Giant-Beer Challenge.

Judging from your questions you should get some more experience before attempting a high gravity brew.

 

Unless you have:

Fermentation temp control
Yeast propagation equipment
Pure 02 system
Brewing Experience (A bunch)

It will taste terrible. Even if you have all those odds are that it will taste terrible.

As long as you accept the fact that the finished product will most likely taste terrible, then go for it. Homebrewing is about experimentation...but there is a price to be paid.

 

JohnSnowNW pretty much sums up my take on this. I haven't tried it, it's just intuition. I recall the first (and last) time I had Sam Adams Utopias. While impressive in terms of what it was, it was much like throwing down a shot of bourbon. In that light, flaws might be largely masked by the hit of alcohol. I've also had a few of the ice distilled beers from Brew Dogs (a better approach, IMO). The experience was not much different. The problem is that that much alcohol is going to overwhelm most, if not all, of the nuance you're designing into your beers. It doesn't entice me.

That said, this hobby is all about experimentation. If you're so inclined, I say go for it! But with the above caveats. Be sure to report back with the results.

 

You're basically proposing to brew a barley liquor, and I don't think that anyone here has experience with that to be able to answer your questions. I've not seen the high alcohol yeasts that you mention, so presuming that they work as defined, you're on your own to try it. But as mentioned above, from the questions that you ask, it sounds like you are a novice and your time and money would be better served to brew basic beers to gain experience, and not to blow your money on something that may turn out to be undrinkable.

 

Not to mention, yeast capable of doing a 30% ABV beer? If it actually says that, then it's pretty much a blatant falsehood.

 

I did an imperial stout last year that ended up at 25% abv. It's always a favorite when I bring it to tastings and bottle shares. Easily one of my favorite beers I've done, but like @JohnSnowNW mentioned, temp control, yeast health and culturing (my starters were over 2 gallons combined), oxygen, and of course experience are all crucial (even then it'll take a handful of luck). You'll want to cut your teeth on smaller brews to get used to the actual brewing process, growing healthy yeast, controlling temps, etc etc, before even thinking about something like this.

 

There was a BYO article sometime in the last 10 years on this topic and some of the tricks you need. Maybe it's available online. It included schedules for incremental feeding with sugars and repeated oxygen additions. But like everyone else suggested, it will be a challenge to make well. I'll add that you and the friends who help you consume beer almost certainly will derive greater enjoyment from a keg of session ale spread out over an evening than you will get from this type of one-sip wonder.

edit
http://byo.com/hops/item/1882-fermenting-high-gravity-beers-techniques
http://byo.com/grains/item/2836-high-alcohol-beers-mr-wizard
http://byo.com/boiling/item/51-21-alcohol-all-grain-beer

(I believe the third one is the one I remember)

 

I think the yeast that can go really high, but probably not 30%, is usually labeled distillers yeast. It is probably not going to make a good beer, but if you want to ferment a lot of sugar to make shine, then you could use this type of yeast.

If you haven't ever made a 10% beer, you are wasting your time trying to do a 20% beer. Ya got to walk before you run.

 

Why not just brew up a batch and then distill it through a home liquor still...that would be about the easiest way to get a drinkable 60 proof beverage

 

While I haven't gone that big, I plan on ramping Asteria up to 15% this summer. Some things that I have practiced were...
yeast propagation- I had huge starters
temp control- started fermentation at the lowest acceptable temps for my yeasts
oxygen- hit the wort with oxy prior to pitching
Some things I will add.. well, one thing... I will be adding brown sugar and yeast nutrients during fermentation ala DFH120 min. to try to hit my ABV mark. Last time the irish and cali shit out at 12%, I will be using distillers yeast when I add the sugars to get up higher.
All that being said, these are steps I will be taking to go from 12% to 15-18%. 30%? fudge that noise.

 

I brewed a belgian-style barleywine that clocked in around 15.5%, but to be honest, I don't think it was worth the time, money and effort. About a case and a half are still sitting in my basement, and it's been almost 2 years. They are still tasting pretty gnarly, even with that much age on them. I can't imagine what a 30%+abv beer would take to 'mellow out'.

Used 2 huge yeast starters – one with a belgian golden strong ale, and one with a super high gravity strain. Multiple day-to-day demerara sugar additions for 1 week straight, and used an aeration stone, along with yeast energizer and yeast nutrient. Tertiary fermentation (if you'd call it that) with champagne yeast at bottling time. That's all the advice I can give you, as that is my only true experience with brewing a high gravity beer.

 

Guys in the club have done it. After the primary fermentation slows there are the tricks of adding more yeast, feeding with sugar, nutrient additions, more malt, more sugar, and so on until you get to the ABV you desire. The last one also used maple syrup and barrel aging, it was a SA Triple Bock clone, and came out very good (no soy sauce).

Some of the guys have done this before, so they know what to do.

Many yeasts will go higher than the published values if given some favorable conditions.

 

2 liters is way low. As an example, I brewed an 18 gallon batch of a clone of dark lord (Search forum for Dar Lord clone, getting beer stuck), and in order to propagate the amount of yeast required for that beer (shot for 15% ABV), I brewed 15 gallons of milk stout and 5 gallons of english mild, washed the the yeast (I brewed within 3 days of harvesting all of that yeast) and added 3 packs of rehydrated dry yeast.

In addition to pitching massive quantitates of yeast, I also oxygenated the wort with O2 before fermentation and 24 hours in. I also fed sugar into fermenters by the pound (every 24 hours) alongside yeast nutrient designed for bigger beers (Its what the Bruery uses), kept the fermentation temp at 62-64 F during fermentation and then ramped up the temp to 70F when 75% of the way towards my expected FG.

This beer was my 100th batch.

As people have said, brew a lot more and get very comfortable before you try this. I don't think I knocked out a spot on huge beer (14% or bigger) until around batch 80 or so.

 

I boiled water, and added my brown sugar to that. Same exact method for making a priming sugar solution at bottling time. I just kept a jar of it next to my fermenter, and added 1 oz of the mixture every day to keep it going. Just try to pour in gently, and avoid splashing as much as possible.

 

2L? Not even close. I used 2 x 2L starters for my 12% stout and feel like I did ok. Next time I will be doing EXACTLY what @Scumbag81 did with his. I want an aggressive fermentation at cool temps.
I've never added sugars during fermentation, and again @Scumbag81 did you bother with boiling water for the sugar, or did you just pitch it in? My next version of my stout is going to come in @ 1.130 post boil pre sugar additions with a quick high temp mash so I hopefully have 1.040 or better for an fg while adding the sugars to hit 15%ish. And when did the high gravity yeast makes it's way in?

 

I boiled it in a small amount of water to solubilize it along with some yeast nutrient, cooled and added to the fermenter.

No high gravity yeast Co-pitched 75:25 WY1968:Cali Ale, took the beer from 1.172 (this is counting sugar additions) down to 1.056 (I did both mashes at 160F). The shit in the bottom of the dark lord bottle seemed like for all intensive purposes WY1968, so I was going to go with just 1968 (Been able to get barley wines up to 12% with no issues), but I wussed out and copitched with Cali.

 

When I was feeding my stout I would pull out a quart of the wort that was fermenting, whisk in sugar (additions ranging from 2oz to 1lb at a time), then pour it back in and stir the wort to rouse up the yeast that may have settled out.