Aging a Russian Imperial Stout.

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wuilliez

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For Christmas, I was going to brew a Russian imperial stout in July and age it until December for the family. What would be the best way to age it? It's an LME recipe from the brew supply place I go to. I plan to bottle it due to the fact I lack keg funds. Should I bottle it after I reach back to back readings, or should I let it sit in the fermenter and age?
 
What's your OG? If you're talking 1.080, I'd give it 6 weeks in the primary fermentor and then bottle age. If it's bigger than 1.100 I would probably transfer to a secondary and give it 3 months bulk aging and then the rest of time in bottles.
 
Based on my experience, I would age it for about a month in primary (depending on whether gravity has stabilized) and then transfer it to a secondary to avoid off flavors from the trub. Let it sit for a while and bottle. Maybe throw some oak cubes that have been soaked in whiskey in the secondary, but if the abv is already high then maybe not...
 
But if it ages in a secondary for a couple months it might be hard to bottle condition since very little yeast would be in suspension after that amount of time. So keep that in mind.
 
What's the rationale behind this? How is this different from aging it in the bottles?

I'm trying to find the answer to the same questions, and I also would like to know why. I've got a stout that I've been aging in the secondary for a month. I'd like to empty out my carboy so I can use it for other beers. Would my stout be better if left to age in the secondary? My OG is 1.050. If you could also give the reason why, and not just a simple bottle it, or leave it that would be wonderful. Thanks
 
From my understanding, aging it in secondary will lend to a more uniform taste versus bottle conditioning. With a 1.050 beer I would waste any time with a secondary. But with a 1.10 + beer I would leave in secondary for 2 months or so before I bottled. This is for a stout of course, not an IPA or such. You can always add 1/4 packet of us-05 into the bottling bucket if you are worried about the beer carbing.
 
^^ what he said. Each bottle is a little microclimate, and although they will be very similar you can and will detect differences between bottles if you bottle too soon.
 
I made a 1.085 breakfast stout in may. Racke to secondary after a Month. My plan is to age until fall, bottle, and drink on xmas day.
 
I brewed a ~1.1 OG RIS early this January. I left it in primary for ~4-5 weeks, and it's been in secondary since. I'm thinking I'll bottle it in August, and since it's north of 9% and it'll have aged off the yeast for over 6 months, I'll throw some 05 in with the priming solution to make sure it carbs up. The way I see it, a beer with that much dark, roasted malt needs a lot of time to mellow, as does the alcohol, and since I won't wanna drink a RIS before it gets cold, leave it in secondary til the end of summer. Then a couple, few months in bottles and it'll be cold out again.
 
tgmartin000 said:
I made a 1.085 breakfast stout

isn't that like making a high gravity Mild? ;)

Edit: never mind, Founders is 8.3%. What is it that makes it a breakfast stout? Cause an 8.3 for breakfast would make sure I didn't see lunch..
 
Yep. I did the founders. 2 oz coffee and a 4 oz bar of Godiva chocolate

It tasted incredible after a month, a bunch of people said they like this beer fresh, rather than aged ..
 
I'm gonna post here rather than start a new thread since I have the same question as the OP but have a SLIGHTLY more specific question.

I brewed a Founder's breakfast clone on the 19th of this month (11 days in primary today). OG was 1.073 and the current gravity has been 1.02 for the past 5 days or so. Beer tastes aweeeessome. I brought a hydrometer sample to a bar and tried it side by side with the original and they were VERY close. Mine didn't have as intense coffee/chocolate notes but that's probably because the other half of the coffee and chocolate additions that the recipe calls for have not been added yet.

My question is should I bother leaving this longer in primary or should I bottle? I have no beers coming up that I'm going to brew, I'm just super happy with this beer and don't see how leaving it in primary for months will make it any better, i think it'll just make it different, which I MIGHT not want. The soonest I'd bottle if I did was this satuday. And since we're on bottling, what have people done at bottling with this beer? Will 3.4 oz of corn sugar give me adequate/desirable carbonation for the style?

Thanks,
-Edin
 
no need to go super-long on the primary, but 14 days (i.e. saturday) is on the short side for this beer. give it another week before bottling.

if you're going to bulk-age for months, you wouldn't do it in primary. you would rack to a smaller secondary vessel with little headspace (fill the vessel so that little airspace is left) and age it that way.

priming: use a calculator like http://www.northernbrewer.com/priming-sugar-calculator/. there is no one-size-fits-all solution, it'll depend on how much you're getting into your bottling bucket, maximum temp it fermented at, and how much carbonation you want. FBS is pretty low carbonation, i'd go for 2.0-2.2 volumes.

dunno if you saw it, but there is a FBS clone thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f68/founders-breakfast-stout-clone-139078/
 
Bulk aging in a secondary before bottling tends to keep more of the undesirables out of the bottles.
 
Bulk aging in a secondary before bottling tends to keep more of the undesirables out of the bottles.
absolutely, if done correctly (little to no headspace, good sanitation, etc).

do it sloppy and you're just asking for trouble... you'd be better off with a slightly longer primary and then going straight to bottles.
 
Bumping an old thread - is there any fear of the beer getting oxidized in secondary? I've got a Russian Imperial Stout with an OG of 1.103 that should be in the 10%+ alcohol range. I left it in Primary for about a month until the gravity reading stabilized (was sitting at 1.026 for about 5 days) before moving it to a whiskey barrel my wife got me for Valentine's Day from a local distillery.

I figure I'll probably have it there for about 3 weeks or so until the flavor is right before moving it to a true secondary to let it bulk age for 2-3 months.

My concern is that with very little carbon dioxide being produced at this point by the beer, that there is a much greater chance for oxidation in the true secondary. Any thoughts on how to avoid this? I know minimal head space is ideal, but even in a 5 gallon secondary I will probably end up with half a gallon or so of head space.
 
Bumping an old thread - is there any fear of the beer getting oxidized in secondary? I've got a Russian Imperial Stout with an OG of 1.103 that should be in the 10%+ alcohol range. I left it in Primary for about a month until the gravity reading stabilized (was sitting at 1.026 for about 5 days) before moving it to a whiskey barrel my wife got me for Valentine's Day from a local distillery.

I figure I'll probably have it there for about 3 weeks or so until the flavor is right before moving it to a true secondary to let it bulk age for 2-3 months.

My concern is that with very little carbon dioxide being produced at this point by the beer, that there is a much greater chance for oxidation in the true secondary. Any thoughts on how to avoid this? I know minimal head space is ideal, but even in a 5 gallon secondary I will probably end up with half a gallon or so of head space.

Your best bet will be to be extremely cautious when racking and purge your secondary vessel with CO2 before you close it up.
 
purging with oxygen is one approach. another is to use something no-reactive to help fill up the secondary. for example, add marbles until the secondary is filled to the top (sanitize them first).
 
You'll probably pick up more oxidation in the barrel than the secondary. I usually bulk age in secondary first, then go into the barrel, then age a little more in a keg with CO2 on top.
 
Bumping an old thread - is there any fear of the beer getting oxidized in secondary? I've got a Russian Imperial Stout with an OG of 1.103 that should be in the 10%+ alcohol range. I left it in Primary for about a month until the gravity reading stabilized (was sitting at 1.026 for about 5 days) before moving it to a whiskey barrel my wife got me for Valentine's Day from a local distillery.

I figure I'll probably have it there for about 3 weeks or so until the flavor is right before moving it to a true secondary to let it bulk age for 2-3 months.

My concern is that with very little carbon dioxide being produced at this point by the beer, that there is a much greater chance for oxidation in the true secondary. Any thoughts on how to avoid this? I know minimal head space is ideal, but even in a 5 gallon secondary I will probably end up with half a gallon or so of head space.
If this is a brand new barrel I'd recommend tasting it every few days, especially in the beginning. If there was a lot of residual bourbon, your beer will pick up the flavor quickly and you don't want too much bourbon flavor.

My first use of my bourbon barrel only took 4 days before it had quite the bourbon taste. I'm hoping my next beer can go a few weeks though.
 
So how does one know if you need more yeast before bottling if you've bulk aged for awhile? I did an imperial stout kit from Midwest and it was bulk aged in secondary for 4 months and it came with Champagne yeast so I added that. But how would I know if I need that?
 
If it's good on Christmas, 2013, (and it will be) brew another big one and let it sit until Christmas, 2014. And save a few from your current batch for Christmas, 2014 too. I still have a 8 or so bottles of an RIS I made almost 2 years ago, and they are AWESOME.
 
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