This beer was brewed almost one year ago and I’ve been sitting on the beer since. As the strongest beer I’ve made, clocking in at 11.5% ABV, the beer needed time to condition.
Appearance: Pours a crystal clear amber in color with reddish highlights. Coarse carbonation yields a small head that quickly dies to thin wisp. Swirling the glass demonstrates a high degree of viscosity and legs.
Smell: Honey and malts with mashed raisins. Absolutely no hop character to speak of. The malt profile completely dominates the nose with a thick aroma of sticky sweetness.
Taste: Malt bomb. Unfortunately, bitterness is restrained and does not cut into the thick and chewy malt character. Complex malt profile of caramelized figs, cocoa covered raisins, and sharp stone fruit (maybe form yeast?). Mouthfeel is full bodied, thick, and velvety. Coats the tongue. The alcohol, while not completely masked, gives the beer a noticeable warming.
Overall: Given the underattenuation (1.120 to 1.035), I’m a bit disappointed in the beer. Although not bad it misses the mark for me. It’s just too sweet, thick, and overly malty. Next time I will need to pitch more healthy yeast to get better attenuation, or start with a lower original gravity. While I like the approach of malt layering in this beer, it needs to be backed up with higher attenuation. The bitterness also needs to be at least 20 IBUs higher to cut through all the malt.
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I don’t know if I’d call 70% underattenuated at a gravity this high. I would recommend mashing low to improve your attenuation. I’d also suggest re-aerating/oxygenating about 12-18 hours after pitching. My recent “Belgian Barleywine” (cross between a Quad and an English Barleywine) went from 1.110 down to 1.026 using WY1762, and is pretty drinkable even after just 3 months.
If you’re pitching 2 different yeast strains, you might want to pitch your “flavor yeast” (the 1098 in your case), then followup with an active starter at high krausen 3-4 days later of your “attenuation yeast” (Chico in your case). This gets you the ester profile you’re looking for during the start of fermentation, and hopefully the Chico will rip right through the rest of fermentation at that point. Also, adding your simple sugar (Turbinado) after the first few days of fermentation may make life a little easier on your yeast.
One more thing – give it a bit more time. As the beer slowly picks up more oxidation character, you may find that the sweetness gets a bit more balanced.
Hi Eric,
Great suggestions and thanks for the reply. I think the next I brew something like I’ll use all of this advice.
Cheers,
Jason
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