Strong Beer Wine?

Is it possible (AND fairly economical) to ferment a strong beer, something about 20% ALC? Something rich and hearty with creamy foam?

Reply to
A Guy
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Tried an IronMaster Brown Ale kit (English) once. Added a kilo of corn sugar, a litre of liquid malt, and a cup of chopped raisins. It brewed up a strong malty beer that warmed me to my toes during the cold winter. I heard of a Glasnost beer receipe that is somewhat similar. The europeans drink barley wine. This used to be available in kits. All are very filling and intoxicating, about 11-12 %.

Regular yeast tops out at a theoretical maximum of 15%. In reality

13.5 -14% is more realistic.

Good luck

Boatman

Reply to
boatman

I thought that most regular beer yeast had a hard time existing in 9% +. I don't know what the people do to get the higher alcohol beer but using wine or champagne yeast would end up with an undrinkable beer , wouldn't it?

ps I brew 8 or 9 % beer for special occasions and haven't found a beer yeast that will take me higher ( so to speak )

Reply to
dechucka

20% ABV is probably not achievable unless you are into some pretty heavy brewing technologies, it takes a lot to get even a very hardy yeast to ferment up to this: chemical nutrients, oxygen injection and the like. 10% ABV is the typical upper limit of most ale yeasts, and even this requires a hardy yeast strain in a very high initial concentration. I've brewed really big beers like this a few times with good results. I did try to use a very highly alcohol tolerant yeast once (the kind used in the "Alcobase" kits) to make a beer and the result tasted like the hind end of a very sick dog.

If you want a beer that tastes good then my advice would be to stick to more conventional recipes. If you want a lot of alcohol cheap then get an "Alcobase" kit or something similar, which include a charcoal filter that basically removes all of the strange fermentation tastes from the resulting product, which is then flavored with some sort of extract

--arne

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Reply to
arne thormodsen

Beers like Dogfish Head Worldwide Stout or Sam Adams Millenium come in around that level. It requires not only the usual high alcohol tricks used by winemakers (syrup feeding, nutrients, temp control) but also very skillful recipe formulation to produce a beer that maintains a proper balanced character at that high alcohol level. I have had clumsily done beers at rather pathetic 8-10% alcohol levels that simply came across as harsh. It is not something your average homebrewer is going to achieve, especially on a first attempt.

Brian

Reply to
Brian Lundeen

From the Whitelabs yeast chart Whitelabs Belgian Abbey Ale Yeast WLP 530 - rated at up to 15% ABV.

I made an Imperial type stout with it once - ABV would have been around

12% if the yeast did its job. Given that there was little residual sweetness, I'm assuming it must have gotten close. cheers rb
Reply to
rb

Really not at all. Beer yeast can easily reach 12%+ but it must be handled and coaxed properly. First off, you need a huge yeast population. A rule of thumb is that you need to double your yeast cell count for every 8 points of gravity past OG 60. For my Barley wines (I just took a first prize too) I use the total yeast slurry from a low gravity ale (OG 35) that has not been sitting around in a secondary. I do a primary and feed the yeast with fresh barley wine. I can hit 12% no problem. I do this for my 12% Imperial Stout as well. The second point is to aerate the wort as best you can, and then a bit more.

Steve

Reply to
SRC

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