Suggestions needed for an ULTRA HIGH gravity beer

[Lord Bia of Berkeley]

Thanks Bonjour! Your recipes look awesome. I think you sold me on a Wee Heavy for sure!!! I like the English BW and the Oak aged one tooo...so many great recipes so few options...

Thanks again my friend,
Lord Bia

[yinzer]

The hops on an IIPA will drop out considerably over a year (listen to what was said Sunday about Bigfoot)

Here is a Barleywine I will be brewing again soon. A Master Judge said it was a great BW. It came out a bit light (only 14.2%)

Note that your yeast should be one that performs well cold and you should use a yeast cake from a previous beer or a bunch of slurry from your favorite local brewpub.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I agree here. And what's the rush to a high octane brew? Marris Otter and some crystal age real well. Why test the yeast so much? 9-10 % will balance nice.

[Bonjour]

Ultra High gravity brewing means that you have to pay special attention to your FG. It is the FG that will determine much of the character of your brew. A 1.140 OG will typically yield a 1.035+ FG. Special proceedures and recipe considerations are needed to bring your FG below this. For example I find that a step mash helps me increase my attention by 10%.

Fred

[Bonjour]

I agree here. And what's the rush to a high octane brew? Marris Otter and some crystal age real well. Why test the yeast so much? 9-10 % will balance nice.

I brew big beers because I'll frequently enjoy 1 in an evening. These certainly are not session beers. I also like the challange of brewing beers that are that big. In my area there is a micro that brews very big beers (20%+), but his IMHO taste like rocket fuel, and I hate rocket fuel. At GABF I discovered Dogfish Head beers. I liked their beers. They had a stout at 13% that I could have slammed several without realizing the octane, that is until I was carried out. I, for one, like the challange of brewing these ultra big beers.

Fred

[yinzer]

I agree here. And what's the rush to a high octane brew? Marris Otter and some crystal age real well. Why test the yeast so much? 9-10 % will balance nice.

I brew big beers because I'll frequently enjoy 1 in an evening. These certainly are not session beers. I also like the challange of brewing beers that are that big. In my area there is a micro that brews very big beers (20%+), but his IMHO taste like rocket fuel, and I hate rocket fuel. At GABF I discovered Dogfish Head beers. I liked their beers. They had a stout at 13% that I could have slammed several without realizing the octane, that is until I was carried out. I, for one, like the challange of brewing these ultra big beers.

Fred

I have several Stone and DFH beers aged, I don't find that most of them show any growing redeeming characteristics over time. My DFH 120 is good at 2-3 years, but I don't feel that anything about it knocks my socks off. Well besides that I can drink one and be really fucked up. It is a good beer. The Old Guardian is lack luster. So is the A.Bastard and the Double AB. But the Vertical Epic 04.04.04 which is a session beer is very enjoyable.

It's true that many big beers are great, I'm not knocking them. So far tonight I've had a De Dolle Dulle Teve 10º and half a De Dolle Stille Nacht and I'm shit faced. The latter one is very complex. I'm sure that these will age great but I know I couldn't brew these. But I do have some experience with ageing both bought beers and homebrews. Beers around 10% aren't session beers and can yield some very rewarding results. If you have brewed big beers with good results then I'd say that you have conquered some of the problems that would show up in storing beers, but don't discount what cloning a fine English BW would bring

[Brewbear]

K1-V is the beast of yeast, it will ferment in a wide temp range and by adding honey in steps 2 or 3 steps over a 2 week period, it will go to 20 %ABV. The only gripe I have with it is that it will throw all kinds of fussels if the mead is left on lees. That means a LOOONG aging period. D-47 on the other hand, you rack once when the fermentation is about done and then you can leave it on lees for months, it actually lends some nice notes to your mead. Some people on Gotmead.com have left meads with D-47 for close to 1 year.
Try http://www.gotmead.com/making-mead/mead ... ator.shtml
to give you an idea of how much honey you need. Also look at:
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/strains.asp to get an idea of wine yeasts.

Hope that helps,
Brewbear
PS Here's a link on feeding yeasties : http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/feeding.asp