Imperial Stout Double-W Imperial Stout

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r2eng

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 24, 2008
Messages
1,427
Reaction score
37
Location
Eagle, Idaho
Recipe Type
All Grain
Yeast
Safale (Fermentis #US-05)
Yeast Starter
no
Additional Yeast or Yeast Starter
2pkgs, bloomed in wort
Batch Size (Gallons)
5
Original Gravity
1.124
Final Gravity
1.030
Boiling Time (Minutes)
60
IBU
88.4
Color
67.5
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
14 days @ 70
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
14 days @70
Additional Fermentation
age a ling time
Tasting Notes
in the primary... notes will follow!
Recipe: Double-W Imperial Stout
Brewer: Regner
Asst Brewer:
Style: Imperial Stout
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 6.41 gal
Estimated OG: 1.124 SG??? something is not right here..... seems low.
Estimated Color: 67.5 SRM
Estimated IBU: 88.4 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Mash Temp:156F

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
20.00 lb Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 81.63 %
1.50 lb Black Barley (Stout) (500.0 SRM) Grain 6.12 %
1.00 lb Special B Malt (180.0 SRM) Grain 4.08 %
0.50 lb Caramunich Malt (56.0 SRM) Grain 2.04 %
0.50 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 2.04 %
0.50 lb Chocolate Malt, Pale (200.0 SRM) Grain 2.04 %
0.50 lb Rye Malt (4.7 SRM) Grain 2.04 %
2.00 oz Warrior [15.00 %] (60 min) Hops 62.0 IBU
2.00 oz Williamette [5.50 %] (30 min) Hops 17.5 IBU
2.00 oz Williamette [5.50 %] (11 min) Hops 8.9 IBU
2 Pkgs Safale (Fermentis #US-05) Yeast-Ale

Actual OG = 1.113... the estimated OG seems low.

Based upon many good sounding recipes... tweaked for what I have on hand.

Per-fermentation taste was like bittersweet chocolate... mmmm!

update: After blooming the yeast on wort, fermentation started in less than 3 hours! Never happened before! Churnin' like crazy!
-----------------------------------------------------
8/22/08 -Now down to 1.040, and is DELICIOUS!

Off to the secondary.
 
This sounds good. Once I get BrewPastor's Dark Night brewed, I may contemplate this one, but I'm running out of room for "puttin' back" beers. May need to consider something more drinkable.
 
His recipe was one of my many inspirations...

You may already know this, but with this much grain the actual wort you draw off the grain is going to be large: have a big boil pot! Mine holds 6.5 gallons, but I could have used 8. The pic's in my gallery show some shots from brewday!

Eric
 
I have seen several high-grav stouts use safale-05. I will be taking an SG reading tomorrow. Fermented hard for 4 days, and has been slowly bubbling away for almost 4 weeks!

From what I have read, if I get to 1.030-35, I'll get a decent attenuation and a good balance between malt and hops.

I'll post tomorrow or Saturday about the taste and readings.
 
WOW!

OG = 1.113, now at 1.040, that's 70.8% attenuation... 9.56% ABV.

well balanced stout!

Keeping my hands off this is going to be really hard!
 
I kegged 'er for aging another month or two.

This is going to be tough... it tastes really nice! If it turns out as good as I think, I will have to get some opinions and ship a few bottles for testing.

Stay tuned!
 
I really like this stout... as big as I have ever had!

Being a bit inexperienced in how beers stack-up in the competition world (I trust my tastebuds, but.....), I sent a couple 12's to Biermuncher (thanks for taking the time to do this for me:)). Review follows:

Aroma: Strong chocolate up front. Could smell the richness. No alcohol fumes...smelled very smooth and mellow. Plum like and some burnt notes. Very nice.

Appearance: Black as oil. Nice, thick legs on the pour. Slight tan head that was minimal, but thick. Left a nice lacing as the head dissipated.

Flavor: Smooth and velvety. Some black currant tones along with the chocolate and slight roastiness. Very nice sweetness but a back of the tongue bitterness to balance it out. Very nice tasting RIS. As I let the beer sit and warm, the taste smoothed out even more. Rich and desert like.

Mouthfeel: Thick but very drinkable. A nice amount of carbonation that didn't over-fizz the beer. The glass laced all the way through. A nice creamy beer that made you swirl it around before swallowing.

Overall: A very good example of an RIS. Rich and smooth. Sweet but balanced with bitterness. Extremely enjoyable. This beer should easily score in the low 40's in a competition and certainly place.

Thanks for a great beer. :rockin:
 
I give this beer my official BM stamp of approval (for what that's worth :D).

I just cracked the second bottle en route to the hot tub but had to stop on the way to make sure I located this recipe.

This is a fantastically rich, full bodies, smooth as silk RIS.

One suggestion....brew this.

I know I'm going to.
 
Cool!

I just ordered grains from Brewmaster's Warehouse to build another batch... boy this ages nicely! It was a great beer with 4 months aging, but it's really smooth now.

You will enjoy it!
 
This will beat the 10-50... I am a real RIS fan, and this is the biggest one I have ever had, bar none.

My next batch get's mashed on Sunday :) . I am subbing Zeus and Fuggles, as I don't have any W's for hops... maybe I'll have to change the name. :(
 
Question for anyone who brewed this.

I'm fermenting in one of those 7.9 gallons bucket.

Will I need a blow-off tube if I'll be fermenting between 5.5 and 6 gallons of this, or should I be fine with my airlocked-lid ?

Thanks.
 
That kind of headspace should be fine.

I ferment in a 5-gal carboy, and it needs a blowoff tube... violent yeasties having sugar orgy!
 
phew.

That's a lot of work brewing a beer this big.

Got 11 gallons splitted amongst three 5-gallons SS brew pots.

4 hour boil later I got 5.5 gallons of 1.117 gravity wort in my bucket :rockin:

I don't have any blowoff tube, so I tried sitting my bucket in a double garbage bag, with another one taped on top with a couple of air holes in it.

I know... it's ghetto and probably won't contain any spill off that might happen, but I guess it beats a kick to the face.
 
nothign wrong with blow off.... cut a garbage bag open and put the bucket on it... so if you overflow it doesn't stain the floor... other than that who cares :D
 
WOAH! I collected 7 gallons of wort and boiled for an hour to get 1.113!

I admire your hard work... you will love it, I am sure!

Report back and let me know how fermentation goes!
 
I would love to try other's batches and compare... I'll have to do that sometime and do a swap!
 
WOAH! I collected 7 gallons of wort and boiled for an hour to get 1.113!

I admire your hard work... you will love it, I am sure!

Report back and let me know how fermentation goes!


Fermentation is going... smoothly ?... well smoothly wouldn't be the right term to describe the activity that's going on... it's been bubbling like crazy since monday night with no signs of slowing down.

No mess... yet ! :ban:


This might be a question for another thread, but how the hell did you collect a high enough pre-boil gravity wort to only need to boil 60 minutes to get up to 1.113 ?

My pre-boil grav was something along the lines of 1.060 for 11.50 gallons of wort.

It's my first time brewing a big beer ( I just made a mash tun from a 70 quarts Xtreme Coleman cooler ), so I might not know any better...

If I had mashed thicker ( I did a 1.50 quarts/pounds ) and batch sparged with less water, would I have obtained something like 7.5 gallons at 1.09, therefore reducing my need to boil for 3 hours ?

Thanks!
 
Well, I had a longer mash (90 minutes), and then double-batch sparged.

I boiled the 7 gallons to 5.5 and got 1.113. Higher efficiency with the longer (15min) sparges?? I was impressed by my efficiency, as I expected much less for this big of beer. My photos show the SG reading.

I am entering this beer into Nationals. I hope to earn a few points for the HBT Brewers Club :)

edit: I also crush my own grain... EVERY supply store drops my efficiency unless I run it through the Barley Crusher!
 
I'm planning on brewing this in celebration of St Patrick's Day followed by aging for a year. This is going to be my first big beer so I'm a little apprehensive as to how well this is going to turn out. One question I have is with the water to grain ratio. I too worry about boiling down for 3 hours and was thinking about bringing it down to 1.10 qt/Ibs to give a lower boiling volume. Would this work?
 
I am not sure about that ratio. I did not have a 3 hour boil. I used 1.25 qts/#. Keep in mind that the grain sucks up some water, too.

It doesn't need a year of aging, either :) Although I have some on the shelf for later dates!
 
How much did water did you use for mashing and sparging?The Beersmith profile says 18 gallons of mash water and 12 gallons sparge water while a mash calculator says a more reasonable 12-13 gallons mash water and no sparge.

Will the grain really absorb 20 gallons of water?!?
 
I will look at my notes... no, something is wrong with what was accidentally saved in the beersmith file.

I normally would use about 5 gallons of mashwater, and 2-each 4 gallon sparges. I will check my log.
 
Ok I just got all the stuff I need to brew this beast but when i was over at my LHBS the guy that worked there looked over and exclaimed this beer was going to be INSANELY bitter. He said it was unheard of for an imperial stout but that it would still be quite intense.

Did the hops give too much of a bite? Would you tone them down a bit or do you think they balanced out nicely?
 
Your LHBS is wrong.

It's balanced. Very much so, actually. Look at the attenuation, OG, FG and IBU's. Unless you like a sweet stout, brew as described. RIS's need some bitter to balance the sugars left in them. Trust me, it's a nice RIS.

I hope to have feedback from the NHBC next week, and I will post results.
 
Just chiming in to let you know that I racked this to secondary after 4 weeks in primary.

Had a OG of 1.117 and it's down to 1.030.

Had a taste and it's already great as is... very chocolaty and smokey. Not bitter, nor overly sweet... just well balanced. The whoping 11.4% ABV is actually not noticable until 30 some seconds after taking a taste, and it's just a warming effect in the back of the throat... marvelous.

I'll leave it in secondary 2 weeks or so, keg it, and let it sit until the end of july before putting it on tap.
 
We are brewing this one tonight!! We have everything ready to go, and I decided to whip up a mash ton out of 12 gallon igloo square cooler.

I have beer smith, and was wondering what I should mash in and sparge with?? Looks like you had a 75 quart mash in? That would be a huge mash ton!!

I have a 6.5 gallon brew pot, 12 gallon sparge with SS braid bottom

Would the 5 gallon mash and (2) 4 gallon sparges be the way to go?:tank:
 
Sounds like a good plan... mash 90 minutes, too.

I received additional feedback on the "aged" WW... The bitterness dissipates and the beer becomes a bit unbalanced. My recommendation is to age 2-3 months and drink it and enjoy. I have to do a bit of polish on this recipe to get a full year in bottles. Maybe lower FG and a bit more hops.

Good luck!
 
Sounds like a good plan... mash 90 minutes, too.

I received additional feedback on the "aged" WW... The bitterness dissipates and the beer becomes a bit unbalanced. My recommendation is to age 2-3 months and drink it and enjoy. I have to do a bit of polish on this recipe to get a full year in bottles. Maybe lower FG and a bit more hops.

Good luck!

Do you think I will collect 6 gallons Using 5/4/4? And what temperature should I strike? Trying to play with beersmith a bit, but can't find one that works out. I can only brew around 6 gallons in my pot.
 
Too much sparge water... I have in my notes, and checked with Beersmith... the grain absorbs about 3 gallons of water.

I would do 5-2-2.
 
Too much sparge water... I have in my notes, and checked with Beersmith... the grain absorbs about 3 gallons of water.

I would do 5-2-2.

We just did the mash in with 7 gallons, because 5 was way to low.. Is the 1st sparge supposed to be 200 Degrees? Will that stop the enzyme process? Wouldn't it be better at 180 and rest at 168 for 10 mins? Then the second around the same?
 
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