What Is The Threshold Of Alc/vol Just At The Point Alcohol Itself Beco

[jivesucka]

put down a coopers draught with twice the recommended sugars and it tastes about 6.5%. i can really taste the alcohol, it is almost like a shot of vodka has been added.
my question is, what is the actual threshold and how does one mask the flavour?

 

[Silo Ted]

put down a coopers draught with twice the recommended sugars and it tastes about 6.5%. i can really taste the alcohol, it is almost like a shot of vodka has been added.
my question is, what is the actual threshold and how does one mask the flavour?

What threshold are you referring to, Taste wise, or yeast performance ?

Are you saying that you made a beer with one can and two kilograms of sugar ? Depending on the ingredients and the fermentation process, you can push into high ABV territory beyond 6.5% and not have any need to 'mask the flavour'.

I suspect youre trying to do some sort of headsplitting cheap 'beer' with lots of sugar or have you used DME to crank the additions?

 

[Lecterfan]

Threshold as in the Weber-Fechner law for alcohol taste in beer? Way too many variables dude (I suppose once the exact type of beer, IBU etc had been determined you could apply the law and come up with a j.n.d. that would eventually provide a statistical norm and therefore set an arbitrary threshold). Once the final beer is bottled/kegged I have no idea how would mask the flavour other than turning it into a shandy with a nip of lemonade or something .... :icon_vomit:


Maybe just have to work through this one...by the third glass you might not care anyway.

Cheers

 

[zebba]

I brought along an 11% beer to the Vic case swap... The first thing everyone said upon trying it was that it was "dangerously drinkable" and they wouldn't pick it for 11%.

 

[petesbrew]

I reckon it's easier to hide the alcohol in dark and/or hoppy beers. I've managed a couple around 8% that are tasty suckers.

 

[brendo]

Alc should b that pronounced at those levels - unless it is a really lightly flavored beer and or you fermented a bit too hot resulting in fusel production.

As others have said - it is about balance and there are many factors that impact the drinkability of the end result.

 

[brettprevans]

masking the flavour. if its ethanol its easier, but if its fussel alc then your screwed. its shockking stuff that hangovers are made of. brew too fast too warm etc and you prdocue fussel alc. its not what you want.

you can brew beers with a lot of alc where you dont taste the alc, because they have been brewed well. unfortuately brewing with straight sugar is harder to do (note: not impossible e.g. belgian golden strong ales etc).

maybe dry hop the shit out of it and hope for the best (if you using hops of course). otherwise if you've got a water distiller.... put it to use.

edit: damn my slow fingers

 

[Nick JD]

The key to making high alcohol beers that taste nice is to make a low alcohol beer recipe, but with half the water.

Effectively dubbel the ingredients.

 

[Pennywise]

The key to making high alcohol beers that taste nice is to make a low alcohol beer recipe, but with half the water.

Effectively dubbel the ingredients.

But wouldn't that put the beer out of balance? Even light beers are balanced, and surely (I don't know I've never done it) just cutting out half the water will change it quite a bit

 

[Nick JD]

But wouldn't that put the beer out of balance? Even light beers are balanced, and surely (I don't know I've never done it) just cutting out half the water will change it quite a bit

By "low alcohol" I meant 4-5%.

When you remove half the water you double the sweetness, but you also double the bitterness - you double the esters and hop flavours and aromas and any other yeast characters. You also stress the yeast a lot less because they would rather chow wort than sucrose and you've also doubled the nutrients/proteins etc.

 

[RobW]

The key is fermentation temperature control and yeast selection.

 

[Silo Ted]

The key to making high alcohol beers that taste nice is to make a low alcohol beer recipe, but with half the water.

So boil down then ? I would expect a thicker beer the more you evaporate.

 

[Nick JD]

The key is fermentation temperature control and yeast selection.

You can make a great tasting beer with 2kg of sucrose in it by selecting the right yeast and temperature?

 

[RobW]

You can make a great tasting beer with 2kg of sucrose in it by selecting the right yeast and temperature?

I didn't say that.
However have a look at the grain bill for some of the high ABV Belgian beers and there's often a significant amount of sugar but you can't taste a lot of alcohol. They do that by using an appropriate yeast and fermentation temperatures.

 

[bum]

You can make a great tasting beer with 2kg of sucrose in it by selecting the right yeast and temperature?

He said "key" not "only factor". You are such a cock that it isn't funny. The obvious retort is "Can you make a great beer with 2kg of Weyermann malt and bakers yeast?" but I've read you tutorials and you'd probably suggest this was the case.

 

[JestersDarts]

*grabs popcorn*

 

[Yob]

+beer and wiggles into seat further...

 

[Nick JD]

You are such a cock that it isn't funny.

My tutorial guides are for learners, but I'm flattered you've followed them :wub:.

 

[earle]

Back to the OP, who else is able to determine the alc% of beer by taste and how can I develop this ability? Is there a tutorial anywhere?

 

[kelbygreen]

maybe how fast he is getting pissed on it??? As said its about balanced you dump 2kg of sugar into a kit you will produce high alc% but the taste would be dreaded also if not fermenter cool it will be worse as said. I would prob use most LDME and maybe 500g dex plus would hop it upto about 30-40IBU, then ferment as cool as you can. I made heap of beers over 5.5% no noticeable alc taste well not any different to any other beers.