How can a Heavy Ale Taste Good at One Week?

General Homebrew Discussion
1

I feel I am wading into the domain of Denny Conn here.

I made me a heavy ale. It’s called Happy Halfwit. The bill looks like:

5 lbs Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM)
4 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM)
2 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
1 lbs 8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM)
1 lbs Munich Malt (9.0 SRM)
1 lbs table sugar

I used Abbaye and Sabro hops. I boiled and steeped, and I used 1 ounce for dry hopping in the fermenter, dropped in after one day.

This beer was supposed to start at 1.084, but I was experimenting to see if a beer this big with this much wheat would work in the Braumeister, and I came out at 1.073. Using an online calculator, I got up to 1.084. I think. I was having some refractometer issues.

I fermented at 65, and it went off really fast. I used a keg but did not attach a spunding valve until the action was pretty much over. That took something like two days. I thought it would take a lot longer. I tested it with a hydrometer, and I got 1.017. The gravity didn’t move for two days, and it was below the target, so I figured it must be done. I’m confident in the FG. Hydrometers are not that big a challenge.

I kegged it because the gravity was so low and nothing was happening. I put it on around 10 lbs. of CO2 at 55. The sample I tried was harsh. It had some burn, and I tasted solvent. I figured I would go back a week later and see what was happening. I expected it to go at least a couple of weeks before it became worth drinking.

Today, of course, I could not resist trying a sample. The harshness was gone, completely. I would expect to at least have yeast bite, but I don’t, and I didn’t use finings or cold crash. It doesn’t burn at all in the mouth, but you feel it later, lower down.

It’s divine. I poured this glass at around 55, and it’s still perfect by my standards, even with the high temperature exposing everything. I kind of wish I could keep it at 55, but it’s too inconvenient.

Two questions.

  1. What the hell? How did this happen? I keep thinking it must not be finished, but the FG seems solid. I’m not so stupid I can’t work a hydrometer. Also, I’ve had 12 ounces, and I can definitely feel it. This is no 5% stout.

  2. Are big beers just plain easier to do well? I brewed ONE WEEK ago. I have no idea what I’m doing. I wrote this recipe in 2004, when I was even more ignorant than I am now. It was great then, and it’s great now. Far as I can tell, it tastes like it did then, even with the screwup and the DME. Do big beers just plain taste better? Are heavy recipes more forgiving, or what?

i guess I should also ask if big beers need more dry-hopping. This beer has a great aroma, but I’m not even sure I can tell where the hops are.

It doesn’t have the over-the-top funk some heavy beers have. I tried Dribbling Moron or whatever it is, and while I thought it was a great beer, it had a funk I could not make myself enjoy.

2

  1. Not inconceivable

  2. Not necessarily easier. Often (to me) better tasting simply because you use more ingredients,  therefore more flavor.

No, don’t necessarily need more dry hops.

3

Thanks for the info. I may have to keep a big beer on tap all the time from now on.

4

I do. The key for me is to drink it sparing.

5

I had two miniature pint glasses of this beer last night and fell asleep a short time later.

The glasses are great. Like British pub glasses, but they hold 9 ounces.

6

I have some brandy snifters that work great for imperials. They hold about 3 oz each.

7

I decided to get some more appropriate glasses. I ordered 16-ounce Libby tulip glasses. Should get the job done while standing up to the dishwasher. I think a pint is a lot of beer when it’s this strong, but this beer makes a lot of head, so I think I should be able to get a good 12-ounce pour.

I also have very small snifters. Useful for more than just brandy.