Raspberry IRS
 

I came across this recipe in a book I have, and was wondering about something? It calls for a large amount of malt extract 12 pounds to be exact.



12 Pounds Briess black malt extract

4 pounds frozen raspberries

4 ounces Cascade in boil 60 mins

1 ounce Cascade in boil 5 mins

1 ounce Cascade dry-hop

Wyeast #1028



Does this seem like it will have a lot of alcohol or be very sweet?

that can't possibly be a 5-gallon batch with 4oz of cascade and 12lbs of malt extract.... probably 10 gallons... won't have much raspberry flavor, i think...

Yes and Yes.

"Imperial" beers by definition have a lot of alcohol and are very sweet. Some barleywinesand imperial stouts have very high IBUs to balance the sweetness.

12 lbs of LME and 4 lbs of berries probably yields something like an OG of 1.90: a big beer but not enormous by RIS standards. You've got a lot of unfermentables in there: I'm guessing 70% attenuation is about the best you could achieve, so that's an FG of something like 1.027. So, yeah, a pretty sweet final product.

4 lbs of raspberries in an intensely beer-flavored beer like an imperial stout, BTW, will give a pretty subtle raspberry flavor, I'm guessing.

Yes it said OG 1.100 and Final 1.025 is it worth making?

Only you can decided that. The ingrediants will cost about twice what a "normal" five gallon batch would cost--I guess more than twice, when you figure in the raspberries. Plus, make sure you're prepared to have your fermenters in use 2-3 times longer than usual and to wait a good long while for this beer to mature in the bottle. (I know you probably already know all that.)

If it were me, I'd want to be sure that I like RIS before I brewed it, that's for sure. It dose sound good to me, although I don't drink a lot of imperial type beers.

12 pounds of Black Malt Extract???:confused:

Are you certain of the source for this recipe?

Sorry for the double post...I got an error message when I hit save.

This is more like a black barleywine! I only brew ales that I really want to brew. If I looked at a recipe and asked your question, I would tell myself no. Don't try making it just because it's big, unless you really like huge (9%ABV), sweet, raspberry stouts. The IBU's won't be very high, cascades is low AA.

You could cut everything in half, except the water, and make an good stout.

Also if you are a beginning brewer realise that this recipie will require a huge starter, a intense aeration session with an o2 clyinder and a good amount of aging. I think i would try this recipe but cut it in 1/2 maybe.