# 10% Anyone?



## Stixor (25/6/09)

Just wondering if anyone has made a beer that has 10% alcohol content?

A guy at work want me to make him some.


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## j1gsaw (25/6/09)

Davey101 said:


> Just wondering if anyone has made a beer that has 10% alcohol content?
> 
> A guy at work want me to make him some.



You could do a toucan.
Add enough dex/glucose/LME and it will be up there in the 10% range, Probably taste like shit though. (Mine all did)
Better off settling around the 6% range and at least have it drinkable.
I came to the conclusion that its bloody hard to make a big strong beer with kits.

Wish i started BIAB loooong before wasting money with cans of goop. AG For The Win!


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## kevo (25/6/09)

I've made 9-10% belgian ales from extract.

Was a fiddly fermentation, but a great beer in the end.

Split the wort into 5 small batches and added these the fermentation a day apart. So the yeast for the whole batch basically got a little starter, then that yeast got another feed the next day and so on.

Doable, but fiddly.


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## JaffaMan (25/6/09)

Doing the coopers sparkling ale by the recipe on the back of the can produces a pritty strong, but very drinkable brew (6-7%). 
Not really close to your 10% needs though.


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## brando (25/6/09)

I suspect that the more knowledgable guys (than me) on here will suggest that the type of yeast you use is important for a high alcohol beer. Different yeasts have different alcohol tolerances as far as I know.

I read somewhere about a guy needing to use champagne yeast to do a 13% beer.


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## Finite (25/6/09)

As indicated it gets a little fiddly when you aim for high % beers. Fermentation can stall and you can get really overpowering flavors unless you use the right procedure or yeast.

Unless you have quite a bit of brewing experience or are keen on a challenge I would sudgest doing a double can of Coopers Pale Ale. Same amount of water, just two cans. That will get you a pretty well balanced beer that is very drinkable and about 7.7% depending on your attenuation.

Cheers,


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## pixelboy (25/6/09)

I did a extract barley wine recently, came in at 9.5% and 80 IBU.. 

Its amazing.. but HOT HOT.. not an everyday drinker.


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## Cocko (25/6/09)

I brew at between 6 and 8 % as a norm.

I have my fermentation under good temp. control and know what the yeast I use can achieve at what temps.

All advice above is good!

BUT you need the yeast to do the work...

Couple of options in my 2c.

Use a good WYeast like 3787 and run pretty warm, 22 deg., leave for at least 2 weeks to finish!

OR use a Champaign or Turbo yeast and still brew pretty warm....

I hope it helps.

EDIT: Obviously you know to add sugars to get the SG up. I would use even amounts of DEx and LDME!


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## sinkas (25/6/09)

Davey101 said:


> Just wondering if anyone has made a beer that has 10% alcohol content?
> 
> A guy at work want me to make him some.



Why does he want it, is he a dero?


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## Phoney (25/6/09)

Tell your mate @ work to drink wine instead.

Or buy a fermenter and brew it himself! :lol:


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## Cocko (25/6/09)

Yep, vanilla essence on the back of the bag!


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## Bribie G (25/6/09)

Actually, although light kits would taste pretty gruesome made to that strength, a good strong toucan recipe is simply:

2 Cans Coopers Stout
1kg LDME
1kg Dextrose
Dry hop with 20g of Styrian Goldings or any hop of choice

Use one sachet of the kit yeast which is Mauribrew 514 that will ferment happily up to 9.5%

The brew turns out around 9%, the bitterness from the two cans is nicely balanced by all those fermentables, and it's ready to drink in a month.


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## OLDS2006 (26/6/09)

I did a toucan with coopers lager which tastes great after eight months in the bottle.
2 cans coopers lager
1kg LDME
500g coopers BE2
40g Saaz on flameout


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## uniiqueuser (26/6/09)

When I was younger and dumber my mate and I brewed something that was way over 10%... I often used to boast that it was closer to fifteen but that was probably closer to my mental age at the time... :icon_vomit: 

He bought a complete Coopers kit from Kmart, and made the first brew, then forgot about it for maybe six weeks, and fessed up that he'd forgotten it and he wanted to tip it out. I suggested we experiment, and try to 'double brew' ... we dissolved another 2 kg of sugar in hot water and mixed it into the wort. We then chucked in some more yeast. Lo and behold it began fermenting again and we eventually bottled it and drank it. 

It wasn't great tasting but a couple of bottles would have you on your ear in no time. We called it 'get pissed fast lager' and it tasted like a pot of beer with a shot of vodka in it. I think anything I have made since could only have been an improvement.


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## rclemmett (26/6/09)

BribieG said:


> Use one sachet of the kit yeast which is Mauribrew 514 that will ferment happily up to 9.5%



No.

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...mp;#entry470472


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## Bribie G (26/6/09)

Rob2 said:


> No.
> 
> http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...mp;#entry470472



Interesting, I do note that the Morgans have '514' printed on a plain foil packet. However the Coopers doesn't elaborate on where it comes from so therefore obviously in-house. Ok, anyone doing the toucan, use Nottingham


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## Adamt (26/6/09)

As I said in that thread, *Morgan's Queenslander* kits have 514.

My suggestion is to use S-189, it's a clean lager yeast and survives past 10%.

Good luck in trying to not turn out a horrible beer!


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## Swinging Beef (26/6/09)

I really dont get the negativity in this thread.
10% beers, while not common in Australia, are a valid style of beer.
Sure, a 10% pilsner or lager will, more often than not, leave you with a foul taste in your mouth, but many fantastic beers are over 10%abv.
I actually prefer HG beers, to LG ones. Its not complicated, just drink less!

I would recommend you aim for one of three styles of beer.
Imperial Stout
Belgian Trippel or Strong Ale
English Barley Wine

At a quick guess, for 20 litres, I would say:
Imperial Stout
2 cans of Coopers Stout
1kg of LDME
1kg of DDME
1kg Dex
2 sachets of US05 or 04 yeast.. whatever takes your fancy.

Belgian Ale
2 cans of Coopers Canadain Blond or Mex Cerv
2kg LDME
1kg Dex.... add this Dex after a week of fermentation
3 bags of Wyeast Ardenne strain, or a 3 litre starter made from one pack

Barley Wine
2 cans coopers Pale Ale
1 can coopers Lager
1.5 kg LDME
1kg dex
2 sachets of US05 or 04 yeast.. whatever takes your fancy.

Sure, these arent gonna be award winning recipies, but I reckon as far as kits go, they will make good beers that arent too far removed from a style that does well with 10%abv


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## Bribie G (26/6/09)

Yup, SB, if you take out the DDME from that stout, that's what I have brewed a couple of times last year. IGA had Coopers on special for $9 recently and I bought 4 cans of stout specially for my toucans. I'll be getting into them when this years comp brews are out of the way. Nottingham is a good yeast for this recipe as well.


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## mwd (26/6/09)

The Barley Wine looks an interesting mix.

Wonder if the liver would survive for long if that is a 23L batch.


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## argon (26/6/09)

I put a recipe on the other day... Belgian Dark Strong Ale... I calculate itll come out as 9.9%
Try this one out for your mate,

23L batch
3kg Coopers Amber Malt
1kg Dark Dry Malt
1kg Light Dry Malt
0.25 Crystal Grain
0.25 Vienna Grain
1kg Dextrose
40g Saaz @60
20g Tettnanger @60
10g Saaz @15
Yeast Wyeast 1388 Belgian Strong Ale	

I used the Kit___Extract_Beer_Designer_V1.3.xlsx for the recipe and it gave the following figures;
OG 1.093
FG 1.021
IBU 28.1
EBC 42.9
9.9% in the bottle

Ive done a stepped fermentation, adding half the DME on day 1 and 3 then the 1kg Dextrose on day 5.


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## brettprevans (26/6/09)

or if your only into K&K

*Hangover madness*
muntons nut brown ale
500g black fern unhopped wheat malt
500g coopers amber malt
1kg LDME
1.5kg morgans unhopped extra pale malt extract
500g belgian candy sugar
10g hersbrucker hops
10g styrian
23L
22g T-58 yeast
SG 1074, FG 1018
9.5%

if you up the malt you need to up the hops to balance it out.

another belgian style one

belgian ale 1.7kg tin 
thomas coopers wheat malt extract 1kg tin 
morgans unhopped pale malt extract 1kg tin 
coopers be2 250g bag 
dex 400g 
plain sugar 100g 
400g light crystal malt (steeped for 1/2hr) 
30g styrian goldings (boil for 1/2hr) 
T58 dried yeast 

og 1088, FG 1023

now you could easily crank up the sugar, dex, and or malt on this and chuck some more hops in and it should turn out ok


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## Swinging Beef (26/6/09)

I admit that I havent brewed these recipies, but Im looking at them thinking... Mmmm... 

And Tropical Brews, you dont have to drink them all in one night!


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## uniiqueuser (26/6/09)

Swinging Beef said:


> I really dont get the negativity in this thread.
> 10% beers, while not common in Australia, are a valid style of beer.



My negativity is towards the crap me and my mate made. We drank it anyway.

I recall one small pub in the countryside of Devon, England, which had its own brews on tap as well as the commercial stuff. One such brew was a dark heavy ale in excess of 9% which they called 'Bollock Twanger'. English pubs were not, and are still not (as far as I know) governed by the same draconian excise laws as in this country. More alcohol content = more tax, so even small breweries have to keep alcohol content low to keep their product competitive. I would say this is a major reason as to why we are conditioned into believing a beer with 5% alcohol is 'heavy' (or even less - check the side of the next Yarra water variety you have the misfortune to drink).


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## Nick JD (27/6/09)

I've never had a beer over 6% that I'd drink in preferance to one under 6%. But that's just me. I don't like under 3% beer either. I don't think the flavour profile of beer is good at holding high alcohol levels as well as other drinks ... and it seems the beer-drinkers of the world agree, beer is best at 4-6%. 

But the 3kg of sugar K&3Ks I made as a broke Uni student mught have put me off a little...


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## altone (27/6/09)

Tropical_Brews said:


> The Barley Wine looks an interesting mix.
> 
> Wonder if the liver would survive for long if that is a 23L batch.



Mate, I know you're in Cairns but ffs don't keg it and drink it from pint pots  

When I was growing up in the North of England, barleywines were treated as a one off drink.
If you were thirsty you had a pint of bitter, the barleywine was more to savor, like a good brandy.

I'd be interested to try a good barleywine recipe, might do some research and add it to the summer brew list.

I seem to remember a commercial barleywine I had was 12%, but then, I was looking at the bottle after I'd finished it.


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## mwd (27/6/09)

boddingtons best said:


> Mate, I know you're in Cairns but ffs don't keg it and drink it from pint pots
> 
> When I was growing up in the North of England, barleywines were treated as a one off drink.
> If you were thirsty you had a pint of bitter, the barleywine was more to savor, like a good brandy.
> ...



Don't worry our Mam used to give us Whitbread Gold Label BW and Mackeson when we were nippers to keep us quiet. And you know how small the bottles are. 
But 23l would need a hell of a lot of small bottles drinking a 750ml would be a stagger home.
Trouble is if you produce a really good brew it is always good to drink another to see if it is as good as the last one and then may as well have another to see....... :beerbang: 

Thinking on doing a smaller batch sometime when I see a recipe that catches the imagination.


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## Steve (27/6/09)

argon said:


> Ive done a stepped fermentation, adding half the DME on day 1 and 3 then the 1kg Dextrose on day 5.



Thats interesting. Never heard of that before. Where do you get that from?
Cheers
Steve


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## Phoney (27/6/09)

Tropical_Brews said:


> But 23l would need a hell of a lot of small bottles drinking a 750ml would be a stagger home.



Not neccessarily, ive got a bottle of cab sav here im drinking a glass of right now & that's 13.5%. Now I can drink a bottle of wine with dinner over a few hours without getting plastered.


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## mwd (27/6/09)

phoneyhuh said:


> Not neccessarily, ive got a bottle of cab sav here im drinking a glass of right now & that's 13.5%. Now I can drink a bottle of wine with dinner over a few hours without getting plastered.



O.K. slight exaggeration but you get the gist Barley Wine is usually drunk in small quantities due to the powerful flavours but it is easy to get carried away when you have a big supply.

Just ask the 14 year old girls on alcopops :icon_offtopic: comotose in the gutters.


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## manticle (27/6/09)

Nick JD said:


> ... and it seems the beer-drinkers of the world agree, beer is best at 4-6%.



??


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## Swinging Beef (27/6/09)

lager drinker from hell said:


> My negativity is towards the crap me and my mate made. We drank it anyway.


 :icon_offtopic: I wasn't targetting you specifically, but it just strikes me as odd, that so many of the brewers on this forum equate 6%+ brews with rocket fuel piss heads.
I really only got into brewing AG because it was too expensive and too hard to get ahold of the 7%+ beers that i prefer to drink.
I love the flavor and mouth feel of 8% beers.
I have myself one longneck of this kinda beer a night, and Ive still had less booze than someone who has three schooners of APA.


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## theMISSIONARY (28/6/09)

I didn't mind Skol super Lager 9%? :icon_drunk: and ive been thinking a Coopers etc lager two can with dex750g? and LDME750g? would be.......nice :lol:


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## Bribie G (28/6/09)

theMISSIONARY said:


> I didn't mind Skol super Lager 9%? :icon_drunk: and ive been thinking a Coopers etc lager two can with dex750g? and LDME750g? would be.......nice :lol:


I love that stuff. Four cans and you are crawling around ... real tramp beer .. but it's disappeared from 1st Choice Morayfield, although that's bogan territory and they may stock it elsewhere, although having said that most of Brisbane is bogan territory. I found that the couple of straight Coopers Lager Toucans I made were reminiscent of the flavour of Skol and I've wondered about nudging it up to 7 percent, with a kilo of sugar and half a kilo of LDME however I think at 9% they would turn out a bit sickly. Here's a thought, a THREECAN of Coopers lager might hold up a bit better, plus a kilo of inverted sugar............hmmmmmm

Of course we are starting to talk about a thirty five dollar brew but heck you get the value back in the form of ethanol I suppose.


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## theMISSIONARY (28/6/09)

LOL a three cans going a bit far.....two can and 1kg of dex 500g LDME then


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## Nick JD (29/6/09)

manticle said:


> ??



What amount of the world's beer is produced with an alcohol content of between 4 and 6%? My guess is > 75% ... possibly 90%.


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## Swinging Beef (29/6/09)

Nick JD said:


> What amount of the world's beer is produced with an alcohol content of between 4 and 6%? My guess is > 75% ... possibly 90%.


I reckon that might be a fair guess, and I agree that lager/pilsner is best between the 4-6% range.
But we're talkin' ales, man, ALES! :icon_cheers:


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## Sammus (29/6/09)

Steve said:


> Thats interesting. Never heard of that before. Where do you get that from?
> Cheers
> Steve



Standard practice for high alc beers, particularly belgians.


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## Interloper (29/6/09)

Sammus said:


> Standard practice for high alc beers, particularly belgians.



My last 2 Belgians made from kits&bitz both had incremental feeds. I think it is a good strategy as if you just bung all the sugaz in the boil then the (theory) is that the yeast doesn't work on the malts, it just goes straight for the easy stuff like dex and candi sugar as it's easier to convert.

It sounds like it makes sense and I would say the alc is more balanced than in the past when I just turf all the sugaz/candi into the initial boil.


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## Sammus (29/6/09)

yeah I just put down a tripel. but I was pretty strictly following a recipe that said to just do it all in one hit. Next time I'll do the incremental thing and see the difference


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## Swinging Beef (29/6/09)

Sammus said:


> Next time I'll do the incremental thing and see the difference


You will indeed.
Digestibility Fail :icon_cheers:


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## barry2 (29/6/09)

Bribie,an interesting thought on the THREECAN Coopers.

Using the SG Estimator at 
http://www.brewcraft.com.au/wa.asp?idWebPa...p;idDetails=172

the figures come up for a 23 litre brew

3 cans plus kg of dextrose
SG 1092 FG 1020 ABV% 10.3

3 cans plus 1.25 kg of DME
SG 1097 FG 1027 ABV% 10

Probably would be hoppy enough and just needs a robust yeast and perhaps incremental feed as referred to earlier on this thread.I might give it a try in summer and brew a stout and let it mature for six months and try it next winter.


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## manticle (29/6/09)

Nick JD said:


> What amount of the world's beer is produced with an alcohol content of between 4 and 6%? My guess is > 75% ... possibly 90%.




Yes but what percentage of the world's beers are bland lagers produced by large distilleries? If it's simply numbers you're talking then yeah sure but to use that to support an argument is a bit like claiming 80% of the world's food establishment think food is best microwaved and deep fried and served within 2 minutes because there is a lot of fast food out there. 

You've limited it to only a few actual types of beer (of which there is a large quantity). There's a very large number of beers made in the world that fall outside that range (both sides) - they just don't make as large a quantity as Millers or Fosters or Beck's. A lot of those beers have a long history too which belies your original comment.

A lot of 'beer' versus a lot of 'beers'.

@swingingbeef - what about bocks, doppelbocks and eisbocks?


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## argon (29/6/09)

Steve said:


> Thats interesting. Never heard of that before. Where do you get that from?
> Cheers
> Steve



I don't quite recall where I picked that up from... probably somewhere here on the forums



Sammus said:


> Standard practice for high alc beers, particularly belgians.






Interloper said:


> My last 2 Belgians made from kits&bitz both had incremental feeds. I think it is a good strategy as if you just bung all the sugaz in the boil then the (theory) is that the yeast doesn't work on the malts, it just goes straight for the easy stuff like dex and candi sugar as it's easier to convert.
> 
> It sounds like it makes sense and I would say the alc is more balanced than in the past when I just turf all the sugaz/candi into the initial boil.




That's the theory with the stepped fermentation.. just so the fermentation doesn't go too mad at the start, allowing it to take it's time over a few days... God knows if it works but it sounded good enough to me to give it a bash... especially since the beer is estimated to be 9.9%.

I'll report back when i've had a couple... I may slurr my typing though!!


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## manticle (29/6/09)

Some wyeasts recommend it on the pack/website (eg 3787), I've heard it in a podcast and I'm pretty sure Brew Like A Monk talks about it. It's standard practice among trappist and Belgian high gravity brewhouses if I remember correctly.


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## theMISSIONARY (29/6/09)

manticle said:


> @swingingbeef - what about bocks, doppelbocks and eisbocks?



How true Imagine a Bock at 5% yuck....... now 7-9% that's a proper bock B)


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## Nick JD (29/6/09)

manticle said:


> Yes but what percentage of the world's beers are bland lagers produced by large distilleries? If it's simply numbers you're talking then yeah sure but to use that to support an argument is a bit like claiming 80% of the world's food establishment think food is best microwaved and deep fried and served within 2 minutes because there is a lot of fast food out there.



Bland or not ... my point was the fool is offered what the fool wants. If 10% lagers were easy to drink, those non-elite bunch of heathens who haven't yet developed the ability to ascertain which end of the cork to sniff would be drinking it. They're not. I have a feeling it isn't ignorance that stops the fool from leaving the bottle store with a six pack of 10% beer, but the willingness to swill something that _goes down easy_ and soothes the pain.


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## silverbrew (30/6/09)

Think i will be givin that belgium ale recipe a go!!! thanks


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## brettprevans (30/6/09)

Nick JD said:


> I've never had a beer over 6% that I'd drink in preferance to one under 6%.


so you'd rather drink anything CUB over Duval which is 8%?


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## manticle (30/6/09)

Nick JD said:


> Bland or not ... my point was the fool is offered what the fool wants. If 10% lagers were easy to drink, those non-elite bunch of heathens who haven't yet developed the ability to ascertain which end of the cork to sniff would be drinking it. They're not. I have a feeling it isn't ignorance that stops the fool from leaving the bottle store with a six pack of 10% beer, but the willingness to swill something that _goes down easy_ and soothes the pain.



I'm not arguing as to whether the average beer consumer is ignorant or just has a preference for a certain drinking range. It's not meant to be a judgemental statement - I just take issue with the suggestion that beer drinkers all agree that 4-6% is the best range. A lot of people who buy big brewery beers are drinking 4-6% because the big breweries make a standard easy drinking product but there are a lot of beers that are 3% or 8% or 12% and have been since long before CUB ever came into existence. Just because current commercial trends dictate that commercial beers are so, doesn't make it an agreed upon thing throughout the world and throughout history that beer is best like that.


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## Swinging Beef (30/6/09)

manticle said:


> @swingingbeef - what about bocks, doppelbocks and eisbocks?


The man dont dig lager. 

Funny that this thread should come up.. check out my latest barley wine... 12.2%


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## Swinging Beef (30/6/09)

Wouldnt it be true that the majoirty of the worlds beer is conumed in the 5% range because of the popularity of golden fizzy lager/pilsner in the past 100 years?

Certainly while in Italy, they all seemed to accept 7%abv as normal


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## Interloper (30/6/09)

citymorgue2 said:


> so you'd rather drink anything CUB over Duval which is 8%?



I'm with you, he can keep all the week girly man beers under 6% give us the Leffe or Chimay or LaTrappe or my beloved Hoegaarden grand cru which is 8.5% :icon_drool2:


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## Renegade (30/6/09)

I dont mind the occasional lambic framboise, which i think is about 3%. Conversly I absolutely love the Chimay range, which is on the opposite end of the scale. And a lot of releases that sit in between. 

I don't think ABV maketh the man. 

Then again, neither does berry framboise, so you might have a point after all. :unsure:


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## Swinging Beef (30/6/09)

Renegade said:


> Then again, neither does berry framboise, so you might have a point after all. :unsure:


Im glad you noticed that in your own comment! :icon_cheers:


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## brettprevans (30/6/09)

i get the point that a lot of commercial low alc beers taste like crap. But then again thats Why Doc developed his Yardglass Session Light . low alc session beer with a heap of flavour.

There are times where Id love to drink beer (ie height of summer) but i know ill end up with a hangover. so i drink something else instead cause comemercial light taste like piss. but that doesnt mean that you cant make good low alc beer. 

you cant tell me you;d rather drink Hoegaarden (<6%) rather than Hoegaarden grand cru (8.5%). Thx interloper for that great example

edit: fixed recipe name and owner


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## manticle (30/6/09)

98% of Aussiehomebrewers agree: ABV and good beer are not strictly related.


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## buttersd70 (30/6/09)

manticle said:


> 98% of Aussiehomebrewers agree: ABV and good beer are not strictly related.



Absolutely. My preference is for <4% ABV......that however is a _preference_, certainly not a hard and fast rule. I had one of DrSmurto's beers the other night that was (if i recall) >10%.....

It went down just as easily as a mild, because it was _balanced_. If anything, it was _too _easy to drink, for such a "heavy" beer. It tasted mild, it went down easy...and 5 minutes later, _*I*_ went down easy, fast asleep on the grass behind Muckeys rainwater tank. :lol:


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## uniiqueuser (30/6/09)

buttersd70 said:


> .......fast asleep on the grass behind Muckeys rainwater tank. :lol:




...maybe I have found a forum to call home...


It's been a while since a brew knocked me out though... :icon_cheers:


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## Muggus (30/6/09)

Back on topic, just briefly...

My first Barley Wine was a Kits and Bits at 12.0% alc/vol, and I was very stoked how it turned out.
- Muntons Traditional Bitter Kit 1.8kg 
- Coopers Pale malt extract 1.5kg 
- Coopers Amber malt extract 1.5kg 
- Morgans Pilsner malt extract 1.0kg
- Bundaburg Brown Sugar 1kg 
- 100g Crystal grain (145EBC), steeped 

I did a little 4L boil with the grain liquid...
30 min - 30g Goldings hop pellets (6.6%)
10 min - 15g Goldings hop pellets (6.6%)
10 min - 15g Fuggles hop pellets (5.7%) 
5 min - 15g Goldings hop pellets (6.6%)
5 min - 15g Fuggles hop pellets (5.7%) 
5 min - 15g Cascade hop pellets (5.7%)
..which adds around another 35 IBU to a 22L batch
OG 1.110
FG 1.020
Abv 12.0%

Ferment with a wine yeast for a month.
Matured on 100g of french oak chips for 6 months! Yes, SIX MONTHS in secondary!

Turned out very rich and smooth, oak integrates well with time. Not a particularly bitter or hoppy beer...English style more than American.
The real key is the long maturation though. Hard to disguise such a big abv when a beer is young, and particularly if it's not fully flavoured and/or well attenuated, it's good to have a big malt body to soak it up.
6 months, well probably too long for most to wait with 22L sitting there at your convienience, but i'd highly recommend an extended fermentation, and secondary of at least a month a piece for a beer around the 10%+ mark. Patience is key!


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## Nick JD (1/7/09)

citymorgue2 said:


> so you'd rather drink anything CUB over Duval which is 8%?



Devil's beer! Let's keep this in perspective - if Duval was also made at 5.5% (not *8.5*), I'd preferentially buy the 5.5% version. I don't like the primary flavour of a beer to be alcohol. Most of the world's beer drinkers agree - _it's the reason beer isn't 10%...
_
Is it that complicated? Shall I explain it again?_  

_


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## brettprevans (1/7/09)

nah its cool. i was drawing a long bow there for an analogue. horses for courses. Or one of my favourites

_De gustibus non est disputandum_ - Latin meaning "there is no disputing about tastes


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## Hassles (22/5/11)

FWIW

The high alcohol beers are great because you can turn your back on them and savour them next year  One reason I really love them is for this attribute. As I keep many of my red wines for beyond a decade I find it rather easy to throw a few bottles of high-octane ale in to keep them company.

Personally I generally gravitate to higher alocohol beers as I find these more flavoursome but... come summer, you want a lower alcohol content, cleaner, crisper style of beer than the big ales I usually prefer. I suspect my pallet is not as sensative as those who can truly appreciate all the subtle nuances of a well manufactured pilsener (for example) so look for something easier to taste and I suspect also that those big, bold and robust beers I and like minded individuals prefer are in fact too bold for those with more sensative taste buds who gravitate to leaner beer styles. As mentioned above 'horses for courses'.

A "good" barley wine, while high alcohol, will be balanced and as mentioned elsewhere is a beer for savouring rather than sessional consumption. Ditto the big Belgian ales. Anybody tried "Murray's Craft Brewing Co." 'Gran Cru' ? A delightful surprise at 8.8% and currently my barley wine benchmark!!!

Most of the Polish pilsener / lager beers start at 6% and rise toward 10 but mostly you wouldn't know it if you didn't read the label and these are pretty easy drinking beers! 


take care


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