Toning my beer ABV down

[Arcs]

Aye, this 7% and above stuff is knocking me silly. 5 pints and I am slaughtered, it's like back in the day at the old metal bar and buying old peculiar old style and it knocked seven bells out of yer. Fun in the beginning while homebrewing. But nah, back to quaffable beers of 4.5 - 4.8 % abv for me. Sheesh.

Any one else doing this? Or have done?

 

[Rodcx500z]

Hi Arcs, my trouble is I do a recipe in beermate and it calculates og and fg so og may be 1045 and fg 1010 which is 4.59% abv, then you chuck in a pack of wilko gervin yeast and it ferments out to 1004 which is 5.38%abv, and I don,t know the answer to this yet in the meantime just enjoy the beer

 

[MickDundee]

It’s rare for me to brew anything higher than 5.5% although I do occasionally.

 

[cushyno]

I think in the beginning I erred on the side of caution (though that depends on your interpretation of "caution") because I was never sure i'd get the BH efficiency, so always added a bit extra malt just to be sure.

4.5% easily turns into 5.5%, then add a few points for bottling sugar... :p

 

[Arcs]

It's called 800g brewing sugar + spraymalt which in extract brewing, really pushes the abv high, Rod. Good body etc, but you easily get slaughtered. Someone took craigtube a little too literally /whistles ;p

 

[Rodcx500z]

It's called 800g brewing sugar + spraymalt which in extract brewing, really pushes the abv high, Rod. Good body etc, but you easily get slaughtered. Someone took craigtube a little too literally /whistles ;p

I used to do that when I did kits, think I only did one to instructions

 

[DavidHatton]

Aye, this 7% and above stuff is knocking me silly. 5 pints and I am slaughtered, it's like back in the day at the old metal bar and buying old peculiar old style and it knocked seven bells out of yer. Fun in the beginning while homebrewing. But nah, back to quaffable beers of 4.5 - 4.8 % abv for me. Sheesh.

Any one else doing this? Or have done?

I brew the ESB from the home brew beer book with empire ale yeast, I find that at about 5.2% to be a good house ale! you still a metal head? used to pop over to the Krazyhouse from time to time. but mainly Nottingham and Manchester for gigs.

 

[stigman]

Just drink less at a time, I would much rather take my time with a few dipa's or impy stouts than have a belly full of "session ale" your beer also lasts you twice as long for exactly the same time and effort.

 

[DavidDetroit]

Definitely not me. Three of the next six planned are 10% ABV and three are 11%. I have a nephew who brews as well and I let him take care of that end of the spectrum. I'm into RISs, Quads, Trippels and Old English Ales.
You do end up drinking fewer though.
Cheers.

 

[David Kennedy]

Just used a vinometer on my wheat heffe and its knocking 7... its a sneeky bugger tho u wouldnt guese its that high

Taking it to a festival next week... i am somewhat concerned i wont get to see the headliners... next time going to keep it around 4 to 5 bit too late by i will of missed the bands

 

[foxbat]

Definitely not me. Three of the next six planned are 10% ABV and three are 11%. I have a nephew who brews as well and I let him take care of that end of the spectrum. I'm into RISs, Quads, Trippels and Old English Ales.
You do end up drinking fewer though.
Cheers.

You should do a brewday thread on how you do those big beers.

 

[Arcs]

I brew the ESB from the home brew beer book with empire ale yeast, I find that at about 5.2% to be a good house ale! you still a metal head? used to pop over to the Krazyhouse from time to time. but mainly Nottingham and Manchester for gigs.

Aye stil a metal head, but not GnR, moved on to swedish metal bands these days (Ordos being one example), some canadian and american. Various metal genres. I don't bother with the Krazyhouse any more as firstly, it's not named that any more, see here https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/wha...new-club-electrik-announced-takeover-15060592

And secondly I think I am too old for clubs now at almost 50 so I tend to go the Swan pub which is further up from that place Wood Street in Liverpool - good bar, good music and some decent real ale

 

[Arcs]

Definitely not me. Three of the next six planned are 10% ABV and three are 11%. I have a nephew who brews as well and I let him take care of that end of the spectrum. I'm into RISs, Quads, Trippels and Old English Ales.
You do end up drinking fewer though.
Cheers.

Get used to falling into sleep in your chair Mister 'Enry Cooper....knockout! ;p

 

[Arcs]

Just used a vinometer on my wheat heffe and its knocking 7... its a sneeky bugger tho u wouldnt guese its that high

Taking it to a festival next week... i am somewhat concerned i wont get to see the headliners... next time going to keep it around 4 to 5 bit too late by i will of missed the bands

The Coopers Devil's porter is much like this when at 9.4 % - a creeping bastid. 5 pints of that and you feel a bit merry but not sfaced until a few hours later rofl

 

[RichK]

One of the great things about making your own beer is that you can tailor it to what you want be that monster strength or drink all day....

 

[Richard_H]

Brew both, mine tend to be 6%+ brews these days and anything with a lower abv i will buy but sometimes will do a weaker session brew too. Remember the stronger brews can be left alone for a year or longer and the session stuff will not need as much conditioning time. You can get to a stage of having a good stock of some really well aged strong ale for when you fancy it and some newer session ale

 

[DavidDetroit]

should do a brewday thread

I could do that but I thought since I do extract w/grain, it would be a pretty boring read.

 

[jceg316]

When I first started brewing ~5 years ago I was into Belgian beers and IPAs, so I tried to make the strongest beers possible, because I could. It then became difficult to drink 60+ bottles of 8% beer, so I did tone it down. Also I got more into a wider range of beer styles, enjoying beer for the flavour as opposed to the ability to get me drunk and I stopped caring so much about ABV on its own.

I do have a problem where I'm refining my brewing which increases my efficiency, whilst trying to make sessionable beers so my OG is slightly increasing. I also find that recipe calculators rarely get the attenuation % correct. Despite aiming for a 4.5% beer, they usually come out a little stronger.

 

[DavidHatton]

Aye stil a metal head, but not GnR, moved on to swedish metal bands these days (Ordos being one example), some canadian and american. Various metal genres. I don't bother with the Krazyhouse any more as firstly, it's not named that any more, see here https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/wha...new-club-electrik-announced-takeover-15060592

And secondly I think I am too old for clubs now at almost 50 so I tend to go the Swan pub which is further up from that place Wood Street in Liverpool - good bar, good music and some decent real ale

I am a seasoned metaller, so wouldn't throw G n R at you was raised in Skem so have adopted many scouse elements Liverpool FC being the biggest. manly listen to Death metal and anything either side.. looking forward to the new Tool album.. you heard Wardruna, Great band. anyway gonna get ready to watch the match.

 

[Arcs]

Don't mind some metalcore myself and some grindcore. I grew up listening to John Peel so listening to new stuff isn't something alien to me ;D I love new music, not this snowflake ****. TOTP wasn't my thing unless it was The Mission back in the day, yeah still a bit of old goth too :P I get hated but who argues with a goth that's fairly well built and can give as much as he gets Whispers lovely, face to face better.

Problem solved. Beer bought, plenty of discussion of stuff and then friends. Dunno why peeps bother, I despise pink but I wouldn't wanna hit peeps for wearing it rofl.

Perhaps too much Roman inbreds that still think they are fighting the Goths to defend Rome ;p Personally, totally Celtic / Viking as I prefer their way of living off the land and not converting people to a lie And like all of us who came from Liverpool etc we have a stlong Viking heritage which means we all love beer which is the most important thing on the planet