The First Attempt at a +9 Percent Beer

As you can see with the photo on the right, the beer aptly named Drunken Loon is off to an explosive start.

This isn't normal, the bucket on the side of the fermenter is usually filled with clear water showing the Co2 being released and creating small bubbles in the process. Depending on the yeast type and sugar content of the beer, this can range from what you could call a passive boil/fermentation, to a much more vigorous one. This one is safe to say is of the extreme vigorous variety.

What happened was to crank up the beer an extra 2-3% ABV, you have to not only make a batch with a much higher grain to water content, this will get it to 7-7.5%, but you also include a quantity of sugar with the boil kettle. In this case, about 20 lbs of a Belgian Candy Sugar.

In the big picture, no big deal, just a little extra clean up today and next time will simply make a smaller batch. The beer should be ready in 3-4 weeks, or around mid-July timeframe.