When is a beer BIG ?

[ReaseB]

I am thinking about brewing a recipe I saw in "Clone Brews". It is the Aventinus Wheat-Doppelbock. I decided to tweak the recipe a bit and add some things that I want in a beer like this. According to Promash, I am looking at a O.G. of 1.080. I know that this is a fairly big beer, but by no means a beast. I was planning on pitching a larger starter, but other than that, are there other precautions or tips that need to be taken into account in order to have a good result?
I read Jamil's article in Zymurgy about this, but I think he was talking about much higher gravity beers than 1.080.
Does BIG start at 1.058 , 1.100 or somewhere in between?
When do you need to start worrying about harming yeast with excessive alchohol levels in the fermenter?
What do you think?

Rease

[Bugeater]

I am probably not the right one to answer this poll. My "normal" gravity beers run around 1.062-1.068. My low gravity "session" beers run in the 1.050-1.055 range. I start considering them "potent" though not necessarily "big" at about 1.075. "Big", for me, is something over 1.085-1.090.

As far as taste goes, "big" depends on what you are used to. If you are talking about reusing a yeast cake, then 1.070 is where I will stop using it.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

[Bonjour]

About 1 out of every three beers that I brew has had an OG of over 1.100, I'll try to answer that.

With Big Beers, the issue becomes what will your FG be. FG determines a lot of the character of the beer as does the grain bill/hops, yeast used etc, but the difference with a big beers is gravity so I'll limit my discussio to that (mostly).

With standard attenuation, which I will define as 75%, a 1.080 beer will finish at 1.020, generally not bad with big beers, a 1.100 OG beer will be 1.025, a 1.120 OG a 1.030, and a 1.140 og 1.035.

with a 1.080 OG beer as long as you find a FG of around 1.020 to be what you are looking for a larger starter should be all that you need.

For some other considerations when you go to brew that monster check this out.

http://www.beerdujour.com/Howtobrewabigbeer.htm

Fred

[Danno]

With typical 75% efficiency and spargin to 1.010 and a normal boil-off, your OG will be about 1.055. That's a normal beer and why 80% of the beer styles are in that OG neighborhood. I figure a beer that's a step up from that gets into the big beer range.