COMPETITION: Super High Gravity Brewing 2017

[black_labb]

No my question was purely about how you might analyse the amount of dext used in a brew not a slag on the Quality vs ABV thing and I apologised if it was a dumb question. Guess that I will never know...

I think there is some degree of honesty required. If you wanted to cheat you would simply add some alcohol via strong spirits which would be even harder to detect than going mostly dextrose.

Were the people entering planning on carbonating their beers? If you really push the yeast to it's last legs there isn't going to enough healthy yeast for bottle carbonation. Was the plan to force carbonate or leave flat?

I'm also curious how effective the alcohol content via hydrometers will end up being. I can imagine that with multiple stages of racking onto fresh yeast and adding sugars there will be certain amounts of losses of volume of the beer and additions of fresh yeast will likely dilute the beer as there will still be residual beer/wort with the yeast. Over a period of time things could become difficult to keep track of.

 

[peteru]

I think you would want to encourage creativity and drinkability. Based on that, I would put close to no restrictions on the ingredients, minimal restrictions on the process and high scoring contribution on the quality of the product.

I'd say, any ingredient is OK as long as the result is drinkable and recognisable as a beer. If you think that you are going to get the best results by going 50% amber DME and 50% plum jam, go for it. In the end we may all learn something.

In terms of process, you want to ensure that the alcohol concentration is purely a result of the fermentation process and not as a result of a concentration process, such as eis techniques. If that is the case, ask each entrant to describe the process. If the proposed process is described before being used, the entrants could come to agreement whether what they plan is within the spirit of the competition.

My assumptions here are that this is going to be very much an open book process, so that anyone following can learn things. The travelogue that describes the road to failure will be just as valuable as the winning recipe.

Maybe scale the scores. Drinkability gets a score from 1 (did you just give me a bottle of metho) to 10 (Yummo, Black Damnation) and then multiply the alcohol content above 20% by the drinkability factor and a scaling factor. Add the resulting value to the alcohol content. Such a scoring method would take into account the fact that as you go up in excessive alcohol content, it becomes more challenging to produce good tasting results.

 

[Zorco]

Maybe scale the scores. Drinkability gets a score from 1 (did you just give me a bottle of metho) to 10 (Yummo, Black Damnation) and then multiply the alcohol content above 20% by the drinkability factor and a scaling factor. Add the resulting value to the alcohol content. Such a scoring method would take into account the fact that as you go up in excessive alcohol content, it becomes more challenging to produce good tasting results.

I see the the value in this.

Adding a drinkability criteria item changes the comp from something which is a tangible measurement: Ye old science, to having a subjective element: yum yum....not so good.

Rule 13 is there to ensure that a good beer is made. Honesty is there because - well, just because

I think we run a second layer to the comp which pits the deliciousness of the beers against eachother. A scoring criteria honeymoon that will be! I don't think any two beers will be comparable anyway. But we should.



I think we are getting closer to bedding down the comp rules.


Really appreciate the input from everyone. I hope as many people join the comp!


Cosdog

 

[Zorco]

Hi everyone,

I've updated the OP to encompass all that is intended from the competition as well as the suggestions from the community. If there is any final changes or desired updates then please shoot them through. I've added a layer to the competition which will open the door for the beer judging aspect of creating beers like this.


Can we plan to formalise the comp by, say, next Monday 17th October and get this show on the road.

Can participants give me a nod if you like where the rules are sitting - I'm keen for your buy-in.


Cheers,

Cosdog

 

[malt junkie]

you still missed oats as a permissible ingredient I won't jump in this year, but I'll be keeping a keen eye on this as I would love to give this a crack next year, would be nice to get some sponsorship rather than put a hole in your pocket Cd.

Also are you going to put a limit on age for best beer category? Obviously these kinds of beers take a good deal of time to process, and that is over and above the preparation and planning. If this were to become a full on annual or biannual event, to be fair to all contestants beer should be brewed between now and December 2017 and the following comp brewed post dec 2017 or as stipulated (perhaps June July 2017 start date for a Dec 2018 comp).

Thoughts?

 

[Zorco]

Thoughts?

Oats in: Check.

I wanted to respect Grainer's statement of aging for much greater than a year. 3 in that particular case and the only way I could was to allow the participant enter in their beer in any of the following years. I don't know if an age limit will be in the interests of a brewer for beers like this. but I appreciate the point your made as well.

On the annual nature of this, I'm pretty OK with my wording and think it agrees with what you're said. I'm not as sure about the june/july for the following december as much. That opens the window to an 18 month cycle and keeping track becomes a tiny bit harder. I'm keen to hear what others think as well..

But in any case, for the contenders now, I think we are on our way just about. We have plenty of time to come together and tune the ABV part of the comp to the Best SHG Beer part of the comp.

If any company takes over my sponsorship offer then by all means. $100 is fairly trivial compared to what each participant would put into their beers - but it is an effort to formalise this as a competition.

 

[Lyrebird_Cycles]

Rev B for final comments all


2: Allowable Ingredients:


2.08:- Dextrose
2.09:- Glucose

Redundant, they're the same thing.

 

[Zorco]

Will fix after lunch.

Edit: Done

 

[Yob]

11: wort must be created and fermented on a non pro system. Use of a commercial system is not allowable.

 

[idzy]

Active participants:
01: Cosdog
02: Yob
03: Manticle
04: Grainer
05: Idzy

One clarification, the reviewers say 2017 and the post says 12th December, does that mean 12th December 2017 or is there a typo?

 

[Zorco]

No typo mate, the game is that long. I'm going to do a practice run with the wort I accidentally made. Then hone my skills by Easter for the real submission.

If you knock out one faster then please submit. I'm not sure how soon before Lyrebird_Cycles will get hold of his mate ALEX, but soon after that submissions can be scored.

Everything is easy. Please set up a blog (not sure how yet) so we can follow your efforts.

I'll sort out rule 11 tonight when I get to a computer.

 

[Zorco]

I'm asking around about how to start my competition blog for this so any advice welcome.

 

[Zorco]

Monday I started my white labs super high gravity on the stirplate. A couple of hundred grams of dme and a shot of O2 and nutrient. She was away.

Response was vigorous and another few hits of O2 and it was raging. Yeast cake has settled after a day not stirring and volume has increased substantially. I'd say 10 times original pitch.

On the second approach I have the English ale yeast cake. It was clean, and super healthy, but my SHG wasn't ready, so I fed the EA a 1062 stout which bloody exploded out the top of my glass carboy then proceeded to fill the fridge with black gunk and it seemed like ferment was done in 2 days. I'll rack it out to a keg tomorrow.

SO! Tomorrow is the day for the main show.

I am going to leave the SHG settle tonight and tomorrow pour off the top liquid -200ml, then agitate till all the yeast is in suspension. I will have the English ale mega cake (3 fights they've been in) and into that I'll pour the SHG slurry.

In will go 8l of wort for what I will expect will be a dazzling exhibition. 24 hours later the rest of what I have got.

O2 using my new stone from Pete and a dash of nutrient.

That's the plan so far.

 

[Zorco]

The wort is racking!

90mm of yeast cake including the SHG.

Transfer is so incredibly slow. So viscous... but a good outcome, maybe the yeast will commence ferment before being surrounded by wort...

Like a brilliant intimate experience. Easy, slow and comfortable before the ferocious action happens.

 

[Zorco]

And this I wasn't expecting, it is more dense than the yeast cake. The yeast is simply floating! I'll agitate from now

 

[Zorco]

 

[Devhay]

Did you snap any pics in the process?

I'm keen to see how these go!

Edit - Must have gone up as I was posting haha, that colour looks great

 

[Zorco]

110ml of wort and 110ml of distilled water. Ok accuracy anyway. Not wanting to mix!

 

[Zorco]

1 read 1096 with 100% dilution.

Edit: measurement taken after a few gentle inversions with a stopper and the hydrometer in.

 

[Zorco]

Can I have a verification of OG 1.192 please