Dark Night of the Soul Russian Imperial Stout - Page 8

2-0turbo · 03-15-2010, 04:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Apendecto

I can't help you with the grain, but I don't think the hops will matter too much. I've heard people say if the hops are just for bittering, you can use just about anything if you keep your IBUs the same. Then again, what do I know?

I don't know, I only have 9-more posts than you--you might have been doing this for years! : ) I looked at some other recipes and plenty of other recipes use Pilsner as the base and then add color with some of the darker malts. When I made the change in Beersmith, the color changed from like 48.8 to 47.9. I'm going to be making a bunch of other minor tweaks with the Crystal and the chocolate, so I'll have to tweak some other things. I'm sure it will turn out dark, bitter and alcoholic. Aged for a year, it should be perfection!

**claphamsa** · 03-15-2010, 04:34 PM

I think youll be fine, there is a difference.... but in this kind of beer, the vienna vs pale malt wont be noticable!

ftlstrings · 03-25-2010, 03:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Apendecto

I can't help you with the grain, but I don't think the hops will matter too much. I've heard people say if the hops are just for bittering, you can use just about anything if you keep your IBUs the same. Then again, what do I know?

With high alpha acid hops I'd agree with this, especially with the 9-12 month wait on it. If you are trying to do a lot of bittering with low AA hops you can end up with a 'grassy' taste from the huge mass of green stuff you'd need...

2-0turbo · 03-29-2010, 01:03 AM

So I took a stab at this beer this weekend. I scaled it to a 3-gallon batch as I'm not sure how it will turn out and I'm leaving Paris for the USA next year and can't take any alcohol with me. So, with a year to age, I don't want to be giving away a ton of beer before I go.

I hope it works out well. I am quite new to brewing to be honest, this being only my 7th batch. My OG was 1.116, a bit lower than I was hoping. Color seems right and it is definitely bitter! : ) The wort is good to go, I'm just hoping I can get it to ferment out. I'm using a Wyeast XL 1272 that I pitched a couple days ago into a 2.5 liter starter. Today, I decanted off about 1-liter and then pitched the remaining 1.5 liters into my wort. 4-hours later and it is going crazy. I did 3 or 4, 1-minute vigorous shaking episodes with my fermenter and used some yeast nutrient at the end of the boil. I think the only thing I could have done is oxygenated the wort more, but I don't have the equipment right now.

I'll link to my blog once I get the pictures uploaded. I think I'll shoot a video of the fermentation tomorrow as it is one of the more vigorous fermentations I've seen. As a bonus, I didn't do any sparge. Well, I started and realized my grain didn't soak up as much water as I thought, so I didn't sparge. But, I did sparge the grain into another vessel and ended up with about 5-liters of 1.070 wort (off the runnings!) So, I diluted it down to about 1.030, boiled it for 20-minutes and threw some hops in and ended up with about 9-liters of "bonus" beer that I threw some S-05 on. It is already bubbling too.

I'll post updates.

2-0turbo · 03-29-2010, 10:53 PM

I shot just a short video of my 3-gallon batch fermenting today. This is 24-hours after pitching. It doesn't look so black in the fermenter because all the trub is stirred up. But, before I pitched and the beer was still, it is quite black--or even devoid of light...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIWDykjX8OU

2-0turbo · 04-11-2010, 08:01 PM

UPDATE: My RIS has been slowly winding down. Still bubbling a little, mabye once or twice every minute--no Krausen. So, I decided to pull a sample today and see how things are going after being in the fermenter for 2-weeks.

F.G. - 1.026

Excellent! I was a little worried that the yeast wouldn't go that high, but it appears that the nice big starter did its thing. According to my calcs, this works out to about 11.8% ABV, which is a bit lower than it was supposed to be, but a pretty good effort.

The taste is good. It still has some bitter aftertaste that will need to mellow, but it tastes pretty good. I'm happy.

2-0turbo · 04-19-2010, 10:12 PM

Update: After 3-weeks, it is still slowly bubbling away. Much slower now, but still here and there. I very optimistic that I'm over 12% alcohol based on my last reading. I'll probably let it sit a total of 4-6 weeks on the primary yeast cake and then transfer to the secondary for extended aging. The time it takes to make this is so long, I might have to just start another batch going before I even see how this one turns out.

Still haven't updated the blog. Probably this week.

**smokinghole** · 04-19-2010, 10:29 PM

I'm thinking about doing another batch myself. That way I can have it aged for somewhere around 18 months for christmas 2011.

ftlstrings · 04-20-2010, 12:41 AM

I need to transfer mine off the lees this week and take a new reading too. How long have you all been leaving this in secondary? I was thinking 6 weeks +/-....

Mike.

**smokinghole** · 04-20-2010, 01:38 AM

If I had enough fermenters I'd leave mine for 6ish weeks. However I have two better bottles, and a bucket. I'm working on more but the wife keeps me down.