Strongest Beer You Have Made?

[Jazman]

u need more yeast than a normal ale for big beer also make sure that it is well airated

 

[DJR]

Just dumped a Wee Heavy at 1074 OG onto a 1728 Scottish Ale yeast cake from a 1064 OG Belgian Strong. The Belgian Strong finished at 1008, or about 7.5% after priming, the Wee Heavy is already down at 1030 after about 30 hours of fermentation - if i get to 1014 then that will be 8% alcohol or so.

That's not the biggest though, that was a 9% Belgian Tripel with WLP530. One day i will go to about 11% with a Tripel and WLP530, or the ultimate, a huge RIS with 1728 at about 12% :beerbang: .

15-16L batches help with big beers, no need to make 23L of the stuff.

Not my normal thing to make such big beers though, i guess it's just the impending winter

 

[barfridge]

Rochefort 10 clone (Trappist Quadrupel style), went from 1.094 to 1.014, so 10.66% ABV. It's on tap at the moment, perfect for a chilly evening.

 

[SJW]

Doc's Abbeys Dubbel went from 1.087 to 1.015 and is still going slow. So that should put it up near 9.5%

Steve

 

[devo]

I've done an APA at 7.5% which was pretty nice drop but knocked you around a little to much for my liking.

 

[Doc]

My Infinity + 1 (Triple IPA) was 400+ IBU's and 11.3%
Keg ran dry a few weeks back, but another hop monster is in the planning.

Most of my Belgians are in the 6-9% range.

Doc

 

[petesbrew]

Doc, Was that the one you used 1kg of hops in a few months back?
Someone asked, "why would you wanna make THAT"
"Because I can" was the perfect reply.

 

[Doc]

Doc, Was that the one you used 1kg of hops in a few months back?
Someone asked, "why would you wanna make THAT"
"Because I can" was the perfect reply.

Yep, that is the one :beerbang:

Doc

 

[bugwan]

My biggest beer pales into insignificance really!

A 9.3% ABV Imperial Pale Ale, about 93IBU... One 330mL bottle is all that's required for a solid buzz behind the eyes. Great stuff! I have 14 bottles left and they're for special occasions...like Tuesday mornings.

Cheers

 

[tangent]

they're for special occasions...like Tuesday mornings.

:beerbang:
I like your style

I did a robust porter that's verging on 11% and quite dry and sneaky.
The old Belgians in the shed would range from 6.5%- ~12%.

I tried one of DrGonzo's Eisenbocks that was especially deceptive. Especially good if you don't want to drive or talk

 

[Steve]

Not really into strong beers. I guess its an acquired taste. Even when I was young, drinking cans of Special Brew in England I wasnt too keen. Im more of a quaffer so I get the rosey cheek syndrome after a few pints rather than a couple of mouthfulls. Me mate Col from the LHBS brought round a Bock last year. I had one mouthfull and thought...oooo thats dangerous, beautiful taste but dangerous....I got all flushed :blink:
Cheers
Steve

 

[tangent]

There's whisky and beer. The less blurred line between the two the better. I like both but not into barleywine at all.

 

[Muggus]

I have my Half Century Barley Wine sitting at 12%+. OG 1110 to 1020. Got a fair bit of brown sugar to help the wine yeast along though, not sure how it'll turn out in the end.

 

[Darren]

Muggas,

You will know in 6-12 months if it is good.

cheers

Darren

 

[Muggus]

Muggas,

You will know in 6-12 months if it is good.

cheers

Darren

I hope so eh.
I'm not expecting wonders straight off, so i'm definately going to leave the vast majority of them aside for several years of aging, if I can hold on that long!

 

[mfdes]

My Infinity + 1 (Triple IPA) was 400+ IBU's and 11.3%
Keg ran dry a few weeks back, but another hop monster is in the planning.

Most of my Belgians are in the 6-9% range.

Doc

When you say 400 IBUs (I've seen this said of a couple of brews), what exactly do you mean???
IBU is a measure of dissolved isohumulone in the finished beer. 400 IBU would be many times above the limit of what a person would be able to swallow with a smile on their lips, wouldn't it? I can imagine it being akin to swallowing pure caffeine powder... Way too bitter to notice such trivialities as flavour...

Since I've seen this said only of super-high gravity beers, I am assuming you're talking alpha-acid added to the kettle? Being a high gravity wort the alpha acid ---> iso alpha acid conversion is very inefficient and the finished bitterness would be much less than in a normal gravity wort.

Or are you really talking 400 IBU in the finished product? ... wow.

My experience with high gravity is limited as I don't bottle and can't justify tying up one of my 5 kegs for that long. My only experiments were not that drinkable even 12 months on.
I see there is a lot of high gravity being brewed around the place... How long a maturation time till the beer is enjoyable? (Not drinkable but ENJOYABLE)???

MFS.

MFS

 

[Adamt]

Depends what type of beer it is mfdes.

A large hoppy American IIPA or IAPA or similar could "peak" at a different time to a malt-driven english barleywine, or a eisbock; hop flavour and aroma is there from the start and can fade, however the malt backbone may develop over time.

Bit of a discussion here about hop acid solubility and the like.


EDIT: Oh yeah, on topic, strongest beer I've made is a ~9% Belgian Dark, also have a doppelbock in the fermenter going to end up around 8.5%, lurrrrrvely

 

[Doc]

When you say 400 IBUs (I've seen this said of a couple of brews), what exactly do you mean???
IBU is a measure of dissolved isohumulone in the finished beer. 400 IBU would be many times above the limit of what a person would be able to swallow with a smile on their lips, wouldn't it? I can imagine it being akin to swallowing pure caffeine powder... Way too bitter to notice such trivialities as flavour...

Since I've seen this said only of super-high gravity beers, I am assuming you're talking alpha-acid added to the kettle? Being a high gravity wort the alpha acid ---> iso alpha acid conversion is very inefficient and the finished bitterness would be much less than in a normal gravity wort.

Or are you really talking 400 IBU in the finished product? ... wow.

My experience with high gravity is limited as I don't bottle and can't justify tying up one of my 5 kegs for that long. My only experiments were not that drinkable even 12 months on.
I see there is a lot of high gravity being brewed around the place... How long a maturation time till the beer is enjoyable? (Not drinkable but ENJOYABLE)???

MFS.

MFS

400 is a calculated value (using recipe tools). There are a number of brewers on the board that have done 400+ brews. 80 or so IBU's is about the threshold of the human pallette.
It would be very difficult if not impossible to actually get 400mg/litre of hop oils into solution.
It also helps to have a higher gravity beer to aid in the takeup of hop oils into the beer (during the boil).

Was it bitter, yes. Could normal beer drinkers drink it, no. Did I enjoy it, hell yeah, but then I've been through the Lupulin Threshold Shift.

Beers,
Doc

 

[mobrien]

I hear you Doc! Before I went to the states, I had what I thought was a "hoppy" beer - now its just.... well....

I'm designing a massive double IPA at the moment.... Need to get some hops on tap!

M

 

[revdrjbob]

I know where you're coming from. I've got a Randall set up in my keg fridge that hasn't been run in a while, but I've just finished my birthday DIPA from November OG: 1.100, 394IBUs, also have a number of Barleywines in the bottle running from 1.105 to last years 1.130 - 14.7%. All malt, no sugar.

Bring on the big alcohol and the big hops I say!
TIM

Lupulin Threshold Shift.