Imperial Stout Dark Night of the Soul Russian Imperial Stout

How long would you recommend aging this beer? I brewed in early May and bottled 3 months ago. The heavy alcohol is starting to relax and the flavors are blending so nice. The only issue is that every bottle I've opened has instantly become a geyser. I generally keg my beer, so I have little bottling experience. The beer doesnt taste over carbonated, but it just gushes everywhere. I literally lose 1/2 of each bottle. I made a 5 gallon batch and primed with 1/2 cup of corn sugar dissolved in water.

I'm hoping that aging will help with the gushing issues. Any help is greatly appreciated. This recipe is phenomenal!

glad this thread is still going. i've been trying to remember what the beer was called, since i'm going to brew it

You should age at least a year for the flavors to be best. High alcohol needs time to mellow. As for the gushers...look at this: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/gushers-what-do-i-do-now-188170/

Thanks for the info. I hope I don't have the gusher bug, that would be a shame to spend all this time and waiting to have gushers, but I'll just have to deal. Thanks for the link, i'll give one of those ideas a try.

Just made this on Saturday in 5 gallon format. This was my first ever beer I brewed, it went really well (I figured jump in deep). Actually got 70% efficiency for my first time so I was stoked. Tasted amazing (we drank the gravity readings). It's been bubbling like mad since then.
Also did a Parti Gyle on a third runnings so as to maximize the high grain bill...added some fermentables to bring up the gravity.
Thanks BrewPastor for creating this recipe it was so much fun to make!

I plan on brewing a 5 gallon chocolate chili version of this next week. Any ideas on the cocoa, ancho chili combination for a beer like this? I was thinking 6oz of nibs and 4 dried anchos in secondary for a subtle flavor. I plan on keeping this in secondary for 3 months or so. Will it be ok for it to sit on the cocoa and chiles for that long? Ive never made a chocolate chili beer, and everything I research is for a much smaller stout than this.

So I made this recipe about 14 months ago. I finally cracked it open and tried it out. It seems very....sweet? I checked the FG 3 different times, with both a refractometer and hydrometer, and they were both at 1.020 exactly. Maybe thats normal, but I really wasnt expecting that. Anyone have any insight? Thanks!

BrewNinja1 said:

So I made this recipe about 14 months ago. I finally cracked it open and tried it out. It seems very....sweet? I checked the FG 3 different times, with both a refractometer and hydrometer, and they were both at 1.020 exactly. Maybe thats normal, but I really wasnt expecting that. Anyone have any insight? Thanks!

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You've got to take into consideration that the high level of alcohol is making the FG deceptive. 1.020 for a 1.110 brew is not the same as 1.020 for a beer that had a SG of 1.050. In other words because alcohol has a much lower gravity than water, the more of it you have the more it throws off the whole FG measurement

That's the whole apparent vs real extract issue. Anyhow I've taken this recipe and sort of morphed it into my own with additional roast and other grains.

Brewed this on the 29th. Efficiency was crap and OG was 1.112. Made a 1 gallon starter of WLP090 and yesterday, the 4th it was at 1.022. Nice strong fermentation but didn't even need a blow off tube. I will bulk age this for 6 months and then bottle. Won't crack any open until Dec 21 as this is my Mayan End of The World brew. I also added chocolate and chipotle powder so we shall see how this turns out.

Is there a partial mash version that is out there and well tested? I keyword searched this and found one.

I'm brewing a 2.5 gal batch of this Friday. With a 6.5 gal fermenter, do I need to look into getting a blow off tube set up?

Man, I still haven't had the balls to brew this yet. I plan to brew a few different recipes from the forums here at the same time. This is definitely going to happen though!

Anyone have any of their brew left that's been aged for over a year? Tasting notes for an aged version would be well appreciated.

This thread is a blast from the past.

I have some from two years ago that was a slight tweak. I think I removed the Special B and added dark jaggery sugar. Anyhow at two years it is lacking a strong roast backbone that I like. I used this recipe as an inspiration to brew other stupid big imperial stouts. My recipes have eventually evolved to include more roast and no caramel/crystal malts. The two year old beer is very port like with strong cooked plum flavors and some bitterness. The best way I can describe it is as a roasty black port really except with a little carbonation. It's very good and you should give the recipe a shot. At least chocolate rye is much more common now compared to when I first brewed this recipe. I couldn't find the chocolate rye so I had to use plain rye and I upped the chocolate malt. The second time I ended up ordering online. Now my local carries both chocolate rye and cararye.

sfrisby said:

This thread is a blast from the past.

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And this brew should never have been allowed to sit for nearly a year without comment! This one, and Rhoobarb's Damned Kids Oatmeal Stout are THE two best stouts I've ever brewed, yet they're being forgotten.

As for aging this beer, fresh it's intensely bitter, bordering on undrinkable to all but the stoutest D) of hop heads. After two years it smooths out and despite being between 11-14% ABV is very drinkable. Dangerously so.

I haven't been able to brew this since switching to BIAB, but as my signature suggests, I hope to do it soon.

eulipion2 said:

And this brew should never have been allowed to sit for nearly a year without comment!

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True

Ok obviously I am a total newb at this.... I have made a couple All grain brews but NOTHING as awesome as this... I have a 10 gallon beverage cooler converted to a mash tun.... I will only be doing a 5 gallon batch of this. CAN IT FIT?!?!?! My educated guess and heart tells me no!

But if it won't fit is there a partial mash route or any suggestions?!?!?!
P.S. I am so down with this recipe it hurts

You should be able to fit 24lbs in a 10 gallon tun. I've fit 36lbs in a 13 gal tun but I was mashing at .9qts per lb. So I don't see why it wouldn't fit you'll just have to mash thicker and have more sparge water ready.

Wow, just kegged my first batch of this and it's great straight from the fermentor (i am a hop head). Not sure i can wait to age this, i'll have to make more.

Btw, i used roasted rye, not roasted malted rye or chocolate rye (which is malted). Roasted rye is incredibly hard to find, MFB makes it, but i had to buy a 50lb sack of it from a brewery. Weyerman makes it too but i couldn't find anyone who'd order/sell me any. Please help me find ways to use up 47.5lbs!

Here's what I did for tweaking the recipe:

Brewed on: August 31st, 2013
Yeast: WLP090, then WLP099
Yeast Starter: HUGE – 3 vial stepped up 3 times to 1 gallon, then 3 gallon, then 6 gallon
Batch Size (Gallons): 15
My Original Gravity: 1.127 (missed the mark by 5 points)
Final Target Gravity: 1.020
Boiling Time (Minutes): 3 hours (I must have over sparged by 5 gallons by accident, ended up having to boil off for 3 additional hours, but amazing efficiency because of this)
Color: void of light
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 1 week
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 4 weeks
Total Grain (Lbs): 91

Ended up with 18 gallons instead of 15 gallons because of the sparging mistake (oh wells :-D).


Grain/Extract/Sugar
% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
75.00 lbs. Maris Otter
5 lbs. Roasted Rye France
4 lbs. Chocolate Malt Belgium
4 lbs. Crystal 150L Great Britain
3 lbs. Special B Malt Belgian

Hops
18.00 oz. Columbus Pellet 60 min.

I mashed at 145-150 for 90 minutes

So here’s the deal…I initially fermented with WLP090, then pitched another huge starter of WLP099 a week later. My primary is a 27 gallon conical, so blow off was not an issue. After about 3-4 weeks I drained out the conical into 3 x 6 gallon carboys to free it up for other beers. My conical sits in a room that is at a steady 64 degrees year round. Once I dumped into carboys, I let them sit for about a month in the same room at 64 degrees. About a month ago (2 month mark or so) I checked the gravity and it was at 1.049, so I put them into a different room that is around 70 degrees. They’ve been there ever since. I will be checking the gravity soon to see where it’s at. If it’s still a bit high, then I’ll probably dump all 3 back into the conical and repitch a huge starter of WLP099 again, but this time move the conical into the 70 degree room.

Long story short, once I get down to final gravity I will keep the batch separated into three carboys.
First carboy: Bourbon soaked oak chip infusion
Second carboy: Coffee bean infusion
Third carboy: Dry hop with at least a half a pound of hops

Once this finally all happens, I’ll post again to let you know the results. I’ll also post updates…maybe I’ll check the gravity this weekend if I make the time.

Resurrecting this one. I brewed this a long time ago, and I'm looking to do it again this coming fall (I like to plan ahead). I now have a kegging setup, so I'm wondering, bottle or keg? I will say this beer developed beautifully in the bottle over about two years. Will it develop similarly in a keg?

Kegging:
Pros - less hassle carbonating, no bottling!
Cons - less flavor development over time(?), ties up a keg for a while

Bottling:
Pros - better flavor development over time(?)
Cons - yeast may have difficult time carbonating

Thoughts?

Why not force carb then bottle? I do this with my big stouts. A beer gun was worth the price to me, big time.

Sent from my C771 using Home Brew mobile app

smokinghole said:

Why not force carb then bottle? I do this with my big stouts. A beer gun was worth the price to me, big time.

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Also an option, but I'm wondering whether the beer will mature as well without the yeast as it did with the yeast in the bottle.

Has anyone brewed both this and Kate the Great clone? KTG is aged on bourbon soaked oak. This has much higher IBUs. What would be some other differences? I want to start doing some 2.5 gallon batches of big beers and an RIS will be one of the first.

OK, I did finally get it down to 1.020. The bourbon soaked oak chip version of this is delicious! It did take about 10-12 months of sitting for this beer to smooth out a bit. I can't wait to see what it tastes like in another year or so. I just brewed this a second time, but lowered the gravity a bit so it'll "only" end up being 15% or so compared to the 17% that the last batch ended up being. Overall I am very pleased with how this turned out, but you won't like this beer if you aren't into huge beers.

Finally re-brewing this one (it's only been about six years) and doing it BIAB. Mash is THICK! It's like mashing cement!

I'm going to do a 1 gallon BIAB batch of this Saturday 12/20/14, hoping to 2ndary it until next Thanksgiving or Christmas. Will have to decide if I want to add espresso or bourbon and oak.

OGis roughly 1.09, a bit low.

I did mash at 152, which might account for part or most of the 10-20% decrease

ScottyT said:

Holy crap. Sorry for the necropost, but this looks to be pretty epic.

Unfortunately I am stuck doing Extract brews until I get out of my apartment and into a house which will be a year or two.

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Lol what does this even mean? Where there's a will there's a way! I've brewed many 5 and 10 gallon batches AG in my 3 1/2 apartment! Including a 10 gallon with 32lbs of grain!

Is any of you guys who brewed and drank this potion still alive?
Hope you all are, because I have a question to you.

Here I started a thread asking for advice on an extra strong beer, and someone directed me to this post.

As I am in a different country and have to pick out of ingredients I can get access to, I will need to tweak the recipe some.
- No rye here, hence there might be a bit more roasted barley and/or Midnight Wheat Malt.
- Instead of Special B I intend to use a mix of Special W (Weyermann) and Extra Special Malt (Briess). Reason 1: Special B is not to be seen anywhere around; Reason 2: it would anyway be too sweety for the purpose.
- I might as well use half a pound of acidulated malt just to add some hint of sourness into the beer.
- Rather than Columbus, I think I will use Fuggle, 2 ounces, one at 60 and one at 15 mins.

Looking from the height of your experience, what would you say about it?
Thank you!

I recently had a bottle of this. It was a batch from 2010. It sure was tasty.

Man, I was just thinking about this beer the other day. I haven't brewed it in a few years because I just can't (responsibly) get through it fast enough to keep kegs rotating. I think I still have a few bottles from last time, but I haven't opened one in years. Looks like it'll be a liquid lunch tomorrow!

I have 12 bottles left. I try to forget them so they will last. I've promised my sons we will have one on their 21st birthdays. The oldest is almost 19, the younger just hit 17. So we will see if I can hold off that long.

Please let us know how yours tastes.

Brewpastor said:

I have 12 bottles left. I try to forget them so they will last. I've promised my sons we will have one on their 21st birthdays. The oldest is almost 19, the younger just hit 17. So we will see if I can hold off that long.

Please let us know how yours tastes.

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Will do, and welcome back!

Thanks. Its nice to be back.

thanks for reviving this post i was searching for a really good RIS recipe for 2018 christmas and this looks rocking good will be brewing it next month:rockin:

It would seriously be better for Christmas of 2019 or 2020. It's still a bit young at a year old. I've brewed this beer 3 times now. I'll let it sit in the carboy for 18 months, then add a full pound worth of cold pressed Starbucks Sumatra coffee to it, and a full pound of cocoa nibs...then keg 2-3 days later. It is BLISS.

I'm not saying it won't be good at 12 months, I'm just saying it hasn't hit it's prime at that age yet.

would San Diego Super Yeast work well with this or does it need an english stain?

I use WLP 090, then after 1 week I add WLP 099.

I do big starters of both.