What's your favorite "big" commercial beer?
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umopepisdn
Well-Known Member
Fat Scotch Ale and Dogfish Head 90 min IPA are probably my two favorites when I can find them
Ya thats the trend lately. the same thing happens to Juliet. Its kind of sad
You mean dragons Milk?
SumnerH
Well-Known Member
Why? Most big brands make almost exclusively small beers--the big beers that this thread is about are almost entirely the domain of micro/craft brewers. I'm not sure any of the "big 3" breweries makes a single big beer aside from malt liquors, which aren't really what most people think of when talking about big beers.
(The OP makes it pretty clear that it's asking about big beers in the usual sense, meaning high-OG ones like Belgian strongs, Russian Imperial Stouts, barleywines, Double IPAs, and the like, and not about major commercial brands)
Odd. I've yet to see any real obscuro breweries listed. Walk into any decent beer store, and you're likely to see all of the breweries listed here represented on the shelf, provided they distribute to your state. Now if I came in talking up a "Rust Belt Brewing Co" or "Elevator" barleywine, that might be obscure (as I don't think they distribute outside of Ohio, and maybe PA), but the rest of these are national, or at least regional, brands.
ChandlerBrewery
Well-Known Member
How about the Avery Demon series? They certainly qualify for this category. I am especially partial to the Grand Cru Ale known as "The Beast", reminds me of a well aged mead.
Bigmoose44
Member
I really like the Optimator by Spaten. On the 6 pack carton it says they have been around since 1397. WOW.
Bruce
Bruce
haplo
Well-Known Member
Rochefort 10, Chimay Blue, Trois Pistoles, Victory V-12, Weyerbacher Quad
What's your clone recipe? I modelled my RIS recipe after theirs, it's not exactly a clone, but it's the kind of stout that I want to drink. I've spoken to their head brewer, Wayne about many of their beers but never, for some reason, about that beer.
I really hope it's brewed again. I was under the impression that it was just their 110K +OT last year. This year it's the IIPA called The Other West Coast IPA. It's ok, but I found it pretty sweet.
Avery's Mephistopheles is, IMO, their biggest and badest beer. That thing's epic. Another wonderful RIS. The Beast is delicious too, but it's my least favorite of their 3 demon series beers. The Samael's is my second favorite.
The Mephistopheles is like 55% base, sugar, and 40% roasted goodness... I love that stout...
SumnerH
Well-Known Member
Well, I used a more Founders Breakfast Stout-ish base which is slightly smaller (10% vs. 11.5% or so ABV for Hunahpu's Marshal Zhukov base):
5 gallon batch, 80% eff.
13 lb. British pale (74%)
7 oz. American crystal 120L (2.5%)
10 oz. Carafa II (3.6%)
1 lb. British chocolate (5.7%)
13 oz. Roasted barley (4.6%)
1 lb. 10 oz. Rolled oats (9.3%)
Single infustion @153 for 65 minutes (I was intending 60, lost track of time)
I fermented with US-05, leaving 4 weeks in primary. OG was 1.104, FG was 1.030.
Then I secondaried for 11 days on:
3oz cocoa, 2 vanilla beans, 1.2 oz ancho chile, .8 oz pasilla chile, .5 oz mulato chile, and 5.5 g cinnamon
Cigar City uses only ancho and pasilla, but mulato's a similar style and I didn't have enough of the others on hand (lost more weight to deseeding/etc than I thought).
It's been in bottles for about 3 weeks now, in a month or so I'll crack one to see if it's carbing okay. The sample tasted phenomenal.
OldSock did his own version, which I drew from in developing mine:
http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2009/11/breakfast-stout-riff.html for the base stout
http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2009/12/chile-cocoa-coffee-vanilla-maple.html for more detail on the flavor additins (1 gallon batches of 4 different versions)
http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2010/05/chile-chocolate-vanilla-cinnamon.html for tasting notes
My grain bill is somewhat simplified over his (all British chocolate malt instead of a mix of British/Belgian; no black patent malt but more roasted barley). My choice of chilis is different (closer to Cigar City's), and the ratio of other spices is a bit different. I didn't have Dutch process cocoa available so I went with normal and used a bit less; if you can find the former I'd do that.
Cigar City had a blog entry saying:
Awesome, man! I really want to brew this, but since I have no temp control system yet, and summers in FL are kinda hot, I'm going to wait till about October, brew it then, and have it age until about December
Here's my recipe:
5 Gallon Batch, Assumed 75% eff.
Estimated OG: 1.100
Estimated FG: 1.022
Estimated ABV: 10-10.5% (My beers are always at least .5% over the estimated so I'm hoping I hit 11%
)
Estimated IBU: 75
SRM: 89
Total Grain Bill: 20 lbs.
Yeast Starter: Wyeast 1275 Thames Valley Ale (Cigar City's house yeast)
12 lbs 6 oz Marris Otter (62%)
2 lbs 8 oz Chocolate Malt (13%)
2 lbs 8 oz German Dark Munich Malt (13%)
1 lbs 8 oz Roasted Barley (8%)
0 lbs 8 oz Flaked Barley (3%)
0 lbs 8 oz Victory Malt (3%)
0 lbs 2 oz Black Patent Malt (1%)
FWH 0.5 oz Citra (11.4%)
FWH 0.5 oz Chinook (13.6%)
FWH 0.5 oz Simcoe (13.2%)
60 min 0.5 oz Warrior (15.7%)
Secondary 10 days: 1 oz Ancho Chilli; 1 oz Pasilla Chilli; 3 oz Cocoa Nibs; 2 Vanilla Beans; 3 oz Cinammon (not exactly sure how much cinammon to use, so I wrote down 3 oz till I got more feedback)
Here's my recipe:
5 Gallon Batch, Assumed 75% eff.
Estimated OG: 1.100
Estimated FG: 1.022
Estimated ABV: 10-10.5% (My beers are always at least .5% over the estimated so I'm hoping I hit 11%
)Estimated IBU: 75
SRM: 89
Total Grain Bill: 20 lbs.
Yeast Starter: Wyeast 1275 Thames Valley Ale (Cigar City's house yeast)
12 lbs 6 oz Marris Otter (62%)
2 lbs 8 oz Chocolate Malt (13%)
2 lbs 8 oz German Dark Munich Malt (13%)
1 lbs 8 oz Roasted Barley (8%)
0 lbs 8 oz Flaked Barley (3%)
0 lbs 8 oz Victory Malt (3%)
0 lbs 2 oz Black Patent Malt (1%)
FWH 0.5 oz Citra (11.4%)
FWH 0.5 oz Chinook (13.6%)
FWH 0.5 oz Simcoe (13.2%)
60 min 0.5 oz Warrior (15.7%)
Secondary 10 days: 1 oz Ancho Chilli; 1 oz Pasilla Chilli; 3 oz Cocoa Nibs; 2 Vanilla Beans; 3 oz Cinammon (not exactly sure how much cinammon to use, so I wrote down 3 oz till I got more feedback)
thomasrj
Active Member
Not sure if it qualifies, but I really dig the Dogfish Head Palo Santo Maron. Its an unfiltered brown aged in a massive 10,000 gallon wooden tank. 12.0 %ABV, 50 IBU. Delicious.
So many to choose from. . . Ditto on The Abyss, Bourbon Country, and Top Sail Bourbon Porter; Lagunitas Brown Sugga' and Tommyknoker's Imperial Brown from a brown standpoint; OB leads my list for Scottish with Old Chub and Imperial IPA with the Gubna' (tho there are just so many great IIPAs out there); Weizenbock is owned by Aventinus, Avery has the Kaiser Imperial O'Fest which is absolutely wonderful, and from a Belgian standpoint, oh where to start... I miss the Cheeky Monk on Colfax!
I just had the last of my tiny (4-bottle) stash of this last weekend. Agreed, a most amazing beer!
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