Anyone have advice?

Hmmm... you may want to be careful what you wish for.  SAMICHLAUS was a beer brewed by Hurlimann of Switzerland.  It made The Guinness Book Of World Records as the STRONGEST BEER in the world.  17% alc/vol.! WooHoo! I couldn't find it fast enough!  SO BAD!!!  and not in a funky hip-hop way.   It has been 'retired' according to the website.

You sound determined though, so - use Champagne yeast if you can get it (much more powerful stuff), of course lots of sugar (dextrose ferments faster) and time. Unpasteurized honey also helps keep yeast alive, but don't boil it.  If you live in a colder climate you can make Eisboch (Ice Bock): Just before you would normally bottle it you place the batch outside in a bucket in sub-freezing temperatures and remove ice formations every day as they develop.  All you will be removing is water.  By spring you will have something EXTREMELY potent....but I couldn't finish that bottle of Samichlaus - so I wonder why you'd bother spending all that extra money and time.  It may be that Cider or Wine should be your next logical step.  The same Ice Bock method can also be used for either.  In the case of cider it is called 'Apple Jack'.  Good Luck!  Hope this helps.  Cheers!

Hi-I´m Alexander a german brewer with more than 20 years of experience in several breweries in Germany and now in Namibia(Africa).

Don´t add sugar or anything else-makes a hang over.

What you need is a special yeast because normal beeryeast dies at a certain alcohol %.It´s in Germany hard to get good yeast but in the US of A theres a big market for home brewing-it should not be hard for you to find in the net some companies which sell dry yeast.

It is also not good to rise your fermentation temperature,because than you will get alcohol that gives you a terrible hang over!!!

So check in the net where you can get the right yeast!!!! This will be THE key to your liver!!

Greetings,

Alex 

Thanks for the tips. I've never tried mead but I did one beer with almost 50% of the sugar from honey, and surprisingly it fermented really clean and the honey flavor was very subtle. I haven't tried wine yeast, I usually do White Labs 001 or 500 strains for high gravity brews. They have a strain, 099, that is supposed to go up to 25% abv. I pitched it in the primary, which was probably not how it was intended to be used, and it tasted terrible, actually was the worst beer I've ever had, which is saying a lot. I just found this podcast with several episode on brewing high gravity that has some good tips: http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/639

also from what i read what actually holds most beers back is that at a certain level of alcohol yeast dies and stops fermenting. you want a good strong beer? i hear using a wine yeast will do the trick. that doesn't mean pulling the bread out of your pruno and throwing it in a can of warm miller.

It's important to give it plenty of time to ferment, maybe even pitching yeast twice. Also belgain yeast strains. Everyone I know that has brewed a big beer like an imperial stout has to let it ferment for months...

As the all swede wino, I might be... I suggest wine instead! Faster, better & stronger. Booze takes more work & usually you are being caught by the stench of it. And my experiments with strong beer is the same, the harder, the sweeter & the ferment/yeast taste is hangin in there. Also, did you try mead? Never did it myself, but you can crank it to quite some strength. Tobba at www.zorchproductions.com