OAB @ 12% and new SDPA

I just kegged the Oaked Abstract Bastage and it's gravity had further decreased to 1.034 or 1.035 adjusted which gives it a whopping 12% alcohol by volume. Still has that guava juice taste to. Still very sweet. I'm letting it age some more before tasting it, partially because i don't have room in kegerator. In two weeks it'll probably go in the kegerator and be tapped for a tasting, but i still expect to let it age at least another month or two before drinking it.

In the meantime, I've started a new SDPA. Well, I really started it two weeks ago and today transfered it to secondary for dryhopping. It's got a beautifully light color and a yummy aroma. It's gonna be a bit of a weird one, because i completely screwed up my hop additions. My plan was to use some spare hops for the bittering, since hop prices have shot up and I want to leave the strong aroma hops for flavoring and aroma. Except i kept grabbing the wrong packets. So here's the recipe as it turned out:

Steep (30min @ 160F)

• 0.5# Victory
  
• 1.0# Cara Pils
  
• 0.5# 10L Crystal
  

Boil @ 60 minutes

• 1 oz. Amarillo Pellets
  
• 1 oz. Magnum Pellets
  
• 1 oz. Cascade Pellets
  

Boil @ 15 minutes

• 7# Light DME
  
• 1 oz. Amarillo Pellets
  
• 1 oz. Cascade Pellets
  

Boil @ 0 minutes

• 2 oz. Perle Pellets
  

Yeast

• White Labs California Ale Yeast
  

Dry Hop after two weeks

• 2 oz. Simcoe Plugs
  

My initial gravity was 1.060 @ 87F or 1.064 adjusted. Today's reading was 1.018 @ 66F or 1.019 adjusted which gives me 6.3% alcohol by volume. That's just about perfect, although I assume it's gonna pick up another 0.3-0.4% by the time i keg it.

The SDPA will be keg-conditioned and replace the guiness on the Angram.

Oaked Abstract Bastage, One week of Oak

Last weekend I racked the OAB into a carboy with the whiskey soaked oak chips. At the time the specific gravity was 1.038, or adjusted, 1.039, giving me an alcohol volume of 11.3%. The taste was alcoholic guava juice. Since it was still very sweet and there was still a significant amount of Trub in the carboy, so I racked a bunch of it into the new carboy as well.

Today, I checked on the oakeyness and it was already sufficient. So I'm racking it again. The current gravity reading is 1.038, or 1.037 adjusted, which gives me an alcohol volume of 11.6%. Woah.

Oaked Abstract Bastage, Repitch

Initial Reading: 1.110
Gravity adjusted for 90F temperature: 1.114

Reading before re-pitch with Champagne yeast: 1.044
Gravity adjusted for 66F temperature: 1.045

Current alcohol: 8.96%

Oaked Abstract Bastage, Starting Gravity

Initial Reading: 1.110
Gravity adjusted for 90degree temperature: 1.114

That's a good bit higher than last time and means I'm likely to break 10% this time around

Starting the Oaked Abstract Bastage

As I indicated last week, I started a new instance of Abstract Bastage and will oak it with the chips currently soaking in Scotch.

Here's the final recipe I ended up with:

Steep @ 160F for 35 minutes

• 1# Flaked Rye
  
• 1# Crystal 40L
  
• 3/4# Dark Munich Malt
  
• 1/4# Special B
  
• 1/4# Biscuit
  
• 1/4# Aromatic
  

Boil @ 60 minutes

• 12# Malt Extract
  
• 1 oz. Magnum Pellets -- Bittering Hops
  

Boil @ 50 minutes

• 1 oz. Target Pellets -- Bittering Hops
  

Boil @ 15 minutes

• 2# Dark Brown Sugar
  
• 2 tbsp Irish Moss
  

Boil @ 0 minutes

• 2 oz. Simco Pellets -- Flavoring Hops
  

Initial Pitch

• White Labs California Ale yeast

Beyond that, I plan to re-pitch without racking with White Labs Champagne yeast after about a week. Another week after that, I'll rack to secondary add 2oz. of Simcoe plugs and add the whiskey soaked oak chips. I'll probably leave the oak in for 2 weeks, but will taste once a week to be sure. After that, I'll age it for a couple of months.