Austin Homebrew: Quad Kit

I don’t have any specific experience with the Austin Homebrew Kit but I glanced at the list of ingredients and it looks OK.

Some thoughts:

Wyeast 3787 makes a great Quad but you need to make a good size starter since this beer will be higher gravity (1.098). Do you have the ability to oxygenate your wort? That is needed for a beer at 1.098.

Make sure you keep the fermentation temperature under control; an ideal fermentation temperature would be 70-71 degrees F.

Quads really need to age. I would suggest that at least 6 months is needed; longer would be better. This is not an ideal beer style for an October wedding.

Do you friends like Dubbels? That would be more appropriate for an October wedding.

Good Luck!

Cheers!

 

I would think that if your fermentation is well managed (pitching rate, oxygen, temperature) and you started soon, you would have a decent beer for an October wedding. However, I've never brewed a quad, and can imagine that more time could be better. Jack's idea of a dubbel is an excellent compromise. Really, do the bride and groom want people drinking 12% beer at their wedding and doing the electric slide?

 

I have a question about oxygenation on these big beers; is the slosh/pour back and forth method good enough? I've also seen talk of the need to add more O2 24 hours later, could you just slosh/pour back and forth 24 hours later, or would there be some reason this would not be advised?

 

You need more O2 in a beer this big than you can get by sloshing.

 

According to Wyeast, splashing & shaking can achieve 8 ppm of Dissolved Oxygen (DO) over 40 minutes. If you splash & shake longer I would guess that you can achieve a higher DO.

Wyeast also states: “High original gravity (>1.065) wort, in addition to increasing osmotic stress on yeast, can cause problems with achieving adequate levels of dissolved oxygen. As the gravity of wort increases, solubility of oxygen decreases. Increased temperatures also decrease the solubility of wort.”

Read more here: http://www.wyeastlab.com/hb_oxygenation.cfm

I successfully brewed a Belgian Strong Dark Ale/Quad where my oxygenation method was EXTREMELY vigorous whisking with a BIG whisk. I have no metric for what DO I achieved.

Using a bottle of oxygen with a diffusion stone would be the ‘best’ method.

Cheers!

P.S. I have no experience with “I've also seen talk of the need to add more O2 24 hours later,..” so I have no comment on that topic.

 

So, like Devo, all I need to do is Whip It, Whip It good? Go forward, move ahead, and try to brew a big OG beer? I'm guessing splitting the batch in two and whipping each half would help, too. Thanks!

 

I have a units problem in my above post. The time duration for getting 8 ppm via the Shake/Splash method is 40 seconds.

Doh!

 

Well ........

The vigorous whisking worked for me but .......

The most conscientious response I can make is the 'best' way to oxygenate a beer (particularly a high gravity beer) is via an oxygen bottle and diffusion stone.

You also may achieve 'good' results via the vigorous whisk method but it would be irresponsible for me to advice this method to you.

Cheers!

 

Every single AHS A-G kit consummated in my brew closet had exactly the same awful musty character akin to an very old sneaker (AKA very old tennis shoe).

Best wishes for a successful brew.

 

A quad by October? It could be carbonated, but it wouldn't be ready to drink. Think: 3 weeks to ferment, 4 months in secondary, 6 months in bottle. I make a quad at thanksgiving to drink for the next Xmas.

 

I don't know about breweries making quad using the Westmalle yeast but Rochefort is said to ferment for around ten days before being centrifuged and bottled. The beer is then placed in warm storage for 15 days to bottle condition.

While an aged Rochefort 10 develops a nice character of its own, a fresh 10 is more than drinkable.