US-05 Alcohol Tolerance

[jam095]

(Cross posted from the Fermentation forum..)
Brewed a monster stout yesterday, and pitched a US-05 yeast cake from a low gravity beer I brewed 2 weeks ago. Oxygenated heavily, and hit it again 12 hours later. This morning I got to thinking about the alcohol tolerance of US-05. They list 12% being the max. One guy in the other post said they are being conservative, and he’s successfully reached 13% with it before. Anyone else have any experience with pushing US-05 past 13%?

 

[odie]

I have a recipe I’m going to try. The author used 05 and apparently hit 12.99. How he measured that precise???

 

[Steveruch]

I've read posts claiming 15%.

 

[bobeer]

I believe I reached 13.5 using washed sa05. I had a late addition of maple syrup to push me past 12% mark. It was years ago so I'm pulling exactly what I did but I do remember it was sa05 and it finished at 13.5%

 

[Lefou]

(Cross posted from the Fermentation forum..)
Brewed a monster stout yesterday, and pitched a US-05 yeast cake from a low gravity beer I brewed 2 weeks ago. Oxygenated heavily, and hit it again 12 hours later. This morning I got to thinking about the alcohol tolerance of US-05. They list 12% being the max. One guy in the other post said they are being conservative, and he’s successfully reached 13% with it before. Anyone else have any experience with pushing US-05 past 13%?

Yes, I pushed US-05 up to an estimated 14% ABV in a fruited mead using nutrient additions. This really wasn't a "drinking" mead for me and ended up more or less as a purpose experiment to get a strong brew for marinating. If I'd planned a session mead with ale yeast I'd consider adjusting the gravity downwards for an ABV below 10%, but that's just me.
Pretty sure if you can boost the ABV of a mead with nutrients you can do the same to a strong beer.
Another way to increase the ABV of your initial beer is by lagering and freezing it in that order, then removing the ice (water) portion by separation. You will lose liquid volume but the remainder can be fairly potent. It's not something you'd want to do with bottles or a glass carboy but with a steel unitank or keg that can be artificially chilled and decanted.
I've done this "accidentally" by leaving bottled beer to "super cool" in a freezer, then uncapping the bottle at room temperature. The high alcohol portion will boil off as it warms. From a 12oz beer I'd get a small malty portion of kick ass "ice beer" leaving the hoppy ice behind which , IMO, can be a waste of the original water and hops.

 

[odie]

Well the 05 is off and running. Will see what it yields. Need to decide on when/how to add 2lbs maple syrupView attachment 624941