115th Dream Hopbursted Imperial Double IBA v2 : "Deuce Juice"

Doing 10 gallons this time. This is what happened last time. I didn't even read the write-up prior to this batch. Should have!

Didn't steep in anything  - this kit is all extract: 12 lbs. Amber Malt, and 12 lbs. Gold Malt Syrup
Bitters: 8 oz. Cluster pellets (7.5%), 24 0z. Hopbursted (proprietary) mix
Yeast: two packets of Safbrew S-05, which I only wetted prior to the boil, last time I started on bottling-sugar water 16 hours prior, and that would have been good.

10 gallons of water, once boiling we put in half the Amber and half the Gold extract (not paying close attn), brought it up to a boil and tossed in 4 oz of Cluster.
30 mins later, the rest of the extract and 4 more oz of Cluster.
15 mins later, 6 oz of hopbursted pellets. 10 mins, 6 oz, 5 mins, 6 oz, flame out, the final 6 oz and 3 lbs of botting sugar. Kept one pound back just because we didn't want the final product to end up too dry.

After chilling, we ran the wort out through a butterfly net into the corneys, then back through the net into the boilkeg, then finally into the corneys through the tight mesh funnel. All the while gleaning off glops of green diarrhea-hop-scrunge. Thus, the deuce juice moniker.
Pitched in the safale (kinda more into one than the other), shook it all up and set it to task in the big industrial sink. This time of year in there, it's going to be about 72 degrees - a little warm, but I'm hoping the yeast just go rabid.

Wort gravity: 1120+ on about 6.5 gallons - yes, that's what you see in the picture above! Added in about a gallon of good ol' Bakersfield tap via the hose for about 4.25 gallons per corney. Added an approximation of that to the hydrometer and we have a bestguess OG of 1084. That's strong medicine, my friends.

Day 7: Looks like fermentation's done, into the chiller before racking. FG: 1032 - which seems like a lot of residual sugar. 7% alcohol in there.

Day 19: No hurry on the racking. Gravity down to 1021, and the color is a nice rusty walnut. Great hop aroma. Transferred as much as possible into the grey-marked corney (4.9 gallons) and the rest was poured over into the lime-marked (2 gallons, say) and racked back after settling. This is to say that both corneys are a mix from the original two, but the low filled got handled a bit rougher - and I didn't de-oxygenate any of the tanks before racking.

Week 10: Carbonated at 30# for a day and a half, then shook the corney and still it sucked gas from the bottle. So left it on for another 24 hours at 30#. It's pretty well carbonated, but I'll shake it one more time when it's on ice this Sunday for NFLredzone and brewing (upcoming: Honey Brown).
Hops are definitely up front, but there's enough residual sugars to assure me that this will be a much mellower beer in 2 to 3 months. We'll drink the first 5 gallons this week and age the second corney. Wins: Enough body to balance out that 8.5% alcohol this one's packin' and a lot of good hop aroma. More notes after the drinking/brewing session. Gravity still at .1021.

Two weeks later: Honey Oatmeal Brown brew session/brats/NFLredzone Sunday. Yeup, kept the Rosa's milk jug half full all day long, and that 8.5% kicked me in the head. We floated the 5 gals, but I had enough at the end of the night to send a bomber to Rabideau (which got its own proprietary label, but FedEx won't allow me to ship). This is a well-balanced Imperial - balanced between body and the alcohol, sugars and the hops. They're still at opposite ends of the teeter-totter though. They're both there in balance, but distinct. We'll give the second 5 gals a few months to see if they come back into line in combination.

8 month mark, to the day: The second five gallons disappeared amongst the wreckage of hot wings and montecristo. Clarity was great to the bottom of the corney; color darkened to complete Halloween black. 
Tapped the bottle up next to our Honey Oatmeal Brown from November (which kinda transformed itself into an IPA), and between the two, the Deuce Juice tasted downright hops-neutral. Half of that is saying that the Brown sprouted an additional hop-kick from nowhere, but also that the additional conditioning time for the Deuce Juice allowed the hops to dovetail into the malt to balance out (most of) the alcohol, with only the alcohol coming out slightly stronger than the others. Never would have predicted that. After shoveling two pounds of hops into the batch, I would have laid money down that this was going to be the hoppiest beer ever. Time heals all wounds, and, like a wine, barrel aging brought an insane amount of hops into line with residual sugars from a perfectly stopped fermentation - good thing the Safale petered out (something an aggressive Nottingham might not have done). Holding back on the second dose of bottling sugar was a good call as well. Maltywine trumps barleywine everytime.