Northern Brewer Imperial Stout

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

zyx345

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2010
Messages
260
Reaction score
3
Location
Northern NJ
I'm planning on brewing this Extract + Specialty Grains kit in the near future.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/imperial-stout-extract-kit-2.html

I normally like strong hoppy stouts, i.e. Great Divide Yeti and Stone's Russian Imperial Stout.

Can anyone who has brewed this kit, comment on the end result as far as flavor profile?

One reviewer in the link above compared it to Samuel Adams Imperial Stout and Duck Rabbit.
 
Based on the reviews, it looks like a winner. It fits well within style, and hop bill looks good. I'd give it a go.
 
I brewed this last month and now have it in secondary. I wont start drinking it until Christmas. I expect it to be really good!
 
I too brewed this about a month and a half ago and will probably be bottling it tonight. I added 2 oz of toasted oak chips soaked in 16 oz of bourbon to it in secondary... it smells amazing. Look forward to sampling it... although it will probably have to sit for some months to mellow out.
 
Drinking a glass of this as I type this. Very good stout. I usually prefer the boozier Russian imperial versions. Old Rasputin, Bourbon County etc.. But really like this. FYI.. I brewed it back in May. Was saving it for winter but the blazing hot July temps caused me to not brew squat and had to have something to sip on. (still have a bourbon porter from NB brewed on the same day, cant wait!)

If you want a monster check out the imperial stout from Midwest. 1 full gallon of extract. Honestly I think for some reason it was 2 1/2 gallons and 1 1/4 gallon. All I know is it was intense. Brewed that last fall and most of it was finished off by some buddies on New years eve. Now they're scared of the homebrew :)
 
If you want a monster check out the imperial stout from Midwest. 1 full gallon of extract. Honestly I think for some reason it was 2 1/2 gallons and 1 1/4 gallon. All I know is it was intense. Brewed that last fall and most of it was finished off by some buddies on New years eve. Now they're scared of the homebrew :)

Thanks. I took a look at Midwest Supplies Imperial Stout and it appears to have almost the same amount of extract + specialty grains that the NB kit has.

6 lb. Dark liquid malt extract
6 lb. Amber liquid malt extract

Specialty Grains:

8 oz. Chocolate Malt
4 oz. Caramel 120L
8 oz. Roasted Barley

I purchased the NB Imperial Stout. Hopefully the NB one comes out just as good!
 
I've brewed this one twice and I have a third kit on order, so I feel confident enough to say that I like it. My preferred imperial stout is Old Rasputin and I think this one is fairly close to that. It is certainly hoppy, but not aggressively so. The Yeti stout has a little more chocolate and oak to it (plus the pepper they put in if I remember right), the NB kit has produced one that is a little fruitier for me, not overtly but if I were to highlight the differences between Old Rasputin and the NB kit I'd say that the Old Rasputin has more roasted grain.
 
How long does this beer take to condition? The instructions I have say 21 days primary, 70 days secondary. Just want to see what the consensus was for conditioning this beer, or are those numbers pretty accurate?
 
How long does this beer take to condition? The instructions I have say 21 days primary, 70 days secondary. Just want to see what the consensus was for conditioning this beer, or are those numbers pretty accurate?

I'd say the conditioning times listed are accurate. It will be drinkable earlier than this but stouts, especially imperial stouts, taste better with age.
 
We did ours on 10/9/11 and my brother just opened one the other day and said it was fantastic and improved in flavor. I have to say that with this kit, even the uncarbonated hydrometer samples we took tasted good so you can really expect this one to be good over time.
 
How long does this beer take to condition? The instructions I have say 21 days primary, 70 days secondary. Just want to see what the consensus was for conditioning this beer, or are those numbers pretty accurate?

I brewed this up in Aug 2010 but added another lb. of DME. The OG and FG were 96 and 29.
I left this in primary for 6 weeks then transferred over to a 5 gal. bucket for 10 more weeks, then bottled around xmas. I sent it in to a comp. in Feb. and got dinged for being a little 'hot'. The comment was it needed more aging but it was still tasty. I still have 12 left just waiting for this winter season but I haven't had one for about 8 months so I can't comment yet on how the aging has went.

I did a slightly different all-grain RIS (BYO Stone) version in Oct. which I plan on not drinking until next winter.
 
And one more question:

My kit came with 11.5g of dry yeast. I know I'm not supposed to make a starter for dry yeast. But given the high gravity of this beer, is one package enough to ferment it properly?
 
I would suggest rehydrating it. Although not a starter, rehydrating the yeast will give you something fun to watch and you will know your yeast is ready to do the work needed!
 
And one more question:

My kit came with 11.5g of dry yeast. I know I'm not supposed to make a starter for dry yeast. But given the high gravity of this beer, is one package enough to ferment it properly?

Mrmalty.com suggests using 1.5 packs of dry yeast for this beer. You'll probably be OK with only 1 pack but if it were me I'd use 1.5 to 2 packs instead.
 
Back
Top