Imperial Stout Gatos Locos Imperial Stout

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Saccharomyces

Be good to your yeast...
HBT Supporter
Joined
Jun 17, 2008
Messages
5,438
Reaction score
166
Location
Pflugerville, Texas
Recipe Type
All Grain
Yeast
See notes
Yeast Starter
HUGE
Batch Size (Gallons)
10.5
Original Gravity
1.100
Final Gravity
1.025
Boiling Time (Minutes)
90
IBU
80
Color
Motor Oil
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
28 @65*F
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
28 @72*F
Tasting Notes
Thick, rich, chewy Imperial Stout. Similar to Siberian Night from Thirsty Dog.
This highly successful brew will be a yearly brew for winter at my house. I have one keg on tap and another aging in a Bourbon barrel right now which will be mighty tasty when it gets cold outside. :) I brew this up in the spring so it has 6-9 months to condition before tapping. When it's ready is really a function of the yeast more than anything else with beers this big, some yeasts like Belgian Abbey II will produce a beer which is ready to go much quicker than others like Cali Ale that take a long time for the flavors to round out.

Grain Bill:
60% Maris Otter
10% Munich
5% Carafa III or Roasted Barley
5% Crystal 60L
5% Crystal 120L or Special "B"
5% British Chocolate Malt
3% Flaked Oats
7% Turbinado Sugar (added to boil with 10 min left)

Mash 151*F for 75 minutes.

Hop Schedule (for 10.5 gallons):
4oz Magnum, 90
2oz Goldings, 15
1oz Goldings, 5
1oz Goldings, Flameout

Notes:
My water profile is similar to London which is nearly ideal for this beer. I got rid of chloramine using Campden tablets 1/4 tablet per bucket of water and added 1tsp each of gypsum and chalk to the mash. Sparge water was treated with 3mL of Phosphoric acid to avoid extracting tannins during a long, slow fly sparge.

I pitched 3L of Wyeast 1028 London Ale from the stir plate into each 5 gallons. Wyeast 1762 Belgian Abbey II, WLP007 Dry English Ale, or S-04 would be good alternatives.

Belgian Abbey II is a good yeast for strong American beers because it attenuates well, is fairly clean/neutral. The English strains will tend to provide an English style fruitiness and a more malt-forward beer.
 
Very interesting and tasty looking brew...

I'm looking to do something similar, but shooting for a very high abv of around 14-15% (parti gyle off first runnings). I'm also not a huge fan of the belgian yeast flavor, but I think I could manage some of the cleaner fermenting ones such as WLP530.

What strain would you recommend? I also have yeast cakes of White Labs London and Cali strains...and a vial of Dry English 007.
 
Wyeast 1762 Abbey II would work great. I'm planning on using that on half the batch the next time I brew this. In the mid 60's it's fairly clean, it produces mild dark fruit esters which meld well with the roast and dark crystal malts.
 
Wyeast 1762 Abbey II would work great. I'm planning on using that on half the batch the next time I brew this. In the mid 60's it's fairly clean, it produces mild dark fruit esters which meld well with the roast and dark crystal malts.

Got 1st place in the 1st round (west) of HBT comp but got bumped at BOS with the 1762 version. The judges really liked the dark fruit character of the beer. I fermented it at 62*F and ramped to 70*F at the end. The other keg I pitched bottle cultured SN yeast because I figured (correctly) it would be less attenuative than the WLP001 due to its higher flocculation. That version will probably get some Belgian chocolate, since it finished considerably sweeter than the Belgian yeast.
 
Saccharomyces said:
Got 1st place in the 1st round (west) of HBT comp but got bumped at BOS with the 1762 version. The judges really liked the dark fruit character of the beer. I fermented it at 62*F and ramped to 70*F at the end. The other keg I pitched bottle cultured SN yeast because I figured (correctly) it would be less attenuative than the WLP001 due to its higher flocculation. That version will probably get some Belgian chocolate, since it finished considerably sweeter than the Belgian yeast.


70* at the end of what? Did you bump to 70 after yeast calmed down? Or towards the end of aging?

What temp did you age this at?
 
Also, I noticed you mentioned carafa III or roasted barley. Which did you use?

I would assume the carafa would make it far less roasty (being that It's de-husked)
 
70* at the end of what? Did you bump to 70 after yeast calmed down? Or towards the end of aging?

What temp did you age this at?

Aged at 72. After fermentation dies down I let it warm up to 70 or so for a week before racking.

Also, I noticed you mentioned carafa III or roasted barley. Which did you use?

I would assume the carafa would make it far less roasty (being that It's de-husked)

I use Carafa III. RB would work too, but I like the subtle roastiness of the carafa.
 
Brewed my own modified version of this last fall and still have some left (fortunately!)...aging away. I upped the recipe a bit and the yeast crapped out right at 12%! :tank:

I pitched the wort onto a 1762 cake that I used on a dark small beer (that also gave me an opportunity to get a good flavor profile for the yeast. I must say the dark fruit is definitely there and melds very nicely with dark brews.

I then aged my RIS on french oak (that had previously been in a red wine - I think I used a Cab). I reeeeally like this beer, but I'd probably skip the aging in red wine part for the oak chips as it detracts from the dark fruit flavor of the yeast. On second thought, I may skip the oak altogether next time and let the yeast do the talking.

thank you Saccharomyces for the recipe and the advice!

P.S. to those wanting to drink this this winter - Brew it now!
 
would this be a good base recipe for a mexican cake similar beer (this recipe with habaneros, cinnamin, cocoa nibs and vanilla beans added to seconday)?
 
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