Imperial Stout Double-W Imperial Stout

motobrewer said:

...for whatever reason, out of the primary, it was great - two months later, it was....not great. 9 months after that, it was incredible.

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This is what I have found brewing this many times. It's really good at first, then get's odd. At about a year, it becomes really fantastic.

Thanks guys, I guess I'll keg and carb it, get in a few pints now and when it seems to have lost something I'll just give it a timeout for a few months. At least now I'll know that if it seems to lose that something special it's only temporary.

Followup question for those who have brewed this: how well would it take to being dry hopped?

I brewed this to use up the remainder of last years homegrown hops so it should be well over 100 IBU. It tastes great going into secondary, but I'm considering tossing some whole leaf hops into the keg and dry hopping it.

Thoughts? Opinions?

Okay, last question on this: Nitrogen or CO2?
This is my first stout so I've got no reference to judge which would be better. But I've already got a Nitrogen tank and I'm going past the gas supply today so I could get it filled easy.

Personal preference, CO2. With a little age on it, it'll be plenty smooth and creamy without nitrogen.

Dry hopping then letting it age 1yr seems somewhat wasteful only because you'll lose quite a bit of beer if you use enough ounces of hops to make a difference. IMO, anything dry hopped should be drank fairly soon and not aged for a while, but I'm sure there's exceptions.

looneybomber is right - the dry hop would be wasted if aged.

I wanted to chime in here with my batch just shy of its 2 year anniversary. At the 8 month mark it was a bit sharp, around 1 year and the hops dropped off just enough to get in step with the alcohol and malt backbone. About 4 months after this it was out of balance again, the hops dropped off entirely too much and the alcohol bite just didn't keep up with the malts.

Tonight, using a bottle to whip up my Beer Bacon Beef Chocolate Chili, I had another taste. It has once more hit a high note rebounding from the earlier tasting. I almost regretted putting it in, but it's a fantastic chili and now has another fantastic ingredient to match.

I will be brewing this again in about 2 weeks. I can't wait.

i did a 4 gal. batch of this recipe and missed my target and got an OG 1.092. Its been 7 weeks and the gravity is 1.032. i was thinking about brewing a 2 gallon batch to add more alcohol and heavier body to blend to the one i currently have aging right now.

any tips or suggestions?

I had to take 4 22s last night and bottle some, otherwise I'm afraid I'll forgot and the keg will blow before I realize it.
I went to a cellar party Friday and tasted Bourbon County 2007 through 2012 so I'm hoping to actually save some of this for multiple years to compare. It's interesting to hear how it ebbs and flows over time.

Question: anybody ever tried to black and tan this? I tried last night and it just blended (but was still delicious). I'm not sure if it was my (inebriated) technique, or if it's just too dense to float on top.

inda_bebe said:

i did a 4 gal. batch of this recipe and missed my target and got an OG 1.092. Its been 7 weeks and the gravity is 1.032. i was thinking about brewing a 2 gallon batch to add more alcohol and heavier body to blend to the one i currently have aging right now. any tips or suggestions?

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My suggestion would be to ferment your 4 gallon batch as-is. More gravity does not automatically add more body. I'd just let it ride and note what to adjust next time you brew it whether that means sparging slower or checking the gravity before end of boil to add dme as needed. It'll still be a fantastic beer!

Doing it again!!

As moviebrain said, adding gravity does not necessarily add body. Keep in mind that a big alcohol beer needs sugars (higher FG) to balance. Body comes more from mash temps, but needs yeast attenuation to bring the OG to FG.

moviebrain: Your pic pushed me over the edge - I will be brewing it again next weekend. Friggen' lot of grain to buy, but I miss having the beer in winter.

I hit 1.106 FG, collected around 6 gallons of wort. My first batch was 1.111, but I feel anything over 10% will keep this in the style range intended.

My day went even a little better when I got a brew day retweet from TV's Wil Wheaton, https://twitter.com/stevenmccaw/status/406910203460718593

And just in case you need a mid-week boost to go get ingredients:

Any reason I couldn't make this with an oatmeal stout yeast cake? I have some 05 going already and the oatmeal should be ready next weekend.

Rys06Tbss said:

Any reason I couldn't make this with an oatmeal stout yeast cake? I have some 05 going already and the oatmeal should be ready next weekend.

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I say go for it. A few years ago I did Brew Pastor's "Dark Night of the Soul" on top of the yeast cake for Rhoobarb's "Damned Kids Oatmeal Stout." Turned out great!

mmmm... looks good.

ok, going to get MO Wednesday, US-05 starter going now.

Just a reminder that this monster requires a little extra TLC. I held it at 58 for the first 48 hours of activity (which started almost an hour after yeast pitch), and 6 hours after i started the 1 degree F per day temp rise this happened.

What size bucket is that

I should edit the original recipe - I use a blow-off tube.

8 gallon wine bucket for a 6 gallon batch.

I'm bound and determined to do this without a blowoff tube!!!

I'm close. Last time I lost about a gallon even with the tube. This time it was mostly stable at 58.

Next time I'll start the ferment at 56 and rise from there.

Squiddily DOO! /guitar solo

Thanks again r2eng!

Kegged 5 gallons. Got another gallon out and I plan to add a mix of oak and peppers that I got from a brewmaster at Goose Island during a barrel aged beer fest, and I plan to call the small batch Gigantothermy.

Just an fyi here... I'm brewing this tomorrow, but I didn't see a mash temp on the recipe. I found it while reading almost every page of this thread; looks like it's 156 or 158. I'll do 157, but can you please add it in there for the next poor sap?

Thanks!

I've been mashing at 156 for 90-120 minutes due to the very thick water to grain ratio required to fit in my 10 gallon MT. Beware the stuck sparge too, slow and steady gets you great efficiency.

Brewed this without much of a hitch today. My pre-boil gravity was 1.074 instead of my target of 1.087 but I was also able to press out an extra gallon of wort from my mash tun, so I boiled for close to an hour before starting the clock.
Ended up with 5.2 gallons at 1.108, so just a tad shy of the 1.115 I was looking for, but I intend to have it finish at 1.030 which will still be a respectable 10.4% if I hit it.
Also sub'd Columbus for the Warrior and shot for 100 IBU's on this as I want it to be in it's prime next fall (about 10 months from now).
Oh, I also used 1lb 4 oz of stout barley (black barley) and did 4 oz of black patent instead of a straight 1.5lb of the black barley.

I noticed that some kind of hop filter/blocker would have been beneficial as the hops really don't want to settle out of this because of the viscosity. Just another item on the with list!

Thanks for the recipe! Will let you know how it turns out!

Sorry... went back to the original Beersmith recipe - 156F is what I wrote down.

edited

The description of flavors here is exactly what I'm going for, but I'm thinking about brewing a RIS with a much dryer, more crisp mouthfeel. I was shocked how much I loved a RIS by a brewery that specializes in making IPAs/saisons/sours that mentioned they went out of their way to make theirs feel dry in order to boost drinkability.

The brewer recommended I do the following to achieve what they did:
--Lower mash temp of 150
--Use a highly attenuating yeast (recommended WL California Ale)
--Add corn sugar and honey to the boil, approximately 6-8% of the grist volume

Any thoughts on how this recipe would work with those changes? Obviously it'll be a very different beer, but I'd really like to try that with a good RIS recipe like this one. Also plan to age on bourbon soaked oak chips.

TLDR: Would this still taste awesome as a much dryer stout?

italarican:

- If you want it drier, simply mash lower - 150-152F. If it's still not dry enough, bump the ferm temp up a little at the end to get the yeast to dry it out.

-The WL Cali Ale will not attenuate any further than US-05 - use what you want.

-This is a very complex beer - why add honey? Skip the honey and sugar, and brew it. You would typically add oak and bourbon in a secondary, so add those if you see fit after it's done.

I think you are trying to change too many things at once!

r2eng said:

italarican:

- If you want it drier, simply mash lower - 150-152F. If it's still not dry enough, bump the ferm temp up a little at the end to get the yeast to dry it out.

-The WL Cali Ale will not attenuate any further than US-05 - use what you want.

-This is a very complex beer - why add honey? Skip the honey and sugar, and brew it. You would typically add oak and bourbon in a secondary, so add those if you see fit after it's done.

I think you are trying to change too many things at once!

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Thanks. I should have been clearer: the brewer recommended those things for a beer like he made; had nothing to do with this recipe. I love US05 and will likely stick to that coupled with a lower mash temp of 150.

Can't wait to try it out!

One other thing - be careful getting this beer too dry - maybe move down to 154F. Drying it out means more alcohol, and a "hot" beer. The alcohol could be VERY harsh. It's at about 12.4%ABV now, and needs the sugars to make it drinkable.

IMHO, if you want a drier stout, drop this beer's OG 20-40 points or rework the recipe.

Question-brewed this back in aug 2013. OG 1.097, FG 1.02. I carbed it in the keeper two weeks ago to go online after my other stout kicked.

Checking my stout on tap, it will be a bit before it is kicked (3 more weeks) which puts me into the warmer months and not sure I will want to tap this one.

Can I pull it and set it in the basement until fall? Currently at 38 and carbed...basement over summer will be about 65 degrees.

It will be just over a year since brew it I do this....thoughts?




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55 degrees is near perfect temps for cellaring a beer, and you are real close to that. My guess? Its only gonna get better jus sitting and waiting for you. Should be amazing!!


"Sometimes Im right half of the time ...."

65 would be the high-varies from 63-65

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Taste it, see how you like it. It lasted almost a year on tap for me because I liked to graze on it, 4-6 oz at a time.

At around 18 months my batch was an incredible malt-forward chocolate-roasty flavor bomb of awesome.

At nearly 2 1/3 years old it started gaining a barleywine character that wasn't unpleasant but not what I expected.


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I didn't like the way this stout came out. A bit roasty for my liking. But I did adjust and came out better for my taste.

Just brewed my second batch of this the other day. Enjoyed the last batch immensely - after a year in the cellar, it was a lot like Rasputin, vinous and syrupy, with a kick.


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I brewed this 6 weeks ago... Had awful trouble with the mash efficiency (~53%) and spent close to two hours on the lauter. Ended up boiling it down to just under 5 gallons to get OG of 1.120+ (didn't realize my refractometer tops out at 1.120). Pitched 3 packets of rehydrated US-05. After two weeks, gravity was down to 1.066. I "walked" the fermenter as best I could to get the yeast back into suspension, and after another two weeks, gravity stalled out at1.055. All attempts to revive have failed... I pitched a 1L starter of WLP-090 Super Yeast... Nothing... A week later tossed in a teaspoon of amylase... Nothing... At this point, I think I only have two options... Keg and age as is, or brew something similar but obviously much weaker gravity wise and blend. Thoughts?


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jmark said:

I brewed this 6 weeks ago... Had awful trouble with the mash efficiency (~53%) and spent close to two hours on the lauter. Ended up boiling it down to just under 5 gallons to get OG of 1.120+ (didn't realize my refractometer tops out at 1.120). Pitched 3 packets of rehydrated US-05. After two weeks, gravity was down to 1.066. I "walked" the fermenter as best I could to get the yeast back into suspension, and after another two weeks, gravity stalled out at1.055. All attempts to revive have failed... I pitched a 1L starter of WLP-090 Super Yeast... Nothing... A week later tossed in a teaspoon of amylase... Nothing... At this point, I think I only have two options... Keg and age as is, or brew something similar but obviously much weaker gravity wise and blend. Thoughts?


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What mash temp?

156... I use a herms coil though and the HLT usually runs about 2 degrees hotter than the mash, so I'm thinking that might be where the problem lies, but missing FG by almost 20 points seems excessive and most of my other brews usually hit expected FG. I may try this one again with 1) a HUGE liquid starter, 2) a thinner mash (1.5qt/gallon instead of 1.25) and take better into account the poor efficiency. One thing that I may have missed was the pH levels as my meter's battery died on me, but I use RO water and Bru'n Water and that's never missed for me in the past.


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