher concentrations. I don't remember dosages off hand, but they are readily available from winemaking resources.
It's not missed if it is. You can smell it from a mile away...Isn't it going to lack aroma without carbonation?
It's not missed if it is. You can smell it from a mile away...
It's a really exciting project, loads of fun - presuming you find brew day fun, but also a lot of work. I suspended all other brewing for about two months so I could devote all my brewing time to babying this thing. End result, worth it. It's super complex in the flavor. I might do it again and simplify the recipe. The smoked malt probably isn't necessary. It's not really noticeable especially since I oaked it. I've already had a lot of requests from other people to make more. People have offered upwards of $75-$100/bottle. Of course, I can't sell it for profit. That would be illegal.
Selling it in any form or fashion is illegal. Profits have nothing to do with it.
True, but friends can legally buy into the ingredients for a batch. The rule should be that they only get their share if they come help bottle!
The mild was strictly a starter that also happened to be quite tasty to drink. Bonus. That's why I went through the effort of hopping it. Plus, the idea was that it was a lower OG version of the full batch so it would give SOME indication of the full beer's flavor...but not even close, so don't do it on that basis. What I DID do was to reserve some of the initial wort in half gallon mason jars for later additions. These additions were used to dissolve the brown sugar additions. Despite freaking out numerous times and nearly changing my plans about 100 times I stayed pretty true to the original plan. Good luck.Did you mix a gallon of the mild starter beer with this? It sounded like that was part of your process. Or maybe a more direct question is, could you give a rundown of your process? How close is it to the steps in the first post?
True, but friends can legally buy into the ingredients for a batch. The rule should be that they only get their share if they come help bottle!
The mild was strictly a starter that also happened to be quite tasty to drink. Bonus. That's why I went through the effort of hopping it. Plus, the idea was that it was a lower OG version of the full batch so it would give SOME indication of the full beer's flavor...but not even close, so don't do it on that basis. What I DID do was to reserve some of the initial wort in half gallon mason jars for later additions. These additions were used to dissolve the brown sugar additions. Despite freaking out numerous times and nearly changing my plans about 100 times I stayed pretty true to the original plan. Good luck.
*EDIT FOR CLARIFICATION* I reserved some of the initial wort of the full strength brew, not the mild. This had a lower OG than 1.212, the 1.212 was a calculation based on the sugars (maple syrup and brown sugar) to the primary. Also, I went through 2 bottles of Oxygen (the little red bottles at Home Depot/Lowes) so make sure you have enough. Sorry, didn't seem clear when I read it again this morning so just wanted to make sure it was clear.
What I really want to do is try and clone Kosmic Mother Funk and use that to blend per the actual Utopias. The problem there is finding some KMF to taste and then making the clone. Adding Tetravis or something else that uses KMF in blending might just be the way to go for simplicity.
Got my big brew finally started. Goal is to get 20L of 25%. Mashing is ongoing
Enter your email address to join: