21st B-Day Brew

Sunday morning, my wife gave birth to our first baby, a 5lb 1oz boy. I had toyed with the idea and now I decided that I want to do it - I want to brew a Russian Imperial Stout to age until he turns 21. After brewing the 8-8-8 RIS, although I'm sure my results were different than most, I'd like to use that base for my recipe. My current idea is to make it darker, sweeter & less roasty (than my result), more bitter, and to age on oak and blackberries. If anybody has any ideas to lend, or advice from personal experience I would greatly appreciate it. This will be my first attempt with oak and fruit, but it is about my 30th or 32nd or so AG brew. Thanks!!!

The base 8-8-8 RIS recipe that I brewed (with modified hops if I remember right) is below.

Recipe: 8-8-8 Russian Imperial Stout #23
Brewer: Mark Knowlton
Asst Brewer:
Style: Russian Imperial Stout
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0) Rich dark nutty/roasted beer. Tastes great!

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.25 gal
Boil Size: 7.09 gal
Estimated OG: 1.085 SG
Estimated Color: 53.5 SRM
Estimated IBU: 62.4 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 67.00 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
14.25 lb Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 77.78 %
1.25 lb Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 6.82 %
1.00 lb Special B Malt (145.0 SRM) Grain 5.46 %
0.50 lb Chocolate Wheat Malt (500.0 SRM) Grain 2.73 %
0.33 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 1.80 %
0.33 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 1.80 %
0.33 lb Caramunich Malt (48.0 SRM) Grain 1.80 %
0.33 lb Chocolate Malt (225.0 SRM) Grain 1.80 %
1.50 oz Nugget [13.00 %] (60 min) Hops 57.1 IBU
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (10 min) Hops 5.3 IBU
1.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (0 min) Hops -
0.91 items Chiller (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
1.00 gm Epsom Salt (MgSO4) (Mash 60.0 min) Misc
1.00 tbsp PH 5.2 Stabilizer (Mash 60.0 min) Misc
2.00 gm Baking Soda (Mash 60.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) Yeast-Ale


Mash Schedule: My Mash
Total Grain Weight: 18.32 lb
----------------------------
My Mash
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
15 min Step Add 23.00 qt of water at 145.3 F 135.0 F
60 min Step Decoct 7.47 qt of mash and boil it 154.0 F
10 min Step Add 10.70 qt of water at 211.7 F 170.0 F


Notes:
------
Calculated water in mash for almost entire boil volume, very small sparge. Collect wort in pot on burner, heat to 180-185 and use for sparging when needed. ---- It DID NOT work. stuck sparge and got a little less than first runnings
Transferred 8/10, Transferred to better bottle 9/4
Bottled 11/8, it has been blowing off CO2 for quite some time while in secondary...trub compaction releasing it? --51 bottles

I would wax dip the bottles to try and keep as much out as possible for a 21 year age.

Do you have the self control to not drink a batch for that long? I don't think i do.

Even f it doesn't hold up well to that length of aging, i think it would be pretty cool to know my dad did something like that for me.

wine bottles and wax

Congratulations on the new baby. Damn, I feel old, mine will be 21 in September.

Do you have a wine cellar, or a cool basement that you can keep it in? I think you'll want to keep it at as steady temperature as possible. Not to mention away from light. As mentioned, waxing the bottles would keep out the O2.

It probably wouldn't hurt to purge the bottles with CO2 and use O2 absorbing caps as well.

I wouldn't worry about the IBUs. After that many years, they are going to drop out considerably. I'd hop it big, knowing that it will fade over time. I have a barleywine that is only 6 months old. It was hopped good when it was fresh, but now it's starting to have more and more malt come through to the point where it's almost too sweet. If you plan on agingfor over 20 years, there should be no problem with it being too hoppy. I'd go at least 85 IBU's if not closer to 100 or above.

what about also making a wine? wine's might be a little better to age ya know?

ohh and ps.. congrats

I've never made wine before, I don't think my first try would be able to do a 21 year aging justice. I also thought about making a mead, but I'm not going to for the same reason.

As for the decreasing hop-characteristics with aging, would using more bitter dark malts help with at least a bitter/sweet balance do you think?

Never dipped bottles in wax before, but that would be a terrific idea! Any help on the process?

I do have a basement that stays around 64-65 year-round as far as I can tell...never actually checked with a thermometer.

Will-power is a huge problem with me...I think I'll have to duct tape the cases closed and cover them with something so I can't see em.

Thanks for the suggestions and ideas!

just celebrated my 21st.. stumbled upon this thread and sounded like a great idea (saw a lot of people making meads and aging them for their kid's/relatives for their 21st)

just curious how it turned out... how you decided to bottle these beers, any tastings, etc.

Mead, and a big one at that. Look at beers/mead with a gravity in excess of 1.150.
1.085 is a tiny beer to even consider aging 21 years.
Can we say cardboard?

Maybe if you can bottle in an oxygen free room.

I made a dandelion wine for my newphew the year he was born. He's two and I still haven't even cracked a bottle. I have no idea how it'll turn out since I'd only made a couple of wines at that point and it was my first attempt at anything like a dandelion wine. Wine is easier to make than beer. Waiting is the hard part if you're a wine drinker. I'm not so I don't even sweat waiting a year before I even start cracking open bottles from my last batch. I give most of it away. Just sayin since it'll probably be a lot easier for you not to touch for 21 years and it'll be a lot more likely to be drinkable. Beer is too easy to screw up if you plan on aging it for that long.

i was worried about a 1.085 og beer too, but im not sure what his current set up allows. Youd need a BIGGGG beer. Barley wine or something close to 12-20%?

shoot an email to some of the belgian breweries... maybe brewery ommegang, im sure one of their brewers will give you some sort of advice as to the correlation between OG and Aging time.

Mead or wine just seems easier... but im sure this could still be done.

You could always brew a 21% imperial/barleywine with him on his 18th birthday to age for 3 years! .... or something like that.