It’s funny how quickly things change in the beer world. Just 3 months ago (or thereabouts), Brewdog was releasing Tactical Nuclear Penguin. I wrote an article against Roger Protz to defend the achievement, and we talked a bit about the brew. Now, just a couple months later, the record of 32% has been surpassed twice, and a third record is on the way.
I thought I had more time. What do I mean? When Brewdog released their beer, I thought to myself, “Why can’t I, as a homebrewer, go after the record? Even if I don’t beat it, it will be fun to try.” So, I embarked on the arduous task of making a huge Chocolate Vanilla Bourbon Imperial Stout and vacillated between the two names above as a fun tongue-in-cheek reference to taking down a Tactical Nuclear Penguin. Go for the gold, right?
Well, where did I end up? The answer is still in the wings. I didn’t get quite the yeast performance I wanted, but I’m still in the process of finding out. I suppose the record seems a little moot at this point because a German company is about to release a 45% beer. However, I had fun and I’m holding back a bit of information simply because I’m actually in the eisbocking stage of my beer, so I can’t tell you the end result. Plus, I like being withholding about my pre-eisbock strength. Let’s just say that I’ve got a submarine with which I’m trying to sink a Bismark.
I’m going to be posting more on the story along with details about the beer on the site in the coming week. Stay tuned because I’m going to have some cool stuff to report.
That’s really cool news! (I think the pervstache is the secret ingredient!) You should name it “The Beer to End all Beers” or “The Mother of All Beers”
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I can’t wait to try this mike. Def. the pervstache Scott, I gotta grow me one of those.
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I agree that you’ve gotten a great performance out of your perv-stache, Mike!
I brewed my first batch ever this weekend and I’m just hoping it doesn’t suck. I’ll have to brew once of twice more before I’m ready to take on the record!
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beer_scientist Reply:
March 8th, 2010 at 10:23 am
It’s hard. The hardest part is freezing an already high alcohol which is really thick.
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Work that Perv-stache Mike! Hopefully it will allow you to hit that 40% window. Do you think the beer will be good? Or are you just going for the record without worrying about balance and flavor? At least I know that is what Jim is thinking.
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beer_scientist Reply:
March 8th, 2010 at 10:26 am
I’m going for balance and flavor on top of being big. The cocoa and vanilla beans were for this beer. I left a big amount of sweetness (I mean big) for taste and body. The idea is to keep the alcohol masked (relatively speaking…of course it’s going to be noticeable). We’ll see what happens but I’m just now getting some decent sluch in the beer and it’s been about 20 hours. I figure that when I get home tonight it will be about where I want it.
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To all, the perv reigns supreme. Three tiny perv hairs is the secret.
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i can’t wait to try it…. it does look like a dangerous liquid though
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beer_scientist Reply:
March 11th, 2010 at 10:20 am
It is dangerous. It’s also taking forever.
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