Imperial Stout Fermentation Temp

I brewed a 1.100 OG imperial stout last Thursday and have been fermenting it at 62F with S-05 ever since. Its chugging along fine right now, but should I increase the temperature at all in the near future to increase attenuation or just leave it where it is?

I would ramp it up SLOWLY to end at ~72f. Fermentation temps are most important during the growth phase and the first 1/3 of active fermentation. If it's been rolling long for a couple days or more, yes, I would not hesitate to bring it up...but do it slowly.

Thanks, I pushed it up to about 64 and will continue to do that over the next several days until I hit 72.

Holy Crap! I took a gravity reading of this thing when I replaced the blow off tube with an airlock and it had already dropped from 1.102 to 1.026 in a mere 5 days. I guess I have no need to be concerned about it stalling at this point. Better than that it tastes absolutely amazing already. No fuses alcohols, just chocolate/coffee roastiness and a little bit of warmth. I really want to do a side by side with samuel smiths imperial when its finished. If the other half of the parti gyle brew turns out anywhere near this good I'll definitely be posting the recipe.

A couple questions though:
1. Should I knock the temp back down into the low 60's?
2. Should I secondary and bulk age this or just bottle it after about a month?

danielinva said:

Holy Crap! I took a gravity reading of this thing when I replaced the blow off tube with an airlock and it had already dropped from 1.102 to 1.026 in a mere 5 days. I guess I have no need to be concerned about it stalling at this point. Better than that it tastes absolutely amazing already. No fuses alcohols, just chocolate/coffee roastiness and a little bit of warmth. I really want to do a side by side with samuel smiths imperial when its finished. If the other half of the parti gyle brew turns out anywhere near this good I'll definitely be posting the recipe.

Click to expand...

Congrats...that's excellent attenuation.

A couple questions though:
1. Should I knock the temp back down into the low 60's?

2. Should I secondary and bulk age this or just bottle it after about a month?

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Let it be at current temps for another week at least. The yeast might be finishing fermentation, but they still have some cleaning up to do. After another week or two, I would drop the temp as low as you can get it. If you can refrigerate it, that'd be great. I wouldn't bother using a secondary vessel, honestly. Just another opportunity for oxidation and infection. Age it in primary for a month, then bottle.

How about adding more yeast? How cold can I get it before having to add more? I'd rather not have to bother with that.