High Gravity Brewing... What does that mean? In making beer, the wort (after extracting sugar from the grain, adding hops and other adjuncts = wort that is boiled) you get an initial specific gravity. After fermentation you get a final specific gravity. The difference between the 2 values determines the alcohol by volume. For example, in brewing Peats Portly Porter, the target Initial gravity was
1.115, the actual was 1.095, the final gravity (after fermentation) was 1.020 giving a Measured ABV of 10%. This is due to the massive (in 10 Gallons) of grain 41 #. Giving a Rich Malt Flavor with a great "mouth feel" with a "nice" hop flavor, not too overpowering, well balanced overall flavor. We make (to start) 7 beers, each with the taste tested thumbs up. All of our beers are aged for at least 4 weeks. The Pilsner has 4 weeks plus 4 additional weeks for lager-ing. the aging gives the beer a chance to be well balanced. Hop utilization in a high gravity beer is much lower than with a lower gravity beer. As such, the hopping schedule is adjusted making the IBU (International Bitterness Units) as effective as possible.
