Skip to main content

In the Fermentor: Wood Aged Quadrupel-Imperial-Doppel-Barley-Weizen-Wee-Sour

Who says you can't have everything?

Well, I'm doing just that by creating a beer that combines the best aspects of eight big beer styles: Quadrupel, Imperial Stout, Doppelbock, Barleywine, Weizenbock and Wee Heavy.

But wait, there's more! The beer will be aged for year with everyone's favorite bacterias to make a Sour. On top of that, Sherry infused oak cubes will provide that little extra something.

A massive grain-bill, plus a healthy dollop of Candi Sugar should push the alcohol content up over 11%. Compensating for the strength is a biting combination of Noble, English and American hops.

A Decoction Mash gives the beer an extra bit of German character. Heavily caramelizing the First Runnings provides more depth of flavor than a standard boil. For that extra push over the cliff, 11 malts are working to make the beer one louder.

I'm giving this one at least a year of fermentation before I even touch it. Here's the five gallon recipe:

Grains:

4 lbs Colorado Malting 2-Row
4 lbs Weyermann Pale Wheat
3 lbs Simpsons Golden Promise
3 lbs Crisp Maris Otter
3 lbs Castle Pilsen
1 lb Weyermann Munich Light
12 oz Crisp Crystal 45
6 oz Castle Special B
6 oz Crisp Roasted Barley
6 oz Crisp Chocolate Malt
2 oz Weyermann Dehusked Carafa II

Hops:

Bittering:
1 oz Columbus (13.3% a.a.): 60 min
1 oz Hallertauer Magnum (14.9% a.a.): 60 min
1 oz Bullion (7.8% a.a.): 60 min

Flavor:
1 oz Falconer's Flight 7 C's (9.9% a.a.): 20 min
1 oz Hallertauer (3.9% a.a.): 20 min
1 oz Fuggles (4.8% a.a.): 20 min

Aroma 1:
1 oz Falconer's Flight 7 C's (9.9% a.a.): 5 min
1 oz Hallertauer (3.9% a.a.): 5 min
1 oz Fuggles (4.8% a.a.): 5 min

Aroma 2:
1 oz Falconer's Flight 7 C's (9.9% a.a.): Flame-out
1 oz Hallertauer (3.9% a.a.): Flame-out
1 oz Fuggles (3.9% a.a.): Flame-out

Dry-Hopping:
1 oz Falconer's Flight 7 C's (9.9% a.a.)
1 oz Hallertauer (3.9% a.a.)
1 oz Fuggles (4.8% a.a.)

Extras:
2 lbs Amber Homemade Candi Sugar: 5 min
1 oz Sherry Infused Oak Cubes (Secondary Fermentation)

Boil Time:
First Runnings: 90 min
Full Wort: 90 min

Mash Schedule:
Protein Rest: 122F for 20 min
Decoction: Heat and rest ~1/2 of mash at 155F for 20 min followed by a 15 min boil
Saccharification Rest: 154F for 60 min
Mashout: 168F for 15 minutes

Yeast:
Safale S-04 (Primary Fermentation)
Wyeast 3763 - Roeselare Ale Blend (Secondary Fermentation)

Original Gravity:
1.114
Estimated Final Gravity:
1.029

IBU: 140
SRM Color: 40

Fermentation Schedule:
3 Weeks Primary
12-36 Months Secondary
2 Weeks Bottle Conditioning

Cost: Seriously?
Commercial Equivalent: Really?
Savings: Religious or Otherwise?

Happy April Fool's Day everyone!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Kitchen Brewing Part 3: Sparge and Boil

The mash emerges from the oven. Now that we're finished with Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, it's time to Sparge. As you can see from the photo, the grains have absorbed a lot of liquid. In a traditional all-grain setup, your Mash Tun has a valve at the bottom to release the first running of Wort. The grains are then rinsed with the sparge water to extract any remaining sugars. My stove-top method doesn't afford such luxury, so a different method is called for. The grains have gained a little weight. There are a couple of choices at this point. One choice is to lift the grain bag out of Pot A and place it into the sparge water in Pot B to steep for 10-15 minutes or more. The other is to lift the grain bag up, put a colander under it and slowly pour the sparge water through the grains into the original pot. I prefer the former, because I get a better extraction rate from my grains. All that absorption means that the grains weigh a lot more than they did going i

Kitchen Brewing Part 2: The Mash

Always start your session with a beer. Now that the equipment is together from Part 1 , it's time to start brewing. I'll be brewing an English India Pale Ale for my demo batch. The beer's details will be out in a future blog. Ingredients ready to go. I'm lucky to have a homebrew shop with a grain mill, so I've crushed my grains at the store. The hops have also been measured out ahead of time to keep things simple. You don't have to do this, but I recommend it. My setup. My stove-top setup is pretty simple. Two kettles, a grain bag and a metal spatula are pretty much it. I also like using a hop bag (available for around $5.00), but it's completely optional. If you're doing all-grain brewing, canning pots work best for batches of 2.5 gallons or less. Anything larger and you'll be battling spill-overs. They also work well for partial-mash batches of up to 5 gallons, where you can top off your wort after the boil. We hav

Saving Money: Simple Yeast Culturing

A few members of the family I just finished racking my English IPA to a secondary fermentor. As part of the process, I saved some of the yeast in the primary for future use. Here then, is the start of a series of articles on yeast culturing. Back in the "good old days," homebrewers didn't have a ton of yeast choices. In some cases, brewers would even use bread yeast from the baking section of the grocery store. In practice, you hydrated the packet of dry yeast you got at the homebrew or grocery store and pitched it. The packets were cheap and worked, but there wasn't much variety to be had. Nowadays, there are several dozen strains available. While a few strains are still dry , most are liquids that come in pitchable tubes , or smack-packs . The liquid yeasts give consistent results and provide tremendous variety to finished beers, but are pricey. If you only use each pack, or tube once, you will quickly discover that yeast makes up 15%, or more of the cost