Imperial Stout Ten Fidy Clone

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mack65

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 27, 2008
Messages
79
Reaction score
9
Location
Colorado Springs
Recipe Type
All Grain
Yeast
SA-05
Yeast Starter
Huge
Batch Size (Gallons)
5
Original Gravity
1.106
Final Gravity
1.030
Boiling Time (Minutes)
90
IBU
80
Color
68.7
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
21days/68F
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
60days/68F
Tasting Notes
Cloned
Boil Size: 5.95 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.20 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 4.50 gal
Estimated OG: 1.106 SG
Estimated Color: 68.7 SRM
Estimated IBU: 80.0 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 65.0 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name
12 lbs 13.8 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
3 lbs 10.1 oz Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM)
1 lbs 15.3 oz Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM)
1 lbs 10.8 oz Bitish Crystal 53L (55.0 SRM)
1 lbs 10.8 oz Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM)
1 lbs 6.4 oz Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM)
1.12 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Boil 80.
1.12 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Boil 25.
1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins)
1.12 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Boil 10.
2.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 10.0 mins)
1.0 pkg American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056)


Mash 155.0 F 75 min

This is the recipe I made after talking with the head brewer of Oskar Blues, Dave Chichura. He gave me specs and percentages and I used Beersmith to put the recipe together for a 5 gallon batch.

I also put this on a yeast cake from a light ale and used O2 to make sure it would ferment out. My first attempt stalled at 1.040 and is a bit too sweet. So the extra yeast and O2 really helped.

OG should be 1.100 and final gravity at 1.030. I overshot by a bit at 1.106.

Ferment at 68F.

I brewed this a month ago and its now in secondary to age a bit. It tastes good, but is really boosey right now. It's going to take a little time to mellow. But if you like an alcohol bite to your beer, than it would be drinkable now. I want to brew another batch to put in a barrel, but I need a barrel first
mack65 is online now Report Post
 
Thanks for posting the recipe! Best sure to come back and let us know how the side by side comparison goes maybe you could even have the brewer at Oscar taste it?
 
Well, after several failed attempts I finally did it. Fermenting a 1.104 beer takes some extra skills it seems. Especially during the Colorado winter.

So far it tastes great 2 months in the fermenter. Just added some oak to 1/2 of the batch. I'll keep you posted once it goes to the keg to carb.
 
It turned out really good. Funny part is, I made 3 batches of this and thought the first two were bad at first. But my LHBS guy told me to bottle it and let it sit and it might get better. So, I did and it sure did get better. When the beer is new it is sickeningly sweet and fairly wild (maybe all Imperial Stouts are, this was my first), but after 6-7 months it is really good. I've shared it with friends and they have all liked it. So, if you make this just make sure you have patience.

I also made a version where I decreased the specialty grains a bit and replaced it with pale malt. It seemed to me that it will be ready to drink faster, but I'm still waiting on that one now.
 
It turned out really good. Funny part is, I made 3 batches of this and thought the first two were bad at first. But my LHBS guy told me to bottle it and let it sit and it might get better. So, I did and it sure did get better. When the beer is new it is sickeningly sweet and fairly wild (maybe all Imperial Stouts are, this was my first), but after 6-7 months it is really good. I've shared it with friends and they have all liked it. So, if you make this just make sure you have patience.

I also made a version where I decreased the specialty grains a bit and replaced it with pale malt. It seemed to me that it will be ready to drink faster, but I'm still waiting on that one now.

Cool. It looks like a pretty aggressive recipe, I could see it needing time to mellow/age. Would you say its cloned after aging some time?
 
Thanks for the recipe!

I brewed this yesterday with a slight variation - my local spot didn't have the British Crystal, so I used Caramel malt instead - seemed a logical replacement.

Unreal how light the grain bed is and how dark the wort is, straight up jet black - certainly looks like Ten Fiddy in the glass. The pre-hopped wort tasted like chocolate syrup and charred grain, wonderful. The post-hopped was amazing too - great bittering.

My original gravity pre-boil was 1.07, but that was taken while she was HOT to the touch - unsure how, but think that effected it. Post-boil I came in at a nice 1.09, pretty happy about that.

This is my second all-grain brew. My first, also a RIS, is currently in secondary but it didn't take off quite like this one and I made some errors that helped me out a lot here. This baby is going nuts in primary right now - yielded about 5.5+ and have it in a 6.5 carboy with a blowoff tube... so all is well, I assumed (hoped) it would be really active.

This beast is going in a five gallon bourbon barrel I picked up from a small distillery in Texas - recently used and smells wonderful. A buddy of mine is good friends with the head brewer/owner of Olde Hickory Brewery (NC) - he's killing barrel aged brews (check The Event Horizon & Lindley Park on Beer Advocate) - and he suggests the beer should go into the barrel when it's almost finished - but not quite - secondary fermentation. So I'm shooting for that.

Thanks for the recipe, mack! I had a blast making it and will let everyone know how it turns out... about six months from now. LOL.

You know - I need to make something I can actually drink quickly, at some point.
 
I would think there would have to be some smoked malt in that grain bill. The time I have had Ten Fidy I get a very intense smoke up front. I guess it could be from the oak.
 
There is no oak in Ten Fidy, that smoke you are tasting is definitely from all that dark malt.

I have done more batches and altered the recipe and used less dark malt and more pale making a thinner beer and the roastyness was definitely less.

I have some bottles left from my first batch a year ago. They are so nice to drink now. I plan to take one to Oskar Blues to see what Dave Chichura thinks about it. I just wished I lived closer, since its about a 2 hour drive for me.
 
Ok I would have figured it had an oak addition. I am not so much of a fan of it, it's a little over the top for my pallet, I have a friend that is crazy about it, but for $14-4 pack it's a little on the steep end of price. All that smoke and hints of anise are a little too much for me. It isn't a bad beer, and IMO a good example of its style I'm just not big on most any RIS so I couldn't give it a fair judgment.
 
If I did this recipe I would definitely go for the barrel aged ten-fidy and put it on oak. That beer is absolutely fantastic!
 
Anyone else try out this recipe? Or how about an update? I am thinking of brewing it next week.

Thanks

Ryan
 
I need to try this, ten-fidy is one of my favorite beers. I bought 2 4-packs to age, and I would love to do a side by side. I think after my wee heavy is done fermenting, I'll throw this in there, then bulk age for a long time.
 
brewed a recipe very similar to this two weeks ago, transferred into secondary last night where it will sit for a month before aging in a keg. i made 11 gallons (over 1 gallon was lost to trub in the primary i believe, there was so much yeast cake it was CRAZY) 1/2 of it will be normal and kegged, 1/2 will be aged on whiskey soaked oak cubes.

starting O.G. for me was 1.102 (boiled 15.5 gallons down to 11ish) and gravity before the secondary was 1.036, i'm hoping it drops a good bit more over the next month. been fermenting consistently between 65-69. if it wasn't for this damn sinus cold i would say the hydro sample tasted amazing, but it tasted like roasted mucous (the mucous was from me, not the beer haha)

looking forward to this for sure
 
I always ferment my big beers for a month. I am going to brew this on Saturday, hopefully my ingredients come in this week from more beer I ordered last week(the free shipping orders take 2-4 bus. days to start shipping). I want to brew on national homebrewing day!
 
I'm going on a 3 week vacation soon and am looking for a beer that can sit in primary for at least 5 weeks and this looks like a good candidate!

The plan is to brew ~2 weeks before we leave and make sure everything is going well before we leave. I'd check gravity at around 7 and 10 days just to make sure fermentation is progressing (or done) and then let it ride in primary for the 5 weeks and then transfer to secondary when I get back.

I can actively maintain proper fermentation temperatures when I'm home, but they might rise a bit when I'm gone - I use a water bath. I think my basement may rise to 71 or 72F while we're gone, but maybe fermentation will be mostly over by then. Would that be an issue for this beer?

Anymore updates on taste of this?
 
found out a problem i had, about 3 brews after this... was that my digital thermometer was off by about 15 degress... meaning my mash temp was way too low, accounting for this beer stalling out at 1.036ish... its going to be sweet, but there should be enough booze to balance it out.

both kegs have been sitting for a little while, one has oak balls in it, i was going to try and taste it last night but i can't find any ball lock liquid posts, or any party taps for that matter...theyve all gone to the gnomes
 
I made this beer yesterday and unfortunately, mine will be a, "Nine Fidy" :)

I made 2 mistakes. First, I've only done a handful of BIAB AG batches so far and they've all been about the same OG and I've gotten about 74% efficiency every time. Since this was a bigger beer, I knocked it down to 70%, but I ended up getting 66% mash efficiency. I should have just stuck with the original recipe. So my pre-boil gravity was low.

Then for some reason I did a less vigorous boil than I normally do. Probably because I was busy doing other things and didn't want a boil over. So I boiled off less and ended up with more volume at the end, which lowered the gravity further. I guess I should I have checked before cooling and I could have boiled longer, but I didn't check until it was almost cool.

But if my target FG is reached, it will be nine fidy, so I'm thinking that will be good enough. I plan to let this sit in primary for at least 5 weeks due to an upcoming extended vacation. Then either bottle or secondary.
 
After 5 days my gravity is down to 1.022. I may have overpitched but I figured that would be better than under pitching for this beer. I'll check again, but I'm assuming it won't go lower. Gravity sample tasted great.
 
This recipe has been sitting ing primary for about 5 weeks. I'm thinking I could either:

1) let it ride in primary for about 8 weeks total and then bottle or
2) move it to secondary now for a month or so and then bottle.

Which option is best?
 
Mine has been in the primary for almost 5 months, haha. No time for bottling, or bottles right now for that matter.
 
Wow, that's impressive. Have you ever done any beer in primary that long? If so, how'd it turn out?

I ended up moving mine to secondary yesterday and I'll probably keep it in there for a month and then bottle.
 
Wow, that's impressive. Have you ever done any beer in primary that long? If so, how'd it turn out?

I ended up moving mine to secondary yesterday and I'll probably keep it in there for a month and then bottle.

I've never had anything in the primary that long. The most is a month, a little over a month for big beers. I just brewed up so much this spring everything was being used and my bottles were/ are all filled with delicious beer. :)

I'll bottle eventually and I'll post back up in here with how it is.
 
i made this about a month ago and just put it on the gas today. low starting gravity due to my poor efficiency, but it smells good. i started at 1085 and it finished at 1022. i let it primray for 10 days (i soaked two 8" medium toasted oak spirals in makers mark during this time) and then added the soaked oak and a few ounces of the bourbon it steeped in. left it in the primary bucket on the yeast cake. let it sit another two weeks and kegged it today and started force carbing. i realize the bourbon oak wasn't a part of the initial recipe, but i think it's going to be awesome!
thanks for the original recipe!
 
This beer is incredible. It's been in the bottle a little over a week, and it's really amazing. I brewed this on may 4th I think, national home brew day. It say in my fermenter for over 5 months. I think that might have helped with the complexity of this beer. Perfectly at 10.5%, this beer is thick, chewy and is so easy to drink. It has a slight ten fidy flavor, but not just like it. I'll get some real ten fidy to compare. But both are that thick motor oil, with the carmel head. Taste is roasted coffee, bitter dark chocolate, and carmel with a slight alcohol burn.
My buddy really likes it, and his wife really liked it. I've had too many in this past well already, haha, I need to save a few. This will be brewed again, definitely.
Great recipe.



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Thanks for the update. I just bottled mine this passed Sunday after 5 weeks in primary and almost 5 weeks in secondary. I will wait a few weeks before trying one.
 
Since you used 1056 with some added yeast cake do you think one packet of S-05 would be enough? S-05 has a higher pitch rate per packet correct?
 
mtnagel said:
Nope. Mr. Malty says you would need 1.8 packets if 11.5 g or 4.1 packets if 5 g.
Ok, thanks! Damn that's a lot of yeast. S-05 should sub out well for this right? I love this beer and if I brew it I don't wanna screw it up.
 
Yes, they are supposed to be the same yeast.

Any other lower gravity beers you are planning? You could always do that first and then use some of the yeast cake for the Ten Fidy clone.
 
mtnagel said:
Yes, they are supposed to be the same yeast. Any other lower gravity beers you are planning? You could always do that first and then use some of the yeast cake for the Ten Fidy clone.
got some S-05 in my IPA going now, that wouldn't be over kill?
 
mtnagel said:
What do you mean overkill? Do you mean using the entire yeast cake? If so, yes, that will be too much. Use mrmalty's repitching from slurry calculator to figure out how much you need.
Ok just never done a beer this big and had a need for this much yeast. Still a newb!
 
mtnagel said:
No problem. We all started as newbies. Mine is now 3 weeks in the bottle. I want to hold off drinking it but I know I'll be impatient and drink one soon!
I want to get this one going and put it in bottles then hold it until next fall. Trying to learn to brew ahead, but nothing ever seems to last in tho a household.
 
I want to get this one going and put it in bottles then hold it until next fall. Trying to learn to brew ahead, but nothing ever seems to last in tho a household.

I leave my big beers at my parents house in the basement so I don't keep trying them until they are good. All my ten fidy clones are at my place and are slowly going down. Its tough because its so good, but its be aged enough IMO, so I don't mind it.I need some to save to have others try it on Thanksgiving. I will be brewing this again, such a great beer.
 

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