Wintle's wobbler

[leondz]

A (drunk) friend requested a recipe that "insanely alcoholic that makes you forget things and grin inanely", which should also be "pale and evil like my face". To oblige, I've knocked up something fun - but it's got enough nonsense in to give a huge risk of it tasting foul. I thought I'd go for the spices and plants that were traditionally considered a bit 'odd', but not let them influence the taste too much individually, with a kind of pale-ish spicy flavour overall. This is what I got:

wintle's wobbler (pale, aromatic, spicy):

Normal ingredients
1kg wheat dsm
2kg extra light dsm
1kg light dsm
0.5kg pilsner malt (30 min steep)
50g cascade bittering (60 mins boil)
30g hallertauer aroma (20 mins boil)

Nonsense
20g shredded orange peel (20 minutes)
1stk liquorice (20 mins boil)
10g star anise (5 minutes)
10g nutmeg (5 minutes)
10g cardamom seeds (5 mins boil)
30g poppy seeds (end of boil)
2g wormwood (end of boil) (really use a tiny, tiny bit; 15g is massively overwhelming; 5g will be dominant)
10ml orange bitters (end of boil)

Yeast
wyeast 1214 (belgian abbey 9%)

Obviously it's way off in cloud cuckoo land, and there's definitely a lot of nonsense in there. My doubts are with the orange peel + bitters (might skip them entirely) and also if 1 stick of liquorice is a bit much in this 'style' of 'beer'. Also, how can I tell if there's enough sugar in there to hit 8-9% before taking a hydrometer reading?

 

[Muddydisco]

MMMM looks :wha: Intersting?
Your sugars seem to be about 1070 or 6.8% ABV based on 23 ltr brew length.
You want to look at getting a beer program, that'll tell you all you need to know before you brew it. I worked this out on beersmith.

 

[leondz]

I never realised Beersmith was so in-depth! Thanks for your help. Think I'll bung in liquid extract from a tin of pale to make it up to around 8%.

 

[Muddydisco]

You can have a free trial if you download it. I find it really useful even if it's just for novice to play with.

 

[leondz]

Right, no pics today (no internet at home - we're moving house), but I've done this beast, which levelled out at 1066 and is definitely nowhere near finished fermenting. An update is en route, though.

 

[leondz]

It's not disgusting! :party: Smooth and really warm, with just hints of the flavouring. You can taste a tiny hint of the wormwood, so that's definitely potent stuff if such a tiny quantity is noticeable at the front after adding 25L of liquid. Really warm tasting stuff, with a long smooth abbey-style finish; SG is about 1008 at the moment, I'm just waiting until I have enough 330ml bottles to hold all of it, then it's time to prime and condition in the cellar for Christmas. Pics and tasting notes when it's finished, I suppose. Bit too strong to serve by the half-litre!