How to brew a double/imperial?

Your actually not as dumb as you think. You do need more malt and or sugar to make a stronger beer. Sugar will make your beer dry out more because it's 100% fermentable. You also will need more yeast. That's what most beginners f up on. If you want to make a DIPA or Barleywine I highly suggest you research "yeast starters" and use a free online yeast calculator which will tell you how big of a starter youl need to make. I use mrmalty.com but there are other calculators out there.

Proper yeast pitches is one of the big keys to making good beer. Fermentation temp control is another thing to look into as well.

 

You can just add it at the beginning of the boil. If you like Pliny I suggest using corn/cane sugar in your next ipa/Dipa to get that thing dry as hell. 5-10% of your total fermentables.

 

yeast selection is important too. california ale yeast is always gonna be a good choice, i'd also recommend the dry english ale yeast (wlp007) if you really like your beers bone dry.

 

You could also use two packs of rehydrated yeast or two vials of liquid yeast to get your cell count up for higher gravity concoctions as well correct?

I know making a starter is pretty straight forward and relatively easy but for those of us who don't mind spending an extra $5 that's a viable alternative to the OP's question isn't it?

 

I know you're still kind of new to brewing. It's important that we mention that all yeast have a percentage of the sugar that they will eat in the wort. This is called attenuation. They don't eat EVERYTHING. This is where you get into gravities. You have a certain number of sugar points typically measured per gallon of wort. When you throw your yeast at your wort to turn it into beer, this is you OG (Original Gravity). When your yeast are done and resting, and you get two hydrometer readings (3 days apart) that are identical, you have you FG (Final Gravity). In short, fermentation is complete.

The more sugar (malt, fructose, sucrose so on so forth) you have per gallon of wort, the bigger the beer will be. If you want to get into RIS, barley wines, IIPAs, you're going to need to start with more gravity than a sessionable beer like an APA, a bitter, or something like that.

Why did I say all that?

From a hipshot:
A beer like Bud Light will start out with an OG of like 1.045 OG and finish around 1.010 FG with an ABV of like 4.5%
A beer like Old Rasputin will start out with an OG of like 1.090 OG and finish around 1.022 FG with an ABV of like 9%

They basically pack 2x the amount of malt (sugar) into Old Rasputin as they do Bud Light.
That means if it takes 6# of DME to make 5 gal of Bud Light, it takes 12# of DME to make Old Rasputin
This is oversimplified, but not by too much.

 

You can just buy more vials or packs but just using 2 doesn't necessarily give you the correct cell count. Depending on your og and batch size you may need 3 to 4 or more packs. So that extra 5 bucks can quickly turn to 15 bucks... Per batch.

 

Never used it but San Diego Super Strain should be good to get a lower FG, just need to use a starter.

 

In my experience, that yeast performs very similarly to WLP001 with less of a temp range. I do like that it floccs out quicker and leaves the beer brighter than 001, but I think overall I prefer the flavor profile of 001.

 

As regards yeast, my recommendation to @cherche is to pitch two packets of US-05 (a dry yeast). I would also suggest that you rehydrate the yeast as well.

US-05 is a highly attenuating yeast that will make a dandy Imperial IPA.

Cheers!

 

Just increasing the amount of malt can result in a cloying/chewy beer, because of the increase in Final Gravity (FG). (Perception of dryness isn't really linear in relation to original gravity.) With "doubles" it's pretty common to increase the malt, but then susbstitute sugar for some of the base malt, to limit the increase in FG.

 

Thanks for the advice, Ive not used either yet but was planning on the Super Strain for my next batch. I think now I might do a side by of 001 and super to see the end result each has. WLP001 states it "accentuates hop the hop flavors", Does SDS have this same effect as 001?

 

I perceive those 2 strains to be very similar, though I have not done a side by side on the same beer. They will both aid in producing a hop forward beer if that is what you are designing. From memory, I believe that 001 left more hop flavor while I remember 090 to accentuate the bitterness a little more. I would love to hear about a side by side with the same base beer to see if my perception is accurate.

 

Yes I am planning a hop forward beer (red, IPA) I plan to do a batch this weekend or the next, I will post my findings/results.

 

As a general rule most "doubles" are more like 50% higher OG than regulars... IPAs now are ~1.060ish, doubles are ~1.090.

 

Another thing to consider is how much alcohol you want from your big beer. As stated above, yeast have an attenuation percentage and most are in the 70-80% range. Simplified, this means that every 10% attenuated is equal to 1% of alcohol or .010 volumes on your gravity. If you're looking to get abvs higher than 7-9% you'll need a second pitch of yeast in the primary as your first batch will be fully attenuated resulting in a "stuck" fermentation. Eg: OG of 1.100 and a 70% attenuation yeast will yield 7% alcohol and drop your gravity to 1.030. This is fine but for certain styles you will want to go lower in your final to get it drier (DIPA) where an RIS finishing at 1.030-1.040 will be much sweeter and a thicker mouthfeel (more appropriate for the style)

 

Huh? There's no such rule of thumb.

I think you may be confused. There's no automatic limit of attenuation percentage driven by alcohol content. Various yeast strains do have different ABV tolerances, but that simply means you shouldn't use a strain whose tolerance is lower than the ABV of the beer you're making. If you choose a strain that is suitable for the beer, pitch an adequate number of healthy cells, and add adequate oxygen and nutrients, the first pitch will finish the job. If it doesn't, there's something wrong. Having to repitch indicates a problem. Also, a stuck fermentation by definition is not "fully attenuated."

No. 70% apparent attenuation of a 1.100 wort yielding a 1.030 FG results in about 10% ABV.