Dark Night of the Soul Russian Imperial Stout - Page 17

MrHat · 09-21-2011, 02:52 AM

How long would you recommend aging this beer? I brewed in early May and bottled 3 months ago. The heavy alcohol is starting to relax and the flavors are blending so nice. The only issue is that every bottle I've opened has instantly become a geyser. I generally keg my beer, so I have little bottling experience. The beer doesnt taste over carbonated, but it just gushes everywhere. I literally lose 1/2 of each bottle. I made a 5 gallon batch and primed with 1/2 cup of corn sugar dissolved in water.

I'm hoping that aging will help with the gushing issues. Any help is greatly appreciated. This recipe is phenomenal!

lumpher · 09-21-2011, 03:19 AM

glad this thread is still going. i've been trying to remember what the beer was called, since i'm going to brew it

BrewNinja1 · 09-21-2011, 04:09 AM

You should age at least a year for the flavors to be best. High alcohol needs time to mellow. As for the gushers...look at this: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/gushers-what-do-i-do-now-188170/

MrHat · 10-05-2011, 07:09 PM

Thanks for the info. I hope I don't have the gusher bug, that would be a shame to spend all this time and waiting to have gushers, but I'll just have to deal. Thanks for the link, i'll give one of those ideas a try.

Thunder_Unicorn · 11-08-2011, 12:22 PM

Just made this on Saturday in 5 gallon format. This was my first ever beer I brewed, it went really well (I figured jump in deep). Actually got 70% efficiency for my first time so I was stoked. Tasted amazing (we drank the gravity readings). It's been bubbling like mad since then.
Also did a Parti Gyle on a third runnings so as to maximize the high grain bill...added some fermentables to bring up the gravity.
Thanks BrewPastor for creating this recipe it was so much fun to make!

**Wolfhound180** · 01-21-2012, 06:50 PM

I plan on brewing a 5 gallon chocolate chili version of this next week. Any ideas on the cocoa, ancho chili combination for a beer like this? I was thinking 6oz of nibs and 4 dried anchos in secondary for a subtle flavor. I plan on keeping this in secondary for 3 months or so. Will it be ok for it to sit on the cocoa and chiles for that long? Ive never made a chocolate chili beer, and everything I research is for a much smaller stout than this.

BrewNinja1 · 01-25-2012, 07:17 PM

So I made this recipe about 14 months ago. I finally cracked it open and tried it out. It seems very....sweet? I checked the FG 3 different times, with both a refractometer and hydrometer, and they were both at 1.020 exactly. Maybe thats normal, but I really wasnt expecting that. Anyone have any insight? Thanks!

**bottlebomber** · 01-25-2012, 07:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrewNinja1

So I made this recipe about 14 months ago. I finally cracked it open and tried it out. It seems very....sweet? I checked the FG 3 different times, with both a refractometer and hydrometer, and they were both at 1.020 exactly. Maybe thats normal, but I really wasnt expecting that. Anyone have any insight? Thanks!

You've got to take into consideration that the high level of alcohol is making the FG deceptive. 1.020 for a 1.110 brew is not the same as 1.020 for a beer that had a SG of 1.050. In other words because alcohol has a much lower gravity than water, the more of it you have the more it throws off the whole FG measurement

**smokinghole** · 01-25-2012, 10:56 PM

That's the whole apparent vs real extract issue. Anyhow I've taken this recipe and sort of morphed it into my own with additional roast and other grains.

**Wolfhound180** · 02-05-2012, 01:30 PM

Brewed this on the 29th. Efficiency was crap and OG was 1.112. Made a 1 gallon starter of WLP090 and yesterday, the 4th it was at 1.022. Nice strong fermentation but didn't even need a blow off tube. I will bulk age this for 6 months and then bottle. Won't crack any open until Dec 21 as this is my Mayan End of The World brew. I also added chocolate and chipotle powder so we shall see how this turns out.