Eisbock!

Comment by Andrew on October 7, 2010 at 12:10pm

Hey Brayden,
Welcome to Realbeer. You need to start with a high alcohol beer, at least 8 or 9%. You need some sort of temp control and do it in stages. Only take it down to -3 or 4 first time. Then take the beer off the ice. This will give you a stronger beer because the alcohol won't have frozen. You just keep doing this gradually getting colder each time until you get to where you want to go. If you get a complete ice block you've gone too cold too qucikly as there isn't enough alcohol in the liquid ot keep it from freezing. I think the 40% beers being made by Brewdog took 9-10 stages of freezing and taking the beer off the ice.

Comment by ninebarnyardowls on October 7, 2010 at 12:20pm

Ah ok, yeah I tried to cut corners and do it in one go haha... big mistake. The fact that I used a chest freezer that was set at I think -18*c didn't help either! Is it worth fortifying a beer with some spirit ethanol to bring it up to about 8-9% or just try brewing it to that amount from scratch? I have 170 proof ethanol from a reflux still or 80 proof ethanol from a pot still (distilled from malt barley - a whiskey attempt!) to work with if this is the case.

Comment by Andrew on October 7, 2010 at 12:44pm

You could do this but I think it would be slightly harsh. Personally I'd brew a darker beer or stout from scratch and work from there. Suppose you could just brew a 4-5% beer and just do more stages, start from maybe -1-3 or something to that effect.

Comment by Reviled on October 7, 2010 at 1:03pm

Yeah if it were me I wouldnt go adding spirit and would want to brew something strong to start with, around the 8/9% mark and then just go at it in stages...

Comment by ninebarnyardowls on October 7, 2010 at 2:09pm

Sweet! Thanks for the help guys, I'll give it a shot in the weekend! The beer stage that is haha

Comment by ninebarnyardowls on October 8, 2010 at 8:52am

Oh, very nice! Success through trial and error I suppose though eh?

On that note, do any of you guys know a good Doppelbock full grain recipe or Salvator Doppelbock or similar clone I can use as the base for my eisbock? I am looking for a potential of 8-9% abv.

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