What did you do to prepare

[erick0619]

To brew your first massive beer. Eventually I want to brew a behemoth of a beer maybe a stout or a barley wine and I would like to know what it takes to brew a massive quality beer.


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Where do you place your probe?

 

[BesteBrew]

Plan for poor efficiency. Tried to brew my first big beer an imperial stout about a month ago. My numbers were a lot lower then expected. Pick up some extra malt extract to bring your gravity back up.


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[BesteBrew]

Also make a large starter. I think I did a 2L. Aerate very well. Use a blowoff tube as well. Mine had a pretty ridiculously active fermentation. Lastly plan to age for months not weeks before drinking.


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[Billy-Klubb]

I didn't worry. I relaxed. I had a home brew.

 

[Natdavis777]

I didn't worry. I relaxed. I had a home brew.

Same here, but had a Dogfish instead.


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[ncboiler]

To brew your first massive beer. Eventually I want to brew a behemoth of a beer maybe a stout or a barley wine and I would like to know what it takes to brew a massive quality beer.


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Where do you place your probe?

Got **** faced drunk on moonshine and whatever beer I could find. Not even sure if I put everything in the boil. I honestly don't even remember the end of the brew.

 

[erick0619]

Plan for poor efficiency. Tried to brew my first big beer an imperial stout about a month ago. My numbers were a lot lower then expected. Pick up some extra malt extract to bring your gravity back up.


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Will this affect the final flavor when you use dme to up your gravity?


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Where do you place your probe?

 

[rlmiller10]

Will this affect the final flavor when you use dme to up your gravity?


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Where do you place your probe?

Depends on how much you use and what style you are brewing. A stout, probably not a lot of difference.

The other option to using DME is to boil more. Instead of trying to make 7 gallons of 1.080 preboil wort, use enough grain and water to make 9 gallons of 1.060 wort and do a 2 to 3 hour boil to get it down to fermenter volume. By going for the 1.060 wort you will not take the efficiency hit and you get more melinoids from the longer boil. That may or may not be to your liking.

Of course you could just brew a normal porter and add a shot of everclear to each bottle at bottling time.

 

[feinbera]

Of course you could just brew a normal porter and add a shot of everclear to each bottle at bottling time.

One for you, one for me! One for you, one for me...

 

[bruteforce]

I brewed my first 1.1 OG AG a month ago. I upped the grain by 15%, collected 8 gallons of wort, and made a 4L starter with my stirplate. OG came out at 1.097 (close enough) and primary was done in about 10 days with the starter. It was pretty much like any other brew day, just more. Oh yeah, and a blow off tube. Don't forget that.