Celebration beer - Big Black Balls!

[gibbiem]

Carafa in now with 30 mins left. No picture, lost almost a degree just opening to put it in!! Smells absolutely incredible! So excited for this one

[gibbiem]

Quick vorlauf, only needed 2 recirculations and was clear!

[gibbiem]

First runnings

[gibbiem]

Second runnings. Looks a little darker, must be because the carafa has had a bit longer during the sparge

[gibbiem]

Boil is on! Collected 32l and my target was 31.94l so bob on. Pre boil gravity was 1055. Beersmith said 1061 but I didn't have the carafa in for the full mash so I think that's why I'm a bit low. Took carafa off the recipe and Beersmith dropped the pre boil down to 1058.

[gibbiem]

Done.

23l in FV
OG 1090!!!!!

Gonna blow off so will need to get a blow pipe on I think

[ChrisHughes]

That looks a monster!

[gibbiem]

Yep! Not as black as I wanted but will see how it turns out. Think next time I'll use carafa 2 or 3

[gibbiem]

Almost two weeks in primary and gravity only down to 1030... Used the mm west cost ale yeast and been sitting at 18c. Just turned up to 22c to see if that gets more out of the yeast. Was hoping to get it down to about 1014 to bring it in at 8%. Should I just leave it?? Gonna rack it off to secondary and dry hop on Tuesday but thinking I should maybe leave it longer? Cheers

[charliemartin]

By my calculations 1.090 to 1.030 gives 7.7% abv. If it goes down to 1.014 it will be about 10% abv. To be honest your OG reading looks higher than 1.090! Apparent attenuation is currently at 66.67%. If you get it down to 1.014 that would give 84.44% which is pretty high for most yeasts I would say, probably more realistic to aim for about 1.020, giving 77.78% apparent attenuation and 9.1% abv.

Cheers,
Charliemartin

[gibbiem]

I was looking at alcohol by weight on beersmith ha ha ha!! Your right mate. And I checked it again after posting and after two days at 22c and its now at 1024. Still really cloudy and murky though. Should I keep it on the yeast to clear a bit or will it still clear in secondary. Reason after transfer is to dry hop

[charliemartin]

Personally I don't usually bother with secondary. I just do a primary fermentation and dry hop in primary as well. Your OG reading looks like it is about 1.096 or 1.098 not 1.090, so I would reckon you'll not get it much lower than 1.024. If it was me I would give it another week on the yeast whilst dry hopping then rack to bottles or keg. If you can drop the temperature for a few days at the end to clear the yeast out then so much the better, but as it's a dark beer you may not really need to bother with that. One other thing to consider is whether or not the yeast will still be able to carbonate the beer in the bottle. Unless you are force carbonating in a corny keg you may need to reseed with fresh yeast as the original yeast might be knackered after fermenting such a high gravity wort.

Cheers,
Charliemartin

[gibbiem]

Daft question but ive never brewed a beer this big before, how would I reseed fresh yeast? I normally bottle by adding about half a t spoon of sugar to the bottle. It does look a bit higher than 1090 actually because of the froth. If it is 1098 that makes it nearly 10%!! I can crash chill like which I will probably do before bottling

[charliemartin]

Go to be honest and say I have never brewed one that strong either. Strongest to date was an 8.8% stout. That carbonated fine in the bottle without reseeding. If you did decide to reseed you would have to do it before you bottle. Have you considered batch priming? Far easier in my opinion than putting sugar into each bottle. Just make up a sugar solution with about 200-250ml water, boil for 5 mins then cool and rack the beer onto it in your bottling bucket. You could add the fresh yeast at the same time so it gets well mixed. I believe you only need a gram or two of yeast for reseeding, but there are probably more experienced guys on here that could advise you. This beer will probably need a fair bit of ageing to be at it's best so may not need to be reseeded. Whatever yeast is left will probably eventually carb it given enough time.

Cheers,
Charliemartin

[gibbiem]

Nice one, cheers. Tried prime batching before and it is miles easier. Anyone else have any tips on reseeding??