Strong Ale recipe input

[crash568]

Hi Guys

I am looking for a little help from the amazing minds here, a friend and myself are entering a home brew contest up in Maine and had an idea to do a strong ale. Now the only rule for the contest is we have to use the same yeast as the brewery who is putting on the competition which is either Wyeast 1728 or WLP028 both are scotish ale yeasts. The recipe I came up with is kinda gimmicky but i think it could yield a pretty solid beer, I included a screen grab from my brewtoad so you guys can take a look and let me know if I am a moron or this could work out nicely. The beer will be called the Flux-Compastor and will star 8 malts, 8 hop additions, 8.8 ABV and 88 IBU I have never done anything like this so its all new for coming up with a recipe like this. I had something like arrogant bastard in my mind when coming up with this so lets hear it....am I crazy?

 

[slym2none]

Seems like it will be very bitter. Lots of Chinook, 87 IBUs, might be sharp.

I'd take the 50- and 40-minute additions and boil them with the 60. Take the 30 & the 20, add them to the 10, then the rest at flameout. Still lots of IBUs, less sharp, more flavour.

I am keeping an eye on this thread... sounds like it could be an interesting beer. I make 2.5G batches as well, and other than some hops-messing-with, I might could get behind this recipe.

FTR, I would go a mix of Columbus & Simcoe, but that's not Arrogant Bastard, I know...



*EDIT* D'oh! Just read the story behind the name, and all the 8's. I get it now. Derp.

 

[slym2none]

Oh, one other thing - it's "Capacitor".

 

[crash568]

Thanks for the input, the hops I am not as worried about its having 8 different malts I was kind of worried about I have never done a malt bill like that before its always 3-4 malts for my brews. I know the hop schedule doesn't make sense but for the name sake I think I am going to leave it as is but it doesn't look like something that's just going to be a horrible mess of a beer is the big thing I am trying to find out.

Thanks for the heads up on that, spelling is by no means a strong point of mine

 

[slym2none]

Yeah, again, once I got where you were going, it made sense.

No, it doesn't look like a horrible mess. Like I said, I might mess with the hops schedule some, but if this comes out good for you, I will brew it!

 

[Double_D]

You might want to take a look at the efficiency of your system. I'm a huge fan of 8% beers and I always take a hit on my brewhouse efficiency. Either that or think about adjusting with an extended boil or adding sugar (dme, lme, whatever you want) to hit your expected OG.

 

[crash568]

My efficiency is always awful and I have tried so many things to fix it but can never really get it but what I have done to better prepare myself is i set my numbers to 65% efficiency in brewtoad and I have been able to hit those numbers pretty constantly

 

[Double_D]

My efficiency is always awful and I have tried so many things to fix it but can never really get it but what I have done to better prepare myself is i set my numbers to 65% efficiency in brewtoad and I have been able to hit those numbers pretty constantly

That would have been my suggestion. Sounds good

 

[lowtones84]

That seems like a lot of biscuit malt to me. I can easily pick it up @ 4 oz, not to mention 28 oz. Victory malt also has a similar contribution, so I would axe that and cut the biscuit malt back. I might drop the Munich or one of the crystals too, as you have plenty of character malts in there, but that's your call.

IBUs do seem a bit high, and all Chinook is going to be really "in your face." Though I do love some Chinook If you use that much, I would take out your 50 40, and 30 minute additions and add then to the flameout addition. That would dial back the ibus considerably too.

 

[crash568]

Thanks for the input and I will take the amounts into consideration, how ever if you look at my reasoning for this recipe its all based on 8's so that part I am not going to change but I have never worked with biscuit malt so I appreciate the input

 

[lowtones84]

Fair enough! I would just dial -way- back then. Hope it comes out well!

 

[JKaranka]

I'd remove the Biscuit completely and replace it with some exciting base malt (mild malt maybe?). Looks overtly complicated but if you are going for the 8s, might as well.

 

[crash568]

I have never used Biscuit, Victory or Munich I just know they are all pretty common malts I am always up for input on something more interesting.

 

[JKaranka]

Biscuit is interesting but that's a lot of it. I think it can get in the way of everything else. Up to four ounces is plenty and it tends to make everything taste quite Belgian in a way.

 

[crash568]

Interesting, its funny you say that because I was talking with the brewer at the place I work at part time and he was just saying his new Belgian Pale Ale uses biscuit so I am going to try it tonight to get a better idea. Thanks a lot for all the help guys I can always count on this place to give me some solid advice!