Imperial Stout Questions

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.

Moos

New Member
Joined
Feb 14, 2009
Messages
4
Reaction score
0
Looking for the Imperial stout experts out there! Here is my first imperial stout that i have tried. I have a few questions on the next few steps. I bought a kit at my local beer store (the beernut) and contains the following.

a bag of "specialty grains" (steeped in 155 degree water before boil.)
3lb of Briess DME
6lbs of coopers LME

2 oz chinook hops, 1 at 60 min, and 1 at 30 min of boil.

and i used WLP007 (dry english ale yeast) in a starter.

Gravity was 1.073

I brewed this on april 5 2009 and moved it into the secondary on april 26th.

it has been sitting in my basement since in the secondary, today's date is Sept 12th. so about 5 months.

To sum my story up I'm ready to bottle this sucker and my question is what do i need to do to get it to carbonate? Should i just throw it in the bottles and wait? I have never had to add yeast at time of bottling and is this something that needs to be done with imperial stouts? or is there still enough in there to get the job done. I plan on leaving it in the bottles for min a month and probably longer. Also if I do need to add yeast, what's the best kind to use and how exactly do i go about that being ive never done it before.

This is my 8th batch of beer but my first stout.

Thanks in advance.
 
I made a kit Imperial Stout when my son was home on leave last Christmas and I did not bottle it. I kegged it and made the mistake of tapping it way to early. Initial flavor, body, aroma and color were great, but it had a chemical finish to it that I could not put my finger on.

I removed it from my fridge released the pressure on the keg to 5psi and put it away for a few months now to allow it to age. I plan to re-pressurize the keg and get it back down in temp. soon.

I am sorry I can't help with your bottling question, though I am sure someone wll come along and provide the answers you need.

Salute!
 
I've never read anything on here about anyone adding yeast at bottling to carbonate. It takes very few yeast cells to start fermentation. I mean, with a beer this big you're probably going to let it bottle condition for 4-6 weeks I presume? I don't speak from experience, but from a purely scientific point of view you shouldn't have to add more yeast. Just racking it to your bottling bucket will probably stir up enough yeast cells to carb ok.
 
That was what I was thinking too, I just wanted to hear from someone that was successfull doing it before i give it a try. Dont want to throw away that much time on a beer and have it be flat.
 
Ive never had a problem with anything under 11% carbing. just takes about 4-6 weeks.

my 999 tok about 6 months but that was 15%
 
Back
Top