What's the Highest ABV Beer You've Brewed?

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Rambleon

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As the title states, I'm curious how far you've pushed the limits in terms of your beer's ABV. I have a couple 10%+ beers planned but I've never done more than an 8.5% Old Ale (supposed to be 9%... Damned sparge problems). Wyeast 1028 London Ale got me to 8.5% but Wyeast 1056 American Ale has also gotten me to 8%.

Which yeasts do you favor for the job? Which styles do you prefer to push the limits on? At what point did your beer become too much (if there is such a thing)?
 
I've never gone higher than 7.5-8%. Then again, I don't like really high alcohol beers.

Now wine, on the other hand, I've pushed the envelope with those.
 
7.5%, after that I have found the overpowering taste of the alcohol takes away from the flavor of the beer.

For high alcohol I switch to hard liqueur or wine.
 
9.3% belgian golden strong ale. Brewed it in november of last year and it is still
Improving. Id say before the 6 month period it wasnt good at all. High abv definitely benefits from aging. Id say its almost a requirement for a good tastin beer. That said i just bought the ingredients for a 10% RIS i will be brewing in a few days. I dont plan on opening a bottle until fall of next year.
 
I've done a few 8+.

I did a 9% Dark Strong with Wyeast Belgian Abbey Ale 1214 (1 liter starter... I wanted a little bit of straining of the yeast). Haven't tasted it yet. It's been in bottles for about 3 weeks.

My Habanero Imperial IPA was 8.2%. I pitched 2 packs of Wyeast American Ale II 1272. It was good but still under-pitched.

I just bottled a baby Imperial Stout which is just shy of 8%. 2 packs of re-hydrated Nottingham. Again, haven't tasted it yet.

And last, I have another Imperial IPA in the fermenter. My last gravity reading puts it at 8.1%. I used a 3 liter starter of Wyeast American Ale 1056. Preliminary tastes indicate this one may be a contest entry.
 
I have plans to do a small batch of super-high alcohol in the near future. Looking for something like Utopias but at maybe 18-20%.
 
Imperial Belgian Barleywine, OG 1.133 to 1.018, so somewhere in the 15-16 ABV

Dregs from Rochefort and Weyerbacher Quad
 
12+% wet hop bursted IPA with 150+ IBUs. Everything turned out a little imprecise and the california ale yeast just kept chugging away...

That beer really snuck up on the people I didn't tell it was 12+% :drunk:
 
I've got a 13+% RIS that's got about two months left to age. We brewed it MLK weekend. So excited!
 
I did a wee heavy at 8.7% using ALOT of extract and 2 packages of Notty.
 
Montgomery Scott's Wee Heavy. About 10% ABV didn't record the FG. Yeast was Edinburgh Ale WLP028. I really could not taste the alcohol that much but 2 pints was the limit for an evening. I drank 3 pints one night, the next morning was rough. Not a really heavy hangover but it was difficult to get going.
 
A few 10% stouts. One 12% stout. US05.

Some of my weird stuff, random fermented fruit juices and stuff, have gone over 14% with wine and champagne yeasts.

Fermentis yeasts are me favorite.
 
Well,it looks like I salvaged my Maori IPA with a lil magic from God. US-05 yeast,8.81% by Cooper's formula I've been using. Went from OG1.074 down to FG1.012. The yeast finally got the better of the lacto with the additional 2.4oz of NZ hops floating in it.
 
I had a 18% black ipa that made some what how dogfish head does their 120 minutes although it got a infection and tasted horrible.
 
Now that I think about it my second batch ever turned out past 9% on accident. It was supposed to be a Mac and Jack Amber clone and when I looked at the extract recipe it gave lme and dme instructions but I though that I needed both liquid and dry. I didn't realize my mistake until I finished my first one...
 
I regularly do between 8-12% but I got a 15.1% barleywine bottled and in the cellar. Was trying for 16% so I was happy with the results
 
I love brewing bigger beers. I routinely do 8-10% iipas. I brewed my mad elf clone this year to 1.100 OG. Should come out to 11-12%+

I like the challenge to get the pitch/aeration/fermentation right to achieve the attenuation needed in these monsters.
 
I usually stick to the 6% or lower range. My palette seems to be pretty sensitive to the alcohol in big beers. Belgians, IIPAs and even the few Barleywines I've tasted, just aren't my thing. The alcohol really seems to be the dominating factor in my taste buds and it's not as appealing to me as a nice 6% IPA or my 5/2% Amber Ale I regularly brew.

I definitely think there is a place for higher ABV beers, it's just not really my thing. And since I keg, I'd rather not take up that space on something that's going to take me a really long time to consume.
 
One I called General Vincent's Strong Barleywine was 11.3% ABV and was very GOOD!

Other than that, I have made about 4 Belgians that were over 10% My average ABV in 56 batches is 6.3% and my best beers tend to be the ones at 8% or greater.
 
Cooper's Toucan Stout.

Can of OS Stout
Can of Dark Ale
1 kg Dextrose

Somewhere between 7.5 and 8%
 
Triple IPA came in at 10.0% Target was 10% and 100 IBUS - couldn't calculate ACTUAL IBUs but BeerSmith2 told me I was hitting it :cross:
 
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