Attenuation 55% Please...

[ACBEV]

I know, I should know, but I'm a bit thick!

I need an expert (think one comes here sometimes), who can tell me the best way to put the hand brake on.

Honest I can make good beer, I'm very good with my equipment and am very precise with my brewing. Meat goes in one end and sausages come out the other.

Will I need a hydrometer? (I don't use one)

In the holidays I'm planning on brewing Hardy Ale, OG 1.121 according to the recipe calc (75% Efficiency), I suspect efficiency would be nearer 80%. I'd like to stop at 1.050.

Normally I let things take its natural process and all works well.

 

[GFHomebrew]

Yes to hydrometer and no to 1.125 or whatever that is rocket fuel ha ha. Youll probably need some DME at that gravity.

 

[ACBEV]

Yes to hydrometer and no to 1.125 or whatever that is rocket fuel ha ha. Youll probably need some DME at that gravity.

Ok I've been playing with recipe calc... Now down to OG 1.112 FG 1.048. if I can get to 55% attenuation! I don't want to modify grain too much if I can avoid it.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

first you’re going to need more than 4 packs of yeast for that brew, and it’s probably going to need plenty of head space and blow the top off, I would ferment that in 2 half full fermenters, as far as stopping thats a hard thing to do especially without knowing the gravity, most yeast will drown them self and go dormant anyway from too much alcohol, I would pick a high flocculating yeast they should replicate big then flock too much and trap then selves anyway even without measuring

 

[Nosybear]

I'm not understanding your intention. As mentioned above, an OG of 1.12 is rocket fuel, not beer. It will generate enough alcohol to kill the yeast at some point. If you want to stop the fermentation (I don't recommend it), you'll want to use metabisulfite and potassium sorbate but why? That's the part I'm not getting.

 

[HighVoltageMan!]

I recently made a barley wine to blend into another beer (a RIS that was too roasty and dry). The starting gravity was 1.127, the finish was around the 1.045. I used 3 packs of 34/70 and fermented at 53 F. It was a 3 gallon batch and was not bad at all. Surprisingly smooth and not hot.

If you mash high (158 F) and use more crystal malt you can lower attenuation. The yeast are going to attenuate a little less because the high SG.
If you aerate the daylights out of it and pitch a s$&@ load of yeast, ferment at a low temp, you avoid the rocket fuel, but I doubt it would be ready any time soon. Big beers like that need some time, but what the heck, give it a whirl.

 

[Mark D Pirate]

How big is your mash tun ? You'll struggle mashing enough malt to hit that sort of gravity in most cases since mash efficiency drops pretty quickly over 1.080 .
You can do an extra long boil to concentrate your wort or just top up with dry / liquid malt .
Cold side on that beer will be a nightmare

 

[ACBEV]

I'm a jekyll and hyde brewer. Mostly I'm happy to brew up English staples like Bitter, Mild, Light Ale, Stout ect...

But sometimes I see something I'd like to try. Even with limited equipment.

So in this case I'd like to brew Thomas Hardy Ale, first brewed by Eldridge Pope in 1967...

'An ample barrel of Dorchester "Strong beer" . . . It was of the most beautiful colour that the eye of an artist could desire; full in body, yet brisk as a volcano; piquant, yet without a tang; free from streakiness of taste; but, finally, rather heady. The masses worshipped it, the minor gentry loved it more than wine . . '

Thus wrote Thomas Hardy of Dorchester beer in The Trumpet Major 80 years ago. What then could be more appropriate than that the brewery in the year of the Thomas Hardy Festival, which is to be held in Dorchester from 7th-20th July, should commemorate Dorset's great novelist and poet by brewing a beer to fulfil the conditions quoted above and name it 'Hardy Ale'.

The beer was brewed in November 1967 and was racked on the 28th of that month under the spotlights and cameras of both the B.B.C. and I.T.V. with the Mayor of Dorchester, Mr. W.H. Christopher, filling the first barrel.

The beer, which is almost as high a gravity as it is possible to ferment was brewed from malt made with the best Dorset barley with only the choicest Kent and Worcester hops being used.

The entire brew was racked into wooden barrels, which are rolled daily in the cellar, and extra yeast has been added to ensure a further two or three fermentations, while it matures in the wood for some six months.

It will be bottled by hand into old fashioned cork mouthed bottles, corked and sealed with wax.

The beer will continue to mature in bottle and will probably not reach its best for another three years, but it should stand up for at least 25 years.

In character it will have the flavour of a bitter beer but it will be of the fullness and strength of a fortified wine or as Thomas Hardy put it 'finally rather heady'.

Hardy Ale in the old fashioned corked bottles will be available on quota or to specific orders only at £1 a bottle for pints or 10s. a bottle for half-pints.

Crown corked nips decorated with silver foil will be available for normal bar sales as 5s a nip or £3 a dozen."
The Huntsman, Spring 1968, page 18.

Here are the numbers and ingredients of beer brewed in 1967...

OG 1.110
FG 1.048
ABV 8.4%
Attenuation 55%
IBU 84
SRM 14
EBC 29
60% Pale Malt
23% Lager Malt
5% Crystal Malt
12% Flaked Wheat
Goldings 68bu 90 mins
Styrian Goldings 16bu 30 mins

Point taken about mash tun size, but I could go half by normal batch size...

 

[HighVoltageMan!]

That can be done. I have made beers over 1.100 but it's not the easiest, although they turned out very good. My mash tun is 15 gallon (60 liter) and I able to put @ 25 pounds in it. The mash efficiency will drop, so take that into account. You will need a LOT of yeast, so either make a a very large starter or make a smaller beer and pitch on the yeast cake of the smaller beer. You will need to aerate with pure oxygen if possible (welding O2 works fine), agitating might work, but O2 is the best. Very big beers like that will heat up during fermentation more than lower gravity beers, so pitch cool and ferment cool (60 F or lower). It will puke out of the fermenter, so either be prepared for beer losses or make a smaller batch to give you lots of room in the fermenter.

Every thing seems to be pointing to making a small batch of this to make things easier. A 3 gallon batch would be easier than a 5 gallon, that's for sure.

I say go for it, that beer sounds like fun.

 

[ACBEV]

Thanks for the advice...

I've replaced the lager malt with two cans of Muntons extra light liquid malt, which brings down the grain weight to 6kg for mashing.

I'm giving up in trying to limit attenuation and will mash at 70c, instead of 65c. Also will use a lower attenuation yeast.

By my calculations (Guesses) the beer will be ready for drinking in 9 months. I do hope its worth the effort!

For anyone who can be bothered to look, here is the recipe...
https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/576227/hardy-ale

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

be car full using the liquid, it can go strait to the bottom stick and burn, been there many times

 

[ACBEV]

Lol... Done it myself before... More than once too... I will mix 50/50 with hot wort before putting in...