Imperial Stout Recipe

Hello! I've lurked here for a while, and decided that its time to post. This is a recipe I'm working on for an imperial stout, I was wondering if you guys could give me a critique.

3 gallon batch 4 gallon pre-boil
OG 1.108
IBU 64
SRM 40+

9 lbs pale 2-row
1.5 lbs caramel 60
.45 lbs black malt
.6 lbs chocolate malt
.5 lbs toasted flaked oats
infusion mash at *154 for and hour then *172 for mashout

1 oz northern brewer 60 min
1 oz east kent goldings 30 min
1 oz east kent goldings 10 min


I basically took a clone recipe for slow elk oatmeal stout, and doubled the fermentables while bumping up the dark malts a little. Please let me know what you think, cheers!

Looks really delicious! The only change I might make, would be to bring the black malt down a smidge, but that's just my personal preference. Also, the IBUs are a little more than I like in a stout, but I think it will turn out great the way it is!

Im thinking that with the expected high FG it will round out the bitterness... hopefully. I dont mind a hoppy beer, and with 6 months aging 60 IBUs shouldnt be that harsh should it?

brooksy said:

Im thinking that with the expected high FG it will round out the bitterness... hopefully. I dont mind a hoppy beer, and with 6 months aging 60 IBUs shouldnt be that harsh should it?

Click to expand...

I think that should be great.

Cool. This will be the longest fermentation I have done yet, so I dont want to eff it up.

I retract my previous statement. Aging for six months should make that beer very well rounded. I usually primary for a month and age in the keg for two weeks on the stout I normally brew.

In six months you should mail me a bomber of that.

That recipe is going into my queue for this spring.

Hellz yez. My only experience with drinking imperial stout is from laughing dog brewery, they bourbon barrel aged it for 6 months, and I couldn't get enough of it! If the recipe doesnt need to much fiddling then I think I'll do some bourbon oak chips for the next batch!

What yeast are you using?

I'm planning to try it with 1056 with nice hefty starter. Ive heard it doesn't mind being above 10% abv if you pitch well and oxygenate. If I get the recipe down good I might experiment with some English strains, maybe see if I can push some wlp002 to get me 10-11%. May or June will be my brew day for this, so it will be nice and aged for x-mas 2012!

You could mash lower, 150 - 152 F with that huge OG and still end up with a beer that finishes high >1.020. Mashing at 154 F may result in a cloyingly sweet beer. The 6 months of aging isn't going to do anything to FG of the beer, after a few weeks in the primary its going to hit the FG. The aging will help round the beer (which will be awesome if you handle the fermentation well).

Cool, I was only thinking 154 because I always tend to hit the higher end of attenuation (sometimes higher).

Well I brewed it this Saturday with some adjustments. I decided I need 5 gallons, not 3, so I did a double mash.

The revised grain bill...

20lbs Pale 2 row
1lbs caramel 80
.8lbs chocolate malt
.5lbs black malt
.6lbs debittered black malt
1lbs toasted flaked oats

1oz northern brewer 90min
1oz williamette 90min
1oz goldings 60min
1oz goldings 15min
1oz goldings 5min

Pitched a shabby looking pack of 1056 that I has been starter-ing since Monday.


My OG was 1.095, airlock activity started about 3 hours after pitching. I kept the carboy in my Styrofoam cooler with some ice packs, its been 65 since Saturday. Yesterday the fermentation stared to visibly slow, and seems to be at a whisper today, so I check the hydrometer.... 1.022, damn thats 9.5%! I was all worried about low attenuation and poor yeast health. I hope it doesnt chew through muck more because its already drier then I had hoped for, right now it hardly even tastes green, and it hardly has ANY worming alcohol feel. So I guess it is a success so far. Everything I was afraid of with a big beer feels like boogeymen under the bed.