Imperial Stout Imperial Bastard Stout

Yea, fermintation is crazy on this one. I love the taste, but for some reason this beer gives me a headache after only a few and a worse one the next day. I think it is too strong for me. I want to brew it again, but how do I lower the alc%?

I followed the instructions to a T, and let it ferment in a carboy for 3 months. I don't have all the specifics, as I am at work.

Thinking about brewing this one Saturday as a Christmas present for my mother.

How did it taste after 3 months? If I wanted to make it around 7% could I just omit the 3lbs. dark DME?

Has anybody had any issues with bottle conditioning on this one? The flavor and color are fantastic, but it's been in bottles for about 2 months now, and the head on it is REALLY weak. The first one I opened, after 4 weeks, had absolutely no head to it, and one I opened last weekend only had a very little head. Any thoughts?

billsquared said:

Has anybody had any issues with bottle conditioning on this one? The flavor and color are fantastic, but it's been in bottles for about 2 months now, and the head on it is REALLY weak. The first one I opened, after 4 weeks, had absolutely no head to it, and one I opened last weekend only had a very little head. Any thoughts?

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I cracked a 7 month old bottle this past weekend. It was carbonated, but still lacking on the head. I believe its just the way this beer is.

Brewing this Tuesday when my scale gets in. Looks like a winner.

Brewed this last night and my OG came in at 1.094, pretty close to target. This stuff looks like Iraqi crude...cannot wait.

skunkapebrewing said:

This stuff looks like Iraqi crude...cannot wait.

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The color of this is interesting. In the carboy or glass, it's pitch black, but pay attention to the color of it when you're siphoning it from vessel to vessel for secondary or bottling. I noticed that mine had a distinct reddish tinge to it... I'd describe it as a mahogany color.

Here's my half batch of this 24 hours after pitch...



I keep my house at 76 degrees, but still!!

Fermcap is your friend

Wow, so I noticed several people on here say they made this and fermentation took off quickly and was agressive so there is no need for a yeast starter on this beer. Kind of can't believe no one noticed this or commented on that yet.

So, long story short; for any beer above 1.060 you should make a starter. 1.099 Definitely falls into this catagory. Someone was complaining about headaches, I think this is probably a result of fusel alcohols in your beer which could be from too warm of fermentation or a prolonged lag phase because you didn't pitch enough yeast. Starters are the beginning of a good big beer.

+1 on that.

Just did this recipe with an OG of 1.090 (used molasses instead of brown sugar) and it is black as sin

Put a 1 liter starter of mixed cooked DME, water and WLP004. 5 days in with just a nice even layer of krausen... No blow off tube necessary. No bad smells, and no fusels from lag time. Use a starter, watch your temps. When yeast are pissed, bad **** happens to your beer.

Nice aromas in the steeping grains BTW! This is gonna be a good one, thanks for the recipe.

I have got to try this one. Will be on my next list!

Has anyone kegged this yet? im thinking of doing this next and kegging it.

Kegged it about 2 weeks ago. Came out awesome and still has aroma out the wazoo.

I'm brewing this tonight with some very minor alterations. I will comment back with progress. Can't wait to try this one!

I threw two table spoons of coffee when steeping the grains and used wyeast 1084(equivalent) but did the rest according to recipe. I had an og of 1.074. It's been less then 24 hours and I already have it coming out the blowoff tube. I'm going to keg this but may transfer after two weeks into another fermentor for an additional week or two. I'm not sure yet but ill check back and post.

So I'm on day 15 of fermentation and I still have activity in the airlock. Has anyone else had bubbling for this long? I did have a blowoff tube in there the first 10 days and had a small amount of blowoff then put the airlock in and it's been bubbling since.

Sounds like a winner to me!

I kegged last night. I had it for a total of 29 days in the fermentor and finished with a fg of 1.024. 6.45%abv. Disappointed. I was hoping it would of ended up higher. But it does taste amazing. I deff will be making again. Thanks for sharing.

downey542 said:

So I'm on day 15 of fermentation and I still have activity in the airlock. Has anyone else had bubbling for this long? I did have a blowoff tube in there the first 10 days and had a small amount of blowoff then put the airlock in and it's been bubbling since.

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I had the same thing going on and was told that my yeast was slow and possibly going dorment..and he was right my fermantation temp was to low . So I wrapped a heat blanket around it than finally after a couple of days it Finished..I'm not possitive but, I've heard you don't want your beer in your primary too long.

Just started this. A little boilover at the beginning, but otherwise good. It smells and looks delicious. OG 1.098.

gmcastil said:

Just some advice, having brewed this beer before, but you really ought to let it sit on the yeast for 3-4 weeks. Best thing you can do for it. With this recipe, I let it sit on the yeast for a month and then bottle it. The bottles from my first batch of it are about 8 months old and they taste amazing. It really needs time though, so consider letting it sit.

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Do you mean in the primary? What is the benefit of letting it sit on the yeast so long?

emarsh said:

Do you mean in the primary? What is the benefit of letting it sit on the yeast so long?

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I'm going to go out on a limb and say, yes he meant in the primary. I have made 2 imperial stouts and both have sat in the primary for a month. With a gravity so high, it takes a long time for the yeast to eat all that sugar. I've heard some people leaving it there for 2-3 month for higher gravities.

Ok. I was going to move it to secondary, but after doing some extensive searching on this forum, it seems that general consensus is longer primary times anyway, and more so for this because it's so high gravity. That is what I'll do, then.

any suggestions on boosting the IBUs of this bad boy to about 70+ ?

Romulan42 said:

any suggestions on boosting the IBUs of this bad boy to about 70+ ?

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Just add more bittering hops (beginning of the boil).

Brewed this a week ago brew process went of without a hitch made a 1.5 liter starter pitched at about 75 and it took off within a few hours from all the comments ppl left I had a blow off tube set up so that wasn't an issue. But it's a week in and I took a gravity reading and it's only down to 13 brix and from the looks of things fermentation has almost stopped I looked in my carboy and saw some bubbles coming up which is a good sign but it just seems to of slowed down to much to quick and am a little worried I might of under pitched. But then everyone's been saying this is a pretty strong yeast and had this ferment out without a starter so just wondering what u guys think

Any recommendations for dried yeast for this one?

arnies said:

Any recommendations for dried yeast for this one?

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S-05 would probably work well.

sweed said:

S-05 would probably work well.

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I'd probably need two packets though right?

arnies said:

I'd probably need two packets though right?

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Ya, I'd toss 2 in for a high gravity. That's what I did with my ten fidy clone with a 1.110 OG.

I used two packets of S-05 and it worked fine. Started quick and went crazy for days.

I brewed this in early March, pitched two packets of S-05 with OG 1.098. I had some temperature fluctuations on day 1, where it was a really warm March day in Michigan, and my apartment was 80 or so, and then got really cold (like low 50s) in the room I put the fermenter in. It took off quickly, and bubbled furiously for a week or so.

Let it sit in primary for a month before bottling in early April. Conditioned for two months, until my birthday on 6/11, and...it is delicious. Quite sweet, but not too much. Very balanced, especially for a high-gravity beer. I am going to let the rest sit for another several months (if I can bear to wait!) and see how it tastes.

I wonder how this might taste with some chocolate in the fermenter. Maybe I'll try that next time.

Just opened another bottle of this. Still very sweet and flavorful, if a bit bitter. It has a fairly thin mouthfeel. Any idea how to make it thicker next time?

hey guys- did anyone ever get an answer to the question about doing the whole batch as a 5 gallon boil?

I have a huge brew pot so I usually like to boil my batches altogether then add just a tiny bit of topoff water for the volume lost to boiling.

The recipe seems to call for only ~40% of the final volume in the boil and put into a fermenter with 60% cold water already in there. Don't you want the sugars and stuff to be dispersed evenly? It seems like adding a really concentrated solution to a very dilute one (i.e. empty water) is a recipe for disaster.

If you all did it though and it came out fine, I won't worry. Did you mix well on the last step?

Anyone do the whole 5 gallon boil?

I can't wait to brew this guy tomorrow. It set me back 65 which is in line with others on here.

Made this yesterday, with a slight modification. I took out the 1/4 pound black patent and added an extra 1/4 pound roasted barley (to save cost- LHBS said should be fairly comparable given the small amount of the grain).

Steeped for 25 min, boil went uneventfully.

Cooling took a little longer than expected- 90-120 minutes to get it down to target of ~80. OG of 1.081, slightly below target but still pretty good.

Pitched at 79 degrees F, fermentation started at 3 hours and has been going furiously into the blowoff tube this morning.

Just brewed it yesterday, got a 1.09 OG and needed my first blow off tube!

So excited

CyberErik said:

Made this yesterday, with a slight modification. I took out the 1/4 pound black patent and added an extra 1/4 pound roasted barley (to save cost- LHBS said should be fairly comparable given the small amount of the grain).

Steeped for 25 min, boil went uneventfully.

Cooling took a little longer than expected- 90-120 minutes to get it down to target of ~80. OG of 1.081, slightly below target but still pretty good.

Pitched at 79 degrees F, fermentation started at 3 hours and has been going furiously into the blowoff tube this morning.

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Looks like nobody responded, did you do a 5 gallon boil?

I just opened one of these that I brewed in March 2013, so it's been sitting in the bottle for a little over a year. WOW! Age works some wonders on this already delicious beer. Save it if you can.

Brewed this on 9/3. OG 1.08, pitched two packs of S-05, very violent fermentation. It's just starting to slow down now, and I've attached an airlock where the blowoff tube was. Gravity is down to 1.024 and I suspect it'll drop a few more over the next week or so. I plan on leaving it in primary 4 weeks before racking to a secondary to bulk age for a month or two.