Friday, February 1, 2008

König Starkbiber I

Brewed: 02/03/2008
Status: Consumed
This recipe is the first high ABV brew I've done; it is based on a recipe for an Imperial Pale Ale in Extreme Brewing. The calculations are all approximate. After about 20 hours in the primary, the krausen started bubbling furiously through the dainty airlock. I ended up using what tubing I had to rig a blowoff. I'm fairly disappointed with the recipe itself; I've used several recipe calculators, and none of them come close to yielding the OG specified in the book. It has pretty pictures, but as far as the basics go, giving a totally wrong target OG is just plain sloppy. I don't think I'll do another one of its recipes. I put 2 oz. of Amarillo Hop leaves + 1.5 oz of Cascade Hop pellets in the bucket toward the end of primary fermentation. This being my first dry-hop attempt, I used a bag. The bulk of the hops floated, and I have a feeling that it didn't do much. I put 1.5 oz of the Amarillos and 1 oz. of Cascades in the secondary without a bag. I tasted it while bottling, and I must say that it is maniacally hoppy--so much that I couldn't even tell that it had a high ABV.

Target OG/FG: 1.078*/1.015
Target ABV: 8.5%

INGREDIENTS
  • 1 lb. 60°L Caramel Malt
  • 8 lbs. Pale Liquid Malt Extract
  • 18 oz. Light Brown Sugar
  • 14 oz. BrewVint Alcohol Booster (55% Maltose, 45% Glucose)
  • 2.0 oz. Chinook Leaf Hops (14.4% AA-bittering)
  • 1 oz. Amarillo Leaf Hops (8.9% AA-flavoring)
  • 0.5 oz. Cascade Pellet Hops-aroma
  • 2.5 oz. Cascade Pellet Hops-dry
  • 2.0 oz. Amarillo Leaf Hops- dry
  • Wyeast American Ale II Yeast (1272, 100 billion cell activator pack)
*The sampled OG does not include the brown sugar, which was not added until the second day of fermentation (the sampled OG was taken before the start of fermentation.).

Sampled OG/Approximate Actual OG/FG: 1.068/1.078/1.012
Final ABV: 8.8%
Primary Fermentation in 6.5 gallon bucket @ 67° F for 12 days.
Secondary Fermentation in 6.5 gallon glass carboy @ 67° F for 30 days.

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