First recipe: Belgian Imperial Stout

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lwcm

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Hey all,

Long time lurker and first time poster. I am new to the hobby and have one brew that I'll be bottling this weekend (Brewferm Abdji). One of the reasons I got into brewing was to brew up a Belgian Imperial Stout similar to Weyerbacher Brewery's Tiny. My two favorite styles are Belgians and RIS's so it's like they had a tasty 11.5% ABV baby :). Anywho, I had an idea for a recipe that I wanted to run past the MUCH more experienced eyes here.

Extract recipe:

Fermentables:
12 lbs dark malt syrup
2 lbs Dark candi sugar

Specialty grains:
0.5 lbs Simpson's Roasted Barley
0.5 lbs Simpson's Black Malt
0.5 lbs Simpson's Chocolate

Hops
2 oz Summit (1.75 oz 60 min, 0.25 oz 0 min)
2 oz Cascade (0 min)

Yeast:
Wyeast 1388 Belgian Strong Ale

My (limited) understanding is that the Belgian 'taste' comes from primarily the yeast and secondarily from the candi sugar. So I basically yanked the Imperial Stout recipe from Northern Brewer and substituted a Belgian yeast and added candi sugar. Is this a gross over simplification?

I look forward to any and all comments......unless they are extolling the virtues of all grain or partial mash over extract brewing. That's in the cards but not feasible with our small apartment kitchen at the moment.

Thanks in advance!
 
Did you substitute the candi sugar for LME? Or just add it to the recipe? If the RIS recipe calls for 12# of LME I would probably do 10# LME and then 2# of candi syrup rather than just adding the candi syrup. Then again I don't really know what I'm doing, so that could be bad advice.

I say go for it. Either way you definitely want to do a yeast starter or use 2-3 smack packs (or more?) for a beer that big.
 
I added the candi sugar to the recipe. I figured that the combination of the sugar and the belgian yeast would give the belgian-y flavor to the already present RIS flavor. I could be VERY wrong though :). I also thought that the extra sugar to munch on would add some kick.

On reading some other RIS recipes I was wondering about adding other stuff like licorice or dark chocolate to the brew....
 
Did you substitute the candi sugar for LME? Or just add it to the recipe? If the RIS recipe calls for 12# of LME I would probably do 10# LME and then 2# of candi syrup rather than just adding the candi syrup. Then again I don't really know what I'm doing, so that could be bad advice.

I say go for it. Either way you definitely want to do a yeast starter or use 2-3 smack packs (or more?) for a beer that big.

First thing I thought...good resource http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html for your pitching rate calculations.
 
Brewed this yesterday with two alterations to the recipe:

1 lb of dark candi sugar (thought i had two but found out I was wrong as the boil was going....oops)

Instead of Wyeast Belgian Strong I used their Trappist High Gravity, I also made a yeast starter for this big ole beer.

A bit over 24 hours later and it's bubbling right along. I rigged a blowoff tube at the outset and I'm glad that I did. A 2 quart pitcher half full of water resting inside my 4 gallon brew kettle to make SURE no beer escaped onto the floor.

I'm planning on following the instructions for timeline on the NB kit that I have adulterated so I'm looking at one month primary, 2-3 months secondary and 4 weeks bottle conditioning. So.....i'll find out in a WHILE if i screwed this up or not. OG was 1.100 so this should be a butt kicker of a beer when it's all done.
 
Still waiting to find out Chess. I transferred it to secondary right on the one month mark during a VERY busy brew day (transfer to secondary, brew and pitch another batch on the cake, and bottle a batch, oy) and it's been in secondary every since. I have about one good day a week that I can use for brewing activities....and anything else that crops up. So, much has cropped up and it's been secondary-ing for over 4 months.

When I changed the airlock out I took a reading and as of 2ish months ago it's sitting around 13.5% abv. I plan on bottling on Monday (fingers crossed) and tasting my first bottle in a month. It smells AWESOME.
 
Nice! I'm hoping to get started on mine pretty soon so it'll be ready in time for winter. What gravity was yours at when you checked? I'm trying to decide whether to use any simple sugar or not, I don't think I want it to ferment TOO dry with all the roastyness.
 
Bottled the batch today in 22oz bombers and a six pack of 12oz. This was my first time with the bigger bottles and I LOVE bottling in bombers! Cut my time waaaaay down. Which given that they are almost 2x the volume as regular bottles isn't surprising :).

OG 1.100 FG 1.010 so that's an ABV of 11.7% Flat it tasted yummy, alcohol had mellowed, roast was there but subdued, a tad dry.

In hindsight I freaked out a bit prematurely during the brew day. First gravity reading when it landed in the carboy was around 1.250-1.300 (can't remember but it was a BIG number) and the potential alcohol scale on my hydrometer was reading in the 15-20% potential alcohol range. This being my second brew I freaked and started to dillute it out till I got to the 1.100 number. AND I didn't save the wort either......poured some down the sink in my attempt to dillute. Yeah....dumb.

So I'm going to try this again and leave the wort the heck alone :). I am pondering adding 0.25-0.50 lb of Special B for another layer of complexity. But I may just brew it straight.
 
Belgian Stouts are a pretty rare breed. I have a batch I'm aging right now in an attempt to make a beer approaching Jolly Pumpkin Madrugada Obscura.

Here's the link to The Brewing Network recipe from CYBI: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/can-you-brew-recipe-jolly-pumpkin-madrugada-obscura-177964/

The sour/wild flavor isn't what you were mentioning, but the recipe might be a little closer to what you might consider. I do like the discussion of the recipe formulation during the actual interview when the "kitchen sink" type approach is discussed for this beer. It's definitely worth a listen.

Also, you might want to consider starting your recipe with light malt extract and then getting your color and flavor from dark steeping grains. This will give you some more control of the product than beginning with a dark extract.
 
Bottled two weeks ago and cracked the first tester today. Carbed up rather nicely for the short time with a small layer of foam across the top. Tastewise....I realize that I'm crap with taste descriptions. It's tasty but lacks the depth of flavor that I wanted.
 
I'm definitely going to give this one some time. It's been 5 months and two (almost 3) weeks and I got impatient :). With an abv this high I'm expecting it to need some bottle time to settle out. I think that I may try going the other way in my quest and start with a belgian dark strong ale and add some stout-y stuff. I'm trying to make a clone (or close) of Weyebacher's Tiny.
 
Holding area for my first attempt at a dubble... which in no way shape or form was a dubble,,, it is most definatly a stout... I will post later.
 
Tried another 12 oz test bottle last night.....yum. While it lacks the deep richness of my favorite BIS (Weyerbacher's Tiny) it is tasty. Next time I'm NOT freaking out over the OG and dumping wort (which I still kick myself for on occasion). There is a definite lack of layered bitterness and sweetness from the roasted malts and unfermented sugars (because I dumped wort like a moron) it tastes very similar to my simple black ale but with a slight belgian-y character to it. What was the surprise was the utter lack of alcohol bite. The 11.8% abv lurks beneath the surface of this smooth sipper like a dark kracken and you don't notice the hit....until you stand up :). I may very well sub out some of the standard stout grains like the chocolate or black malt (or both) with something more Belgian like Special B. And see if that works to give me the richness that I was looking for. Stay tuned :)
 
Sounds good, and my RIS (although still young in bottles) hidesthe alcohol greatly. About the same a yours. I've read special b will add dark fruit/ plums tastes. Which I know a lot of RIS have.
 
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