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Colossus

A quest to defy gravity

Many have achieved unheard of levels of alcohol content by distillation and adding more alcohol to the finished product. That’s easy.

But we brew. This project, undertaken only once every four years, tests our skills, our endurance, our patience, and our faith under pressure by pursuing a lofty goal—brewing our highest abv beer ever—22%—using only fermentation. This is the story of Colossus.

  • Honey
  • Grains
  • Orange Peel
  • Hops
  • Coriander
  • Wheat
  • Pure Sugar

Inception

Creating the highest alcohol beer we’ve ever brewed by reaching at least 22% abv is not the only goal. Colossus must also taste as delicious as it is powerful.

Three grains, two different strains of yeast, locally produced honey and hops, coriander, orange peel, and a mountain of pure sugar will be blended with the dexterity and grace of a sculptor to create a beast with the power to level mountains, yet remain in balance on the palate. It’s not as simple as blend until tasty…

  • Start
  • Finish

Milling: All of the grains are milled to help facilitate the chemical reaction that creates fermentable sugars.

Mashing: The cracked grains are mixed with hot water at precise temperatures to form a mix.

Boiling: The wort boils for about an hour. After the boil, whirlpooling forces spent hops and unwanted solids to the bottom of the kettle.

Whirlpooling: The brewer recirculates the sugary mix through a false bottom in the mash tun, and soon the liquid, now called wort, is clear and ready to send to the kettle.

Cooling: After a brief rest in the kettle, the wort travels through a heat exchanger which rapidly cools it on its way to the fermenter.

Fermentation: During fermentation, yeast metabolize the sugars in the wort creating alcohol and carbon dioxide. The product is now officially considered “beer”.

Filtration: Most (but not all) beer is sent through a filtration to remove unwanted solids remaining after fermentation.

Carbonation: Carbon dioxide is forced into the beer, giving it it’s crisp, bubbly mouthfeel. After carbonation, the beer is finally ready for packaging.

Crack the grain to
crack the code

Like all beer, Colossus begins with malted grains. The shells are cracked in a mill to allow water to reach the starch inside, causing the enzymatic reaction that creates simple sugars that the yeast will consume to produce CO2 and alcohol.

From Tiny Beginnings…

Yeast are microscopic single celled organisms that consume sugar and produce alcohol and CO2. The trick behind Colossus is to keep the yeast working as the alcohol around them builds to a concentration that is normally far too toxic for them to survive.

…To Feeding The Yeast To Feed The Beast

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The yeast must be fed, as the simple sugars from the grains will not keep the yeast working long enough to produce a colossal abv. Pure white sugar, 3200lbs of it, was fed to the yeast in 64 sessions over a period of 8 weeks to keep the beast fed, the yeast working, and our dream alive.

64x Pure Sugar

Defying Gravity

Without the math there is no way to control the craft.

By testing the gravity of the beer with a hydrometer, and using a mathematical formula that converts the hydrometer reading into the measure alcohol by volume, we charted the progress of the abv as it grew. This data was crucial as it was our only guide for when to feed the beast and when to wait. The exacting, time intensive process took 62 days from start to finish.

Alcohol By Volume

5%

Bare Ass Blonde

9%

Serum xxIPA

17.3%

Colossus

Days of Brewing

7

Bare Ass Blonde

19

Serum xxIPA

62

Colossus

Bright Tank Testing

“This is easily the best version of Colossus that we’ve ever brought to market, hands down! As we continue to brew it with the new system we’ve established, I have no doubt that we’ll continue to improve the flavor profile and increase the abv with each new batch.”

Brandon “Millhouse” Miller
DuClaw Brewing Co. Brewer

A Better Tasting Beast
(At The Cost Of History?)

As we set out to top the abv’s of our previous Colossus brews (21% abv in both 2006 and 2010), we gave ourselves the additional mandate of cutting the perceptible sweetness of the previous batches to create a tastier flavor profile and a more drinkable Colossus.

While still perceptively sweet, Colossus 2014 is less cloying than its predecessors, with vibrant flavors of apple and peach accented by notes of cinnamon, and balanced by its monster abv. But how high is the abv?

In early August, without warning or explanation, the yeast abruptly stopped

fermenting the sugar at an abv of 17.3%. It was a humbling reminder that despite all of our knowledge of brewing science, all of our painstaking attention to the craft, and all of our previous success, we are still at the mercy of tiny, single-celled organisms with no agenda.

“Colossus, despite all of its technical brewing challenges, is always a thrill to brew. Each year we learn more and more about yeast behavior and the importance of making them as happy and comfortable as we can through the entire fermentation process.”

Jim Wagner
DuClaw Brewing Co. Brew Master
Check out tips on drinking Colossus from the experts
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Drinking Tips

  1. Because of the high alcohol content (17.3% abv), Colossus is best served in a brandy snifter.
  2. Colossus is best served at cool temperatures (38-45°F)…
  3. But, we also encourage you to heat it up! Colossus heated to approximately 105°F creates an entirely different Colossus experience bringing some of the subtler flvors to the forefront. Warm Colossus is especially enjoyable with a piece of hot apple pie a la mode!
  4. While Colossus is ready to drink at time of purchase, aging the beer for a year or two allows the flavors to mature and the bite of the alcohol to mellow.

Celebration…
And Looking Ahead

“It’s never easy when you don’t reach a goal that you’ve set for yourself—but this is, without a doubt, the best tasting Colossus ever. We will break the 21% barrier and raise that bar again one day; but for now, there’s some damn tasty big beer to drink!”

David Benfield
DuClaw Brewing Co. Owner

Size still matters; but a highly flavorful, more drinkable, 17.3% abv Colossus is by no measure a failure, and there was no shortage of celebrating when we finally tasted the finished product. While we may not have built a bigger beast, we definitely built a better tasting one! 22% abv or higher remains the goal, but we’re confident that you will love Colossus 2014 as much as we do… at least until 2018, and our next attempt at defying gravity.