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.

Cincinnati Pale Ale

Brewed: 10/05/2007
Status: All Consumed

This pale ale was my first homebrew, and it turned out quite decently. This particular recipe is from John Palmer's How to Brew. I boiled it on my kitchen stove and fermented it in a 6.5 gallon plastic bucket. I bottled it after 7 days in the primary. At first it had a bit of a chill haze, but after an extra month of conditioning or so, it turned out quite clear. I did not test the original or final gravities of this batch, so I have no exact ABV figure. Instead of testing out Waco tap water's luck in brewing, I used purified water dispensed from a machine outside a local supermarket.


INGREDIENTS

• 3.3 lbs. Pale Malt Extract Syrup
• 2.5 lbs. Amber Dry Malt Extract
• 0.70 oz. Amarillo Hop Pellets (8.9% AA)
• 0.75 oz Cascade Hop Pellets (6.9% AA)
• 2 Packages Safeale US-56 Yeast (11.5g ea.)
• 2/3 cup table sugar (for priming)

Fermented 7 days @ 75° F
Bottled: 10/13/2007
First Tasted: 10/27/2007

Thoughts & Notes

1. Kitchen sink not big enough to cool wort in 11 gallon pot.
2. Too much yeast & trub in bottles.
3. Using all 22 oz. bottles is not ideal.
4. Bottle-filler attachment would be handy.