SheppyBrew's Biggest Big Beers

It is rare that SheppyBrew Home Brewery makes a "big", high alcohol beer.

By some standards, you might even say that SheppyBrew has never brewed a big beer.

Generally, my beers are in the 4 - 6% ABV range. Sometimes I go a little higher. But, not very often at all.

For me, two of the beers I have on tap right now Kemosabe Quad and King Fergus Wee Heavy are high abv beers at 8.5% and 8%.

 

2016 Q1 SheppyBrew Stats

As you may know, the Brewery likes to post quarterly updates on how much we have brewed. You can see all these updates (including the one you are reading right now) by following this link:http://blog.ericshepard.com/search/label/Brew%20Stats .

Q1 of 2016  at the SheppyBrew Brewery was busy early in the quarter, but then slowed down. I brewed three batches in January alone, but then only 1 in February and none in March.

In case you don't want to do the Math, that's 4 batches:

• Arctic Vortex Winter Saison
• Ulterior Motive Amber Lager
• Brother Bear Dopplebock
• Ello Poppet Czech Pilsner

Those batches were each 5 gallons, putting my total first quarter volume at 20. I'm on pace for only 80 gallons this year. Last year, I brewed 6 batches in Q1. I'm off that pace.

Arctic Vortex Winter Saison

2016 Melting Stream Spring Saison

I brewed last Sunday.

Melting Stream Spring Saison

Of course Melting Stream is the Spring version of SheppyBrew's Seasonal Saison series of beers. It is the lightest in color of the series. It is the biggest in alcohol of the series. It is the hoppiest of the series.

It does follow my basic philosophy about Saisons, though. Of course, I use Wyeast 3711 French Saison yeast ("The Real Super Yeast"). It isn't overly high in alcohol or saison funk. And it gets its flavor from real beer ingredients.

Brewing the Brother Bear Dopplebock

As I mentioned in Return of Brother Bear Dopplebock, I planned to brew Brother Bear Dopplebock a couple of weekends ago.

No surprise. I did brew it.

Of course, part of the recipe for Brother Bear Dopplebock. Required that I harvest yeast from the smaller lager Ulterior Motive Amber. Usually when I harvest yeast, I'll end up with 4 mason jars of yeast, which can be used for 4 separate batches.

Return of Brother Bear Dopplebock

Do you remember the "Ulterior Motive" of my last brew day?

The last beer I brewed (Ulterior Motive Amber Lager) was basically a big starter batch so that I could build up enough WLP833 German Bock Lager Yeast to brew a proper dopplebock.

The fact that I'll get a batch of beer to put in my keggerator is a bonus.

As you probably know, lagers generally require more yeast to get the fermentation job done.

Big lagers obviously require even more yeast, and a dopplebock is a great big beer.

I've used the technique of "yeast harvesting" from smaller lagers into bigger lagers before, and it ultimately ended up with my award-winning Maibock, Helles in a Hand Bock-sket. It is less expensive than buying extra vials of yeast, and of course, I also end up with 5 gallons of a smaller beer to enjoy.