Imperial Stout Dark Night of the Soul Russian Imperial Stout

I just brewed a 5 gallon batch of this today. This was my first endeavor into high gravity brewing.

Filled my 10 gallon MLT to the brim with the mash. I ended up mashing at 150. I double batch sparged and had about 8 gallons to boil. I boiled for an extra hour for evaporation, but it wasn't enough. I was shooting for 5 gallons of 1.128 OG wort and ended up with 5.75 gallons at 1.108. So, my efficiency (72.5%) was pretty close to my target (75%) according to BeerSmith, but I needed to boil for longer.

I'm using WLP99 Super High Gravity yeast, but I guess that'll be overkill now that my gravity will only get me to around 11.25% alcohol if I'm lucky.

Anyway, I just thought I'd share. Today's lesson: Get some volume markings on the brew kettle. I'll let everyone know how it turns out in around a year or so.

After getting a new hydrometer today I measured my gravity from a left out sample to be 1.122ish (I know it was 1.12 something). I'm thinking about dumping an additional pound of DME in a couple days after the fermentation has had a chance to go at it a while. I think my huge half gallon starter helped a bunch as well as seriously aerating the wort. I set up for blowoff but didn't need it. I will switch to a regular air lock when I add the additional wort in a couple days.

Ooh and by the way broken hydrometer on sunday, and I broke the new one after making a measurement of my graff FG soon after the stout. Goddamn I'm so pissed at these frangible glass tubes I ordered a refractometer with ATC. I'm still going to get a damn hydrometer but I hate them!

Also as I was walking around the brew store picking up my new (now broken) hydrometer, I spyed toasted oak chips. I thought as an additional twist on the recipe I'd throw some of these in for a few days before bottling. Yay or Nay on the oak chips (medium roast).

I retract my statement about not needing the blow off. My jug the tube is dipped in now looks like an amber beer. I think I'll swap it to a regular vapor lock tonight so it can breath easier. Everything is going smoothly for my first super high gravity brew. Thanks for the recipe!

Keep us posted, but I do expect it will be a while before this batch is at its prime. I really hope you like it!

I'll taste some on my birthday in Sept then again try some during christmas 2010. I might make a second batch real soon and throw oak chips in the secondary to compare the two.

I'm going to make this bad boy as well.

But which is better:

1.) Aging in the bottle for a long time
2.) Aging in the secondary fermenter for a long time

Thanks.

both 1234567

My God this is one sexy recipe. Must BREW!! Ill have to 5 gallon it though.

Also remember Old Rasputin RIS goes from grain to bottle in 2 weeks. So this one would be a great beer to bottle and try at various increments.

Has anyone that made this have to repitch at the end? I didn't keep my temps up high enough and I'm not sure my yeast will take it down enough. I used WLP001 which has a high alcohol tolerance but I'm just below the ideal temps. I checked the other day been fermenting for two weeks and I'm at 1.045 does that sound about right? I have a vial of 001 in the fridge and easy access to more(needed for two other recipessoon).

I'm in the same boat right now. Fermentation stuck at around 1.042. I warmed the carboy up to around 74 degrees and shook it up a bit, but that didn't help.

I repitched with a couple packets of wine yeast three days ago because that's just what I had on hand, but that doesn't seem to be doing anything either.

I'm not sure where to go from here. I clearly can't bottle with the gravity this high, but I don't know how to get it down. My last resort may be to brew another batch of beer with some high gravity yeast just so I can pitch this onto the cake.

I just picked up another vial of wlp001 in case. However for now I just threw some yeast nutrient in the fermenter and shook it up a bit. Hopefully that does the trick I'll see when I get home from work tonight.

I'll repost in here later tonight if I see some more air lock activity due to the yeast nutrient.

Okay I just went up and checked. More air lock activity is present after addition of yeast nutrient. I'll reserve the vial of wlp001 for some other time.

Bayes2112 said:

I'm in the same boat right now. Fermentation stuck at around 1.042. I warmed the carboy up to around 74 degrees and shook it up a bit, but that didn't help.

I repitched with a couple packets of wine yeast three days ago because that's just what I had on hand, but that doesn't seem to be doing anything either.

I'm not sure where to go from here. I clearly can't bottle with the gravity this high, but I don't know how to get it down. My last resort may be to brew another batch of beer with some high gravity yeast just so I can pitch this onto the cake.

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try beno too...... but ive had this happen too

where are you guys getting the roasted rye? or are you roasting it yourselves?

I roasted my own. http://oz.craftbrewer.org/Library/Methods/Sanders/roasting.shtml I sort of loosely followed some of their guidance. Try just a small palm full first though before attempting the whole batch.

smokinghole said:

I roasted my own. http://oz.craftbrewer.org/Library/Methods/Sanders/roasting.shtml I sort of loosely followed some of their guidance. Try just a small palm full first though before attempting the whole batch.

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cool thanks

mb2696 said:

where are you guys getting the roasted rye? or are you roasting it yourselves?

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Roasted Rye

I'm pretty sure this is the same thing...but the home roasting idea is really cool.

Damn I should have roasted mine more than I did. Oh well. The beer is dark any way but I might have lost some flavor by not roasting it enough.

Apendecto said:

Roasted Rye
I'm pretty sure this is the same thing...but the home roasting idea is really cool.

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I did see the chocolate rye but wasn't sure if it was the same thing since it's 200-300L and brewpastors lists his as 95L

Okay I have mine stuck at 1.032ish. I'm going to throw a vial of yeast in there to try and bring it down some more. I found out my water heater is on my second floor today so I took off the access panel to add a little bit of additional warmth to the closet I have my fermenters in. My house typically stays at 65 or a bit lower so I figure exposing the water heater to the closet space and keeping the doors closed will bring it closer to 70.

I think the next time I do this I either need to watch temps more closely and or use the high gravity ale yeast. I got mine down to 1.032ish and it wouldn't move anymore. I thought about making a champagne starter but decided it was close enough to 1.030 which is with in standards for a stout. I ended up at 12.1% ABV.

I was thinking about tossing the wort from this right on a yeast cake from a 1.044, 40-60 IBU (I'm getting different numbers from different sources).

I know both OG and IBU's have an effect on how well the yeast attenuates. So is this a good idea? Bad idea? Am I over pitching?

Recipe for the "starter"

7lbs LME
1/2lbs Carapils
1/2lbs Crystal 10L

1.5oz Cascade (7.5 AA) at 20mins
1.5oz Cascade (7.5 AA) at 10mins
1.5oz Cascade (7.5 AA) at 5mins
1.5oz Cascade (7.5 AA) Dry Hopped

Thanks.

With a recipe like this I don't think you can really over pitch. I would wash the yeast and throw the washed yeasties in to negate any effects of the hops in the trub.

Apendecto, I pitched onto the yeast cake of Rhoobarb's Damned Kids Oatmeal Stout, and it turned out wonderfully. Didn't even wash it first.

eulipion2 said:

Apendecto, I pitched onto the yeast cake of Rhoobarb's Damned Kids Oatmeal Stout, and it turned out wonderfully. Didn't even wash it first.

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Cool. One less step for me. Plus, do you really think you could taste any off flavors from the first batch in this motor oil?

I'm excited...


...for sometime next year.

Thanks!

PS How the the FG come out? Did you do anything sneaky to squeeze out a few points?

Apendecto said:

do you really think you could taste any off flavors from the first batch in this motor oil?

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I could taste a hint of "plastic bucket" due to siphoning issues that caused me to try and just save the batch without regard for sanitation. Could also have been brought out with a lot of roast, maybe.

Apendecto said:

PS How the the FG come out? Did you do anything sneaky to squeeze out a few points?

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F.G. was 1.024. Didn't do anything special, just had a nice big yeast cake.

i'll be brewing this in a month or two, after i run out of propane. with the amount of water that i need to heat up and at least a 2 hour boil time, i'm afraid of running out.
i'm trying to figure out the math for batch sparging. i figure i have enough water for a single batch sparge of 3.25 gal. will that be enough for the 23.5 lb grain bill? i havn't done a high gravity beer like this before. i suppose i could put a paper plate on the grain bed and do a "hybrid sparge" lol.
i'm guessing that i won't be able to hit 75% with my normal ag methods...

Just a quick question for you guys who are more experienced at recipe formulations than me. For whatever reason, when I was clicking "buy" at my homebrew store, I bought Pilsner malt instead of Pale malt. Should this change the character of the beer too much? Due to availability, I am also substituting Magnum hops (12.5%) for the Columbus as I couldn't get any here in France. I've also got some smaller substitutions on the C120/C150 and special B. I figure I'll adjust the quantities in Beersmith to keep the colors and gravity right and it should be good, right? : )

My only real worries are the Pilsner malt and the hops. I just started brewing with grain, so I have no idea what that will do. And, I have never done hop substitutions, so I'm new to that at well. Probably everyone will say DWHAHB...at least I'm hoping. The more beer I brew, the more I find it doesn't matter.

2-0turbo said:

Just a quick question for you guys who are more experienced at recipe formulations than me. For whatever reason, when I was clicking "buy" at my homebrew store, I bought Pilsner malt instead of Pale malt. Should this change the character of the beer too much? Due to availability, I am also substituting Magnum hops (12.5%) for the Columbus as I couldn't get any here in France. I've also got some smaller substitutions on the C120/C150 and special B. I figure I'll adjust the quantities in Beersmith to keep the colors and gravity right and it should be good, right? : )

My only real worries are the Pilsner malt and the hops. I just started brewing with grain, so I have no idea what that will do. And, I have never done hop substitutions, so I'm new to that at well. Probably everyone will say DWHAHB...at least I'm hoping. The more beer I brew, the more I find it doesn't matter.

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I can't help you with the grain, but I don't think the hops will matter too much. I've heard people say if the hops are just for bittering, you can use just about anything if you keep your IBUs the same. Then again, what do I know?

Apendecto said:

I can't help you with the grain, but I don't think the hops will matter too much. I've heard people say if the hops are just for bittering, you can use just about anything if you keep your IBUs the same. Then again, what do I know?

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I don't know, I only have 9-more posts than you--you might have been doing this for years! : ) I looked at some other recipes and plenty of other recipes use Pilsner as the base and then add color with some of the darker malts. When I made the change in Beersmith, the color changed from like 48.8 to 47.9. I'm going to be making a bunch of other minor tweaks with the Crystal and the chocolate, so I'll have to tweak some other things. I'm sure it will turn out dark, bitter and alcoholic. Aged for a year, it should be perfection!

I think youll be fine, there is a difference.... but in this kind of beer, the vienna vs pale malt wont be noticable!

Apendecto said:

I can't help you with the grain, but I don't think the hops will matter too much. I've heard people say if the hops are just for bittering, you can use just about anything if you keep your IBUs the same. Then again, what do I know?

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With high alpha acid hops I'd agree with this, especially with the 9-12 month wait on it. If you are trying to do a lot of bittering with low AA hops you can end up with a 'grassy' taste from the huge mass of green stuff you'd need...

So I took a stab at this beer this weekend. I scaled it to a 3-gallon batch as I'm not sure how it will turn out and I'm leaving Paris for the USA next year and can't take any alcohol with me. So, with a year to age, I don't want to be giving away a ton of beer before I go.

I hope it works out well. I am quite new to brewing to be honest, this being only my 7th batch. My OG was 1.116, a bit lower than I was hoping. Color seems right and it is definitely bitter! : ) The wort is good to go, I'm just hoping I can get it to ferment out. I'm using a Wyeast XL 1272 that I pitched a couple days ago into a 2.5 liter starter. Today, I decanted off about 1-liter and then pitched the remaining 1.5 liters into my wort. 4-hours later and it is going crazy. I did 3 or 4, 1-minute vigorous shaking episodes with my fermenter and used some yeast nutrient at the end of the boil. I think the only thing I could have done is oxygenated the wort more, but I don't have the equipment right now.

I'll link to my blog once I get the pictures uploaded. I think I'll shoot a video of the fermentation tomorrow as it is one of the more vigorous fermentations I've seen. As a bonus, I didn't do any sparge. Well, I started and realized my grain didn't soak up as much water as I thought, so I didn't sparge. But, I did sparge the grain into another vessel and ended up with about 5-liters of 1.070 wort (off the runnings!) So, I diluted it down to about 1.030, boiled it for 20-minutes and threw some hops in and ended up with about 9-liters of "bonus" beer that I threw some S-05 on. It is already bubbling too.

I'll post updates.

I shot just a short video of my 3-gallon batch fermenting today. This is 24-hours after pitching. It doesn't look so black in the fermenter because all the trub is stirred up. But, before I pitched and the beer was still, it is quite black--or even devoid of light...

UPDATE: My RIS has been slowly winding down. Still bubbling a little, mabye once or twice every minute--no Krausen. So, I decided to pull a sample today and see how things are going after being in the fermenter for 2-weeks.

F.G. - 1.026

Excellent! I was a little worried that the yeast wouldn't go that high, but it appears that the nice big starter did its thing. According to my calcs, this works out to about 11.8% ABV, which is a bit lower than it was supposed to be, but a pretty good effort.

The taste is good. It still has some bitter aftertaste that will need to mellow, but it tastes pretty good. I'm happy.

Update: After 3-weeks, it is still slowly bubbling away. Much slower now, but still here and there. I very optimistic that I'm over 12% alcohol based on my last reading. I'll probably let it sit a total of 4-6 weeks on the primary yeast cake and then transfer to the secondary for extended aging. The time it takes to make this is so long, I might have to just start another batch going before I even see how this one turns out.

Still haven't updated the blog. Probably this week.

I'm thinking about doing another batch myself. That way I can have it aged for somewhere around 18 months for christmas 2011.

I need to transfer mine off the lees this week and take a new reading too. How long have you all been leaving this in secondary? I was thinking 6 weeks +/-....

Mike.

If I had enough fermenters I'd leave mine for 6ish weeks. However I have two better bottles, and a bucket. I'm working on more but the wife keeps me down.