Brewing an Imperial Stout and Octoberfest this weekend

HI folks, can anyone recommend any additions to my Imperial Stout? I'm making this weekend in hopes of enjoying in the late fall/winter. I would like to get ideas on adding to primary or secondary. I love the coffee flavors so roasting oats may be a great idea...I purchased the imperial stout kit from morebeer.com. The beer out of the box will be about 8% ABV.

Thanks for any tips!

Just off the top of my head, I know I've imbibed commercial Imperial Stouts with the following additives:

Oak (Smoked)
Chocolate
Liquorice
Oatmeal
Vanilla Bean
Expresso
Cherry

The Cherry Imperial Stout I had was just last weekend at a craft brew festival. I didn't think that would be a good combo, but was pleasently surprised. The cherry flavor was not overpowering, and made a really tasty additive.

How about some medium toast oak cubes. Boil them for a few minutes, then soak them in bourbon for a few weeks, add to secondary for 1-6 months, then drink, yum.

dcHokie said:

How about some medium toast oak cubes. Boil them for a few minutes, then soak them in bourbon for a few weeks, add to secondary for 1-6 months, then drink, yum.

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Do I toast them or do I buy them toasted? Does my local home brew shop have this? Should it be done with Chocolate? I'm kegging so do I keg with these in the beer or let it sit in secondary for a couple of months then remove then keg and sit back for 4 more months? Thanks for the help!

You buy them already toasted, like this: http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?cPath=178_24_32_335&products_id=10148, your local shop should definitely carry them.

Length of time you leave them in there is really about personal preference, you could always toss about 1 oz in a hop sack for easy removal if you aren't sure how much oak flavor you want and take samples every few weeks. In a 8%+ Imperial Stout, you'd probably impart some nice oak flavor in a couple months.

Well, if you're using Charlotte city water, I suggest adding something to up the alkalinity so that your stout turns out tasting decent.

The two big stouts I've tried to brew both turned out horrible because our water sucks for beers with a lot of dark grain in them. I'm just now learning how to adjust it so that this doesn't happen in the future.

BrookdaleBrew said:

Well, if you're using Charlotte city water, I suggest adding something to up the alkalinity so that your stout turns out tasting decent.

The two big stouts I've tried to brew both turned out horrible because our water sucks for beers with a lot of dark grain in them. I'm just now learning how to adjust it so that this doesn't happen in the future.

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So how do I adjust for this? I guess for this weekend I can just buy gallon's of spring water? Thanks!

robaincltnc said:

So how do I adjust for this? I guess for this weekend I can just buy gallon's of spring water? Thanks!

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Unfortunately, no. Charlotte has great water for brewing so you don't need to buy spring water because it's basically the same thing that comes out of the tap. The problem is that our water is extremely soft and lacks the alkilinity needed for using large amounts of dark grain (spring water also lacks this.)

Are you doing all grain or extract with steeping grains? What is your recipe? It may be as simple as adding a teaspoon or 2 of baking soda to your mash/steep.

Extract from MoreBeer. Also, can the oak steep in the keg when aging? Should I add chocolate too? I'm actually in Gaston Co using Mt Holly City Water..wonder if its different?

Yeah, I'm sure Mt Holly water is different. Sorry, I know this is all probably overwhelming for a beginner, I just wanted to try to save you from making a bad batch of beer. Imperial Stout is a tough style to brew when you're just starting out.

Will check with Alternative Beverage as the main shop in also in Gaston County and see what they suggest I do. As far as aging with the oak, can I do it in the keg or in secondary? I prefer to age in Keg so that I can have my brew bucket and carboys for other tasty projects.. BTW brookdalebrew, where are you in Charlotte? Thanks!

You can oak in the keg, you may just want to rig up some sort of fishing line to the bag of oak so you can pull it out without too much trouble.

As far as your local water, the folks at your homebrew shop may be able to give you some pointers on building water. I'd recommend reading this post by OldSock too: http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2008/09/i-think-that-water-treatment-has-made.html

There are tons of helpful threads & resources here on HBT about water building/treatment.