Imperial Stout Dark Night of the Soul Russian Imperial Stout

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Brewpastor

Beer, not rocket chemistry
Joined
Feb 16, 2006
Messages
4,628
Reaction score
66
Location
Corrales, New Mexico
Recipe Type
All Grain
Yeast
Wyeast 1272
Yeast Starter
HUGE
Batch Size (Gallons)
10
Original Gravity
1.1324
Final Gravity
1.020
Boiling Time (Minutes)
90
IBU
178
Color
void of light
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
1 week
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
4 weeks
Additional Fermentation
eternity
Dark Night of the Soul
A ProMash Recipe Report
Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 10.00 Wort Size (Gal): 10.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 48.00
Anticipated OG: 1.13245 Plato: 30.668
Anticipated SRM: 53.3
Anticipated IBU: 178.8
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75 %
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Grain/Extract/Sugar
% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
83.3 40.00 lbs. Pale Malt(2-row) Great Britain 1.03800 3
5.2 2.50 lbs. Roasted Rye France 1.03000 95
4.2 2.00 lbs. Chocolate Malt Belgium 1.03000 500
4.2 2.00 lbs. Crystal 150L Great Britain 1.03300 150
3.1 1.50 lbs. Special B Malt Belgian 1.03000 120
Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.

Hops
Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
10.00 oz. Columbus Pellet 15.00 178.8 60 min.

Yeast
-----
WYeast 1272 American Ale II

Mash Schedule
-------------
Mash Type: Single Step
Grain Lbs: 48.00
Water Qts: 60.00 - Before Additional Infusions
Water Gal: 15.00 - Before Additional Infusions
Qts Water Per Lbs Grain: 1.25 - Before Additional Infusions
Saccharification Rest Temp : 146 Time: 60
Mash-out Rest Temp : 0 Time: 0
Sparge Temp : 0 Time: 0

Total Mash Volume Gal: 18.84 - Dough-In Infusion Only
All temperature measurements are degrees Fahrenheit.
 
48 lbs of grain!!!!! I'd need a lauter tun... the size of yours! I'm kinda looking at this recipe as my own personal Everest. This stout is fundamentally badass on so many different levels. If you weren't a man of the Cloth, I'd be leery of it. Thank you in advance for posting this one!

What would the estimated FG be?
 
After looking at this recipe with anticipation, I will be brewing it this weekend.

Since my mashtun is too small, I am going to convert this to a partial mash. Do to lack of selection, I will be substituting American pale malt for the british pale and galenas for the columbus. I am crossing my fingers that this will balance well.
 
Wow! Well, I was wondering if wyeast 1272 could handle high alcohol, just made a old ale O.G. 1.082 with it. If the imperial stout works I guess that answers my worries.
 
BP (or anyone else),
I've been looking at brewing this on the yeast cake of another brew. Do you think if I used dry yeast for the initial brew (Safale-US 56/US 5) I could still ferment dry, or would I be left with a lower ABV and too much sweetness?

Thanks
 
BP (or anyone else),
I've been looking at brewing this on the yeast cake of another brew. Do you think if I used dry yeast for the initial brew (Safale-US 56/US 5) I could still ferment dry, or would I be left with a lower ABV and too much sweetness?

Thanks

I think you will probably do fine with a repitch. What was the OG of the original and were the IBUs? High alcohol and IBUs both have a reducing effect on yeasts attenuation.
 
how big of a started did you use for this?

Also looking on Wyeastes website, it says that 1272 only goes to 10% yet this looks to be 14.8% (or so someone posted last night in chat)
 
One more question, as I hope to brew this one in the upcoming weeks (I take a while to plan). Where can I get roasted rye? I asked this question in the Recipes/Ingredients forum a week or two ago without response, so I figure, why not ask the guy who's already made it.
 
So I really screwed up with my batch of this, recovering only 2-3 gallons, not getting a hydrometer reading, etc. Stupid whole hops clogged my siphons. I did, however, pitch this onto a yeast cake, which started going at it almost instantly.

My question is this: I want to redo the batch, but probably won't be brewing anything else beforehand, so no yeast cake. Would two pouches of S-05 yeast be enough, or would 3 be better?

EDIT: I may be brewing a mild before it gets too cold. Would a mild make a large enough yeast cake for this beer?
Thanks!
 
forsberg:
Have you tasted this with the Weyermann Chocolate Rye? I just opened a bottle, and it really lacked the roast character required for stout. I think the chocolate rye isn't a dark enough roast. Mine tasted like really dark chocolate! The alcohol was very well hidden, and the beer reminded me of Tommyknocker Cocoa Porter. Delicious, but very strong in flavor. Enjoyable, just not what I was expecting. Might try toasting the chocolate rye a little more in my oven next time, or using the chocolate rye and replacing the Belgian chocolate with roasted barley.
 
I noticed you used 10 oz of 15% Alpha hop to get 178 IBU. How did you calculate that? My calculations show IBU should be 10 oz * .03 (percent utilization) * 0.15 (Alpha Units) * 7489 (standard calcuation value from Desiging Great Beers) / 10gallons * 1.412 corrected gravity. I get 475.94. Help!

Thanks! G
 
Is a smack pack enough of a starter for this beer? I seriously doubt it but I never use liquid yeast because my LHBS sucks like a Hoover. :mug:

Edit:
Did you really mash this beast at 146 F for 60 min with no sparge?! :eek: Was that just to get the FG to 20?
 
How long did you leave this beast in the primary to ferment out to 1.020?

I am wanting to do a RIS for next winter and am thinking I will need to leave it in the primary for 2 months.
 
Holy crap. Sorry for the necropost, but this looks to be pretty epic.

Unfortunately I am stuck doing Extract brews until I get out of my apartment and into a house which will be a year or two.
 
Holy crap. Sorry for the necropost, but this looks to be pretty epic.

Unfortunately I am stuck doing Extract brews until I get out of my apartment and into a house which will be a year or two.

This recipe is pretty easily converted to extract. Just replace the Pale malt with the equivalent amount of light extract and steep the rest of the grains. Ofcourse I have yet to find a source for Roasted Rye but using roasted barley would still make an epic stout.

Craig
 
So I really screwed up with my batch of this, recovering only 2-3 gallons, not getting a hydrometer reading, etc. Stupid whole hops clogged my siphons. I did, however, pitch this onto a yeast cake, which started going at it almost instantly.

My question is this: I want to redo the batch, but probably won't be brewing anything else beforehand, so no yeast cake. Would two pouches of S-05 yeast be enough, or would 3 be better?

EDIT: I may be brewing a mild before it gets too cold. Would a mild make a large enough yeast cake for this beer?
Thanks!

Why not just use one pouch and make a biggg a$$ starter?

~M~
 
WLP099 Super High Gravity Ale Yeast looks much better suited than Wyeast 1272 because the Wyeast only has medium high alcohol tolerance. How did this turn out?
 
I'm interested in how this has turned out for people. I'll be going to Dark Lord day (Three Floyds brewery) on the 25th. I imagine this recipe is similar to theirs.
 
I've done a conversion of this recipe to a 5 gallon partial mash. This is my first time doing a conversion and I'd like to get this right. Can someone please take a look and comment?

Dark Night of the Soul Russian Imperial Stout

Converted this recipe to a partial mash and reduced to 5 gallons
Should make a starter for this recipe 3 days ahead of time.

__________________________________________

Recipe Type: Partial Mash
Yeast: Wyeast 1272
Yeast Starter: HUGE
Batch Size (Gallons): 5
Original Gravity: 1.1324
Final Gravity: 1.020
IBU: 178
Boiling Time (Minutes): 90
Color: void of light
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 1 week
Additional Fermentation: eternity
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 4 weeks


Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 5.00 Wort Size (Gal): 5.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 24.00
Anticipated OG: 1.13245 Plato: 30.668
Anticipated SRM: 53.3
Anticipated IBU: 178.8
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75 %
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients
____________________
12.5 lbs. Light DME
1.25 lbs. Roasted Rye
1.00 lbs. Chocolate Malt
1.00 lbs. Crystal 150L
0.75 lbs. Special B Malt

5.00 oz. Columbus Pellet
WYeast 1272 American Ale II


Instructions:
Heat 6 gallons of water to 146.
Sock specialty grains and steep for 60 minutes.
Raise temp to 170. Remove grain sock.
Remove wort from fire and add DME and hops (in hop sock). Stir in well.
Boil for 60 minutes adding 1 teaspoon of Irish Moss or 1 Whirlfoc tablet 45 minutes in.
Cool, aerate, and pitch yeast accordingly. Bring to 5.25 gallons if necessary.
Ferment for 7 days or until complete @ 68 degrees.
Rack to secondary for 4 weeks @ 68 degrees.
Bottle and condition for 6 - 8 months.
 
Wow, that is a mighty brew. I am also curious to hear how this has turned out for those who have attempted. I don't have a large enough beverage cooler to mash even enough grain for a 5 gallon batch but may mash what I can and bring up to gravity with DME.

Songstre, I believe you have a good conversion but probably don't need a full 6 gallons for the grain tea and boil. You may get better alpha acid extraction from the hops with the full 6 gallon but not sure about that. When I have done extract I always boil ~3 gallons then add cold water at the end. Saves some time and energy cooling down and won't need as large a pot.

Has anyone had experience with the wyeast 9093 imperial blend. This was on sale at the LHBS and picked a pack up. Interested in anyone's thoughts/opinions of using a high gravity yeast strain for this recipe.

:mug:
 
This beer takes a lot of aging and therefore a huge amount of tolerance and time. It also needs a LONG, SLOW sparge (I have not done a Batch run with this one) and a long rolling boil with good evaporation. You will need tons of yeast and good aeration. I don't even have the 9093 on my radar but it sounds really interesting and like a good choice. I will be interested to hear what others have to say on this one.
 
This recipe looks awesome. I am looking to do a RIS soon so I can age it for next winter. If I am doing a 5 gallon batch of this in a 10 gallon rubbermaid cooler this calculator:Green Bay Rackers--Mash Calculators says that it will take almost 9.5 gallons of space. So I think I am good but it might be a little tight.
 
Just a little bump to see if anyone has a batch old enough to do a review on yet.

I was going to wait till I heard reviews, but I just said the heck with it and brewed it yesterday. This was only my 6th AG batch and by far my highest grain bill. I was worrying about my MLT capacity (10gal) and didn't even consider that my BK size would be the limiting factor here. My planned one batch sparge turned into a ad hoc hybrid sparge - the sugars just kept coming. I don't know how I got such good efficiency; I almost collected a 3rd running for another beer.

I had to swap out for American 2-row and Simpson's Chocolate due to availability. I also reserved one oz of hops till 30min. I know it's not to the style, but I wanted some hop flavor.

I don't know how to describe the color, but it's the prettiest thing I've seen streaming out of my MLT so far. Two neighbors stopped by during the brew to find out what that awesome aroma was.

Has anyone had the chance to taste this yet? This one is going to take a lot of patience.
 
I brewed this in September of '08. For the longest time it was WAAAAYYY to bitter to be enjoyable. I popped it open on Big Brew (May 2) and it was delicious. It was still way bitter, but darn tasty! I did have trouble getting much carbonation into it, but it was still pretty great. Definitely age this one a little.
 
Well I gave it a shot substituting for what I had available as well as supplementing with ~10 lbs of liquid extract to hit gravity with my setup. Fermented with the wyeast imperial blend out to 1.032 after three weeks. I don't think it was finished however after opening a bottle this past weekend to an explosion of foam.

The beer was >70 degrees because I just wanted to check if there was any CO2 hiss and recap for later. I have one in the refrigerator now to test how it does cold. I am fairly certain that exposure to oxygen during bottling reactivated the yeast and it fermented out a bit more.

After foaming uncontrollably for about 40 seconds I was able to pour the remaining beer into a glass and sample. It obviously needs time (only five weeks old), but already good. Was thick but not overly sweet. VERY assertive bitterness (both alpha and roast)! Puts an arrogant bastard to shame.

I was thinking of uncapping bottles over a corny keg to collect all the beer and foam. After all the foam settles I could cool the beer and adjust the carbonation, then re-bottle off the keg. Does anyone have a simpler solution to avoid any loss beer?

Update: Tried a cold beer a couple weeks latter and it is fine. Still overly carbonated but no worry of bottle bombs. After posting I read up a little on bottle carbing, excessive foaming is common if opened too early because the CO2 hasn't had enough time to dissolve in the beer. I don't plan to open any more of these until at least October.
 
Any more updates on this brew?? Would love to get one kicking?? maybe this fall and let it sit til about next fall?? to long?? just right?? any recomendations on yeast health factors for such a high gravity?? If Im gonna spit this one out I wanna make sure its worth it and havent seen to many reviews as to how it turned out??
 
Its been 4 months since my last taste. Opened a 12oz bottle after chilling for a short time. I didn't have a volcanic explosion this time but the carbonation is still very high. I also had a good 1/4" of sedimentation on the bottom of the bottle that began to mix with the beer like a lava lamp once the pressure gradient was created by opening the bottle. There was lots of FOAM, too much. After lots of love and attention to control the foam during the poor I waited to allow it too settle.

The aroma was similar to a coffee house or more like a chocolate shop, sweet and bitter. After enough foam had subsided I placed the glass to my lips and engulfed the delicious aroma as I tilted the glass for a taste.

Rich and sweet up front, it was thick and dark but not sickenly sweet or syrupy. The sugar doesn't stay on your tongue either because the roasted malt balances with coffee like bitterness and the alpha oils come through to leave a dry, clean, pronounced finish.

I am very proud of this beer despite the problems with carbonation and sedimentation. The flavor is better than any i have sampled in this style (admittedly haven't had too many, but better than Bell's Expedition Stout).

For those who may also be trying their first high gravity ale, might i offer a few more suggestions in addition to Brewpastors advise:

1. The high gravity yeast (wyeast 9093 imperial blend) worked very well for me. I still made a big starter but had no problems with under carbonation or having the yeast crap out (on the contrary had over carbonation).

2. Allow plenty of time for fermentation, i probably bottled too early and added too much priming sugar. Take a hydrometer reading instead of watching for bubbles. If it seems high still, wait another week and see if it has changed before deciding if it is finished.

3. Secondary fermentation! I never use secondary because for my normal gravity beer have never noticed a big enough difference compared to leaving in primary an extra week or two. In the future I will ALWAYS rack to secondary anything this big! The 1/4" of sediment on the bottom of all my bottles is enough for me to know better now.

Thanks for the recipe BrewPastor, this one will be on the annual rotation now. I even have a big mash cooler now so I won't need to supplement with extract.
 
I made an attempt to brew this. We will see how my yeast takes off. I took a small sample of the wort as it is right now because I found out today my hydrometer was broken. I made a big starter about 4 days before hand and aerated the crap out of it with a 5" aquarium stone. I am running a blow off tube right now and hope things take off.

So I don't know what my gravity is, but I did throw in 13lbs lite dme, and the other specialty grains listed on the partial mash on page three. If my gravity isn't quite up to snuff I will pick up some corn sugar or maybe just get a little more dme to bring it up.

As I come out of the winter months I will give this a try again all grain in my garage after I build up a mash tun for myself. Ooh and a larger boil pot.
 
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