What is your strongest all grain brew EVER?

[Nicko83]

What is the highest ABV all grain beer you have ever brewed. I'm talking brewed just from grains. No adjuncts to bump up the gravity.

How did the brew day go? How much grain did you use and how did your mash tun cope?
What yeast did you use and how did the fermentation go?
What was the final product like?

 

[vr4king]

Ive peaked at 10%.........Was supposed to be farmhouse ale 20ltrs with around 9kg grains and a mangroves jack yeast...........Was horrible I called it petrol and vouched to never make it again..But I did drink it all!!!!!

 

[MartinOC]

1092. Scotch Ale/Porter.

Brew-day was a completely psycho WotHogs "do" that I hosted. Just about everything that could go wrong, did.

I think I got about 20Kg of grain into my mash-tun & very little water & it was absolutely full to the brim. It coped (just) but I wouldn't really want to repeat the experience in a hurry.

It was dumped onto the lees from a previous batch of porter (Peet's Irish Ale yeast, which I think was the same as Wyeast 1084 - a feral beast!). Fermentation went for about 5-6 months (primary/secondary/cold conditioning) before I bottled it. It took a couple of years to come-good.

Final product won multiple State/Nationals & one International (Tri-Nations) prizes. It took about 8 years before it was showing it's age & started to drop-off.

It was a real exercise in patience.

 

[ebyelyakov]

An interesting approach to brew big beers without scarifying efficiency or prolonged boiling...
http://byo.com/grains/item/1317-reiterated-mashing-multiple-mashes-for-massive-brews

So far I've cheated -- I mean using LME in case of an IRS and LME+Sugar for Belgian Blondes

 

[Grainer]

11.8-12 I think is my highest on a RIS all grain, no adjuncts.. not that I was trying to go high.. thats a usual for me lol.. Mash tun etc was fine in a double batch..it rimmed the 72Lt mash tun but all good. The yeast I used bummed out at about 10.5 or so % I guess so i used an additional yeast for the bottling.

I have doen a 14% eisbock though..but thats a little different

 

[Blind Dog]

I have an all grain old ale that's creeping towards 9% currently but only 8 months old so might edge up a little as the SG reading has still been heading downwards, albeit incredibly slowly. Reiterated mash in a 20L BM, which I've done a few times now and is pretty simple. I just make sure that the 1st mash is all base malt with all spec malt in the 2nd mash. No drop off in efficiency either. I've thought about a triple mash, but haven't yet as I generally prefer to brew and drink 4% quaffers

 

[Nicko83]

An interesting approach to brew big beers without scarifying efficiency or prolonged boiling...
http://byo.com/grains/item/1317-reiterated-mashing-multiple-mashes-for-massive-brews

So far I've cheated -- I mean using LME in case of an IRS and LME+Sugar for Belgian Blondes

Thanks mate! Excellent article. I'm definitely going to give this a go!

 

[donmateo]

I hit OG 1.11 once on a RIS - after an extended boil - and that's grain, no sugar. Unfortunately it didn't attenuate very well and ended up very sweet. Pours like motor oil. I still have three boxes of the stuff under my house.
http://www.brewtoolz.com/recipes/1945-old-jarrah-imperial-stout

 

[Liam_snorkel]

throw brett at it

 

[Danscraftbeer]

Only new to all grain so getting variances of estimations. Last brew estimated 6.5% turned out 7.8%.
Learning these kind of variances and how they effect flavors etc. B)

 

[manticle]

I had one lift my fridge onto my roof.

 

[Danscraftbeer]

What is the highest ABV all grain beer you have ever brewed. I'm talking brewed just from grains. No adjuncts to bump up the gravity.

How did the brew day go? How much grain did you use and how did your mash tun cope?
What yeast did you use and how did the fermentation go?
What was the final product like?

7.8% Abv. and its good to drink, no were near Vegemite.
38lt Brew
11.1 kg Grain. 28lt Strike water in esky at 74c.(Melbourne water).
Mix in grain gets to 65c, for 3 hours.
3 sparges at equall flood level each time. Turn over grain each time.
Sparge to fill 50lt Keggle capacity and boil away at chefs discretion like usuall. B)

 

[mje1980]

Why the adjunct bias?. Plenty of experienced Brewers make very nice high alc beers by adding DME to them to boost gravity. In the case of DME, it's made from grain so it isn't just sugar.

 

[Yob]

another method not mentioned is the double mash.

take a 5kg grain bill and mash it, run off the first wort and sparge until you have enough liquor for a second mash, dump the grains and add more to the MT, use the liquor to mash the second batch of grains.

Particularly useful for those with limited size of MT.

Im planning on doing this very shortly, an overnight mash at 63 with a 6kg grain bill, then using that liquor onto a 12kg grain bill the following morning. Im hoping for 3 cubes of RIS at about 1.100

 

[Mardoo]

Check out that linked BYO article. Interesting process.

 

[wynnum1]

High elevation At sea level, water boils at 212 °F. With each 500-feet increase in elevation, the boiling point of water is lowered by just under 1 °F. At 7,500 feet, for example, water boils at about 198 °F. Because water boils at a lower temperature at higher elevations.Not possible in Australia but could do in USA at the lower boil temperature the extended boil to concentrate would not effect taste but probably not the best for making beer hop boil.

 

[Liam_snorkel]

because wort boils in SI units Down Under?

 

[Black n Tan]

1.108 RIS in the Braumesister using a double mash. Who says to can't brew high gravity in a Brau!

 

[DJ_L3ThAL]

What volume did you get? 100mL

 

[Grainer]

Does this mean i win a prize for biggest all grain beer lol.. hahahaha