dark lord, here we cometh!

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.

Thor the Mighty

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 12, 2008
Messages
291
Reaction score
3
Location
california
ok so i manned up and bought ingredients in accordance with All Things Homebrewing: Chupacabra Russian Imperial Stout...It'll Tear Your Ass Up . dropped the crystal 60L and made it 11lb for the marris otter, and 9 lbs for american pale 2 row instead of the above listed just to cut down on base grains.

has anyone attempted this brew before? if so, any pointers? if not, for such a grain bill, do you have any recommended temps/rests/methods for doing this? ive made all grain for a while now, stepped up to partial for one batch and now i feel confident enough to do all grain. what im planning on doing is a single rest at 158* for 90 minutes and rinsing with 168* sparge water. Pretty basic. i think that 158* for 90 will convert all that i can for my set up.

anything you can think of is very helpful! thanks!

here's the grain bill/hop schedule and adjuncts as copy/pasted from the site.

15 lb Maris Otter Pale 2-row
10 lb American Pale 2-row
2 lb Germain Munich
1 lb Caramunich (belg)
1 lb Chocolate (amer)
1 lb Crystal 40L
1 lb Crystal 60L
1 lb Flaked Wheat
1 lb Roasted Barley
.5 lb Black Patent
.5 lb Wheat Malt
.5 lb Special B


Hops

.5 oz Chinook Pellet Hops (19.4 ibu's @ 60 min)
1.5 oz Centennial Pellet Hops (12.9 ibu's @ 15 min)
.5 oz Chinook Pellet Hops (3.3 ibu's @ 5 min)

Other ingredients

3 lbs U.P. Honey from Brampton, MI
1/2 stick of brewers licorice

for the yeast, ive put together a 1 gallon stir plate system, so i'll be propagating enough healthy yeast starter for this batch. thats not a concern with me. i figure on adding oak chips that have been aged in bourbon because thats how i roll! ahha.
 
Keep in mind your attenuation will not be overly high with a 158 deg mash. It will leave you with a full bodied beer though. With the cara malts etc, (non fermenting sugars) you might want to mash at 154 deg.
 
Ive read up on step mashing and want to do a 104/148/154* schedule to get everything i can from these grains. its going to be done in a 15.5 gal converted keg over a propane flame *with mucho stiring*. i was wondering if this is a realistic approach or would a single infusion mash be the better approach?

thanks again.
 
Ive read up on step mashing and want to do a 104/148/154* schedule to get everything i can from these grains.
thanks again.

Sure, you can do that. I have seen recommendations for 104/140/158 - but that will give you a more fermentable wort.

From How to Brew
A popular multi-rest mash schedule is the 40°C - 60°C - 70°C (104 - 140 - 158°F) mash, using a half hour rest at each temperature, first advocated for homebrewers by George Fix. This mash schedule produces high yields and good fermentability.

If your goal is a very thick, chewy beer, I think a single infusion at 154 would work fine. Never had the Dark Lord, but I understand that it is almost like syrup.
 
You want the most fermentable wort possible when brewing a beer this big. The yeast will likely quit before all of the fermentables are gone, leaving the big body and mouthfeel you desire.
 
just at a glance i would do a protein rest for 20 at 122/135 then a 60 minute at ~155.

I think beer has a better head with a rest at 130 ish, but with wheat there that's not a problem.

Just in my opinion.
 
You brewed this yet? I'm planning to do something like this soon, I used the Chupacabra and some other "Dark Lord Clones" as a starting point for the recipe and then modified it around a bit before I felt happy with it.
 
Back
Top