Imperial Stout Russian Imperial Stout (2011 HBT Competition Category Winner)

I bottled mine last night that was brewed in April. It's been on oak spirals that were soaked in jack Daniels and let dry. The taste test last night shows incredible potential. A bit hot right now. Think it came out at around 10.5%. Used normal priming sugar and didn't ad any yeast. Suggestions for when I pop the first bottle?

Dixon said:

I bottled mine last night that was brewed in April. It's been on oak spirals that were soaked in jack Daniels and let dry. The taste test last night shows incredible potential. A bit hot right now. Think it came out at around 10.5%. Used normal priming sugar and didn't ad any yeast. Suggestions for when I pop the first bottle?View attachment 231975

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When? New years Days!! Enjoy it with a large Filet Mignon and roasted red skin potatoes!! Yeah!

How big was your starter? ?? Just curious as I did this recipe and its in secondaey on knob creek soaked oak cubes plan on ageing for 4-6 months. Then plan on bottling and ageing for another 4-6 months. So don't know if I need yeast at bottling or not. Great recipe though.

Mine jus went into primary.... It feels like Chrismas Eve here. I followed the original recipe. But I was able to get my hands on 3 cans of Coopers Dark LME, so I substituted that for 12 lbs of pale malt. At $5 a can, it seemed like a good buy. Made a 2L starter of WLP002 last week, so I had a nice yeast cake going in. Added 3 tsp of yeast nutrient and 1 1/2 tsp of yeast energizer for good measure. OG came in at 1.109. Hydro sample tasted unbelievable. Figure I'll be drinking this in January, and brewing it again then!

TrustyOlJohnson said:

Mine jus went into primary.... It feels like Chrismas Eve here. I followed the original recipe. But I was able to get my hands on 3 cans of Coopers Dark LME, so I substituted that for 12 lbs of pale malt. At $5 a can, it seemed like a good buy. Made a 2L starter of WLP002 last week, so I had a nice yeast cake going in. Added 3 tsp of yeast nutrient and 1 1/2 tsp of yeast energizer for good measure. OG came in at 1.109. Hydro sample tasted unbelievable. Figure I'll be drinking this in January, and brewing it again then!


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And at 1 1/2 hours after pitching, its throwing off CO 02 without even any J
Krausen yet. And at 62 deg.... This is gonna get interesting


"Sometimes Im right half of the time..."

Anybody ever brew this with Irish Ale Yeast? wlp004

TrustyOlJohnson said:

Mine jus went into primary.... It feels like Chrismas Eve here. I followed the original recipe. But I was able to get my hands on 3 cans of Coopers Dark LME, so I substituted that for 12 lbs of pale malt. At $5 a can, it seemed like a good buy. Made a 2L starter of WLP002 last week, so I had a nice yeast cake going in. Added 3 tsp of yeast nutrient and 1 1/2 tsp of yeast energizer for good measure. OG came in at 1.109. Hydro sample tasted unbelievable. Figure I'll be drinking this in January, and brewing it again then!


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And at 24 hours, 16 belches per minute (bpm) and an inch of krausen. Fridge set at 59. Primary at 61.

olotti said:

How big was your starter? ?? Just curious as I did this recipe and its in secondaey on knob creek soaked oak cubes plan on ageing for 4-6 months. Then plan on bottling and ageing for another 4-6 months. So don't know if I need yeast at bottling or not. Great recipe though.

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I would absolutely plan on yeast at bottling. With the lengthy fermentation/aging any yeast you used for fermentation is stone dead by bottling time.

Puddlethumper said:

I would absolutely plan on yeast at bottling. With the lengthy fermentation/aging any yeast you used for fermentation is stone dead by bottling time.

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Any yeast recommendations and would I just add it to the bottling bucket. Is there a ratio of yeast to bottling volume I'd need to look at or for generic purposes would say 1 pack of dry yeast into 4 gal my projected bottling amount suffice??? Does the dry yeast need to be Rehydrated.

I aged in secondary for 3 months and three months in bottles. I only used priming sugars during bottling. I'm carbonated , it just took 2-3 months. This beer deserves that much at least anyway.

olotti said:

Any yeast recommendations and would I just add it to the bottling bucket. Is there a ratio of yeast to bottling volume I'd need to look at or for generic purposes would say 1 pack of dry yeast into 4 gal my projected bottling amount suffice??? Does the dry yeast need to be Rehydrated.

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2 grams, definately rehydrated, added into the bottling bucket should work nicely. I typically use SO5.

Jupapabear said:

I aged in secondary for 3 months and three months in bottles. I only used priming sugars during bottling. I'm carbonated , it just took 2-3 months. This beer deserves that much at least anyway.

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Same here no extra yeast just priming sugar and took forever to carb, I think if I brew this in January when I bottle im deffinitly going to use some extra yeast for a nice carb and no worrys this time around

Entered mine into a local beer competition to be judged November 15th. Let's see how it does! I'll report back!

olotti said:

Any yeast recommendations and would I just add it to the bottling bucket. Is there a ratio of yeast to bottling volume I'd need to look at or for generic purposes would say 1 pack of dry yeast into 4 gal my projected bottling amount suffice??? Does the dry yeast need to be Rehydrated.

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Here's what MaxStout posted a few days ago:

MaxStout said:

Just bottled my RIS. I had it in primary 1 month, then 4.5 months secondary with 2oz toasted oak cubes I had soaked in bourbon. FG didn't go much lower, bottomed out at 1.029, but the hydro sample tasted very good and it wasn't cloying. Good roasty flavor and a hint of the oak. I primed and repitched 3g of CBC-1, as the fermentation yeast was probably toast....

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Cheers!

olotti said:

Any yeast recommendations and would I just add it to the bottling bucket. Is there a ratio of yeast to bottling volume I'd need to look at or for generic purposes would say 1 pack of dry yeast into 4 gal my projected bottling amount suffice??? Does the dry yeast need to be Rehydrated.

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The CBC-1 dry yeast that I used is specifically designed for cask and bottle conditioning. It isn't supposed to add any flavor. The pitch rate is 10g/hectoliter, so about 2 grams for a 5 gallon batch. I used 3g just to give it a little headroom. I rehydrated in a few ounces of 80 degree water and pitched it into the sugar solution I just poured into the bottling bucket. Then I racked the beer onto that. When rehydrating, be sure it is mixed in well and that there are no clumps before pitching. You don't want uneven amounts of yeast bottle to bottle. Give it a good 30 minutes. After racking to your bottling bucket, gently stir but be careful not to mix any air into the beer.

D_Nyholm said:

Entered mine into a local beer competition to be judged November 15th. Let's see how it does! I'll report back!

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Same here. Ive got two different comps i sent it to that are judging next weekend.

MaxStout said:

The CBC-1 dry yeast that I used is specifically designed for cask and bottle conditioning. It isn't supposed to add any flavor. The pitch rate is 10g/hectoliter, so about 2 grams for a 5 gallon batch. I used 3g just to give it a little headroom. I rehydrated in a few ounces of 80 degree water and pitched it into the sugar solution I just poured into the bottling bucket. Then I racked the beer onto that. When rehydrating, be sure it is mixed in well and that there are no clumps before pitching. You don't want uneven amounts of yeast bottle to bottle. Give it a good 30 minutes. After racking to your bottling bucket, gently stir but be careful not to mix any air into the beer.

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Awesome thanks for the advice. Ill note all of this in my beer journal as it's going to b awhile before I bottle.

To those that entered it in a comp I give you good luck I wasn't going to enter mine and it took best of show and class, 45.5 out of 50 all the judges loved it had to crack the extra one I gave them just to see what they where tasting cause when input it away it was not a 45.5 beer that's for sure lol. Good luck and wish you guys the best

1fast636 said:

To those that entered it in a comp I give you good luck I wasn't going to enter mine and it took best of show and class, 45.5 out of 50 all the judges loved it had to crack the extra one I gave them just to see what they where tasting cause when input it away it was not a 45.5 beer that's for sure lol. Good luck and wish you guys the best

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That is awesome and congrats on the score! I hope it does well because i enjoy it so much but you never know with competitions.

Any feedback on barrel aging this?

I picked up a used 3gallon whiskey barrel around the time I last brewed this and put my batch in. Didn't age too long in barrel (2-3 weeks), as it was the first use.

It is awesome!!

I'm looking for an Imperial Stout to Brew Up and leave sit for next winter. This might a good candidate. I might try and brew this up in February or March and just leave it sit. What do you think about add some chocolate to this? What would you add? How much?

A little update in regards to needing to add yeast at bottling: I bottled this 3 weeks ago I think. I ran out of 750 ml bottles and ended up bottling a dozen 12 oz bottles. Got ansy and open one this weekend. No head yet but a go ptsssss when I cracked the bottle. I did not add any new yeast and was concerned when people talked about the necessity of adding yeast. No longer worried. Oh, and it tastes awesome!

I added no new yeast, and mine are amazing right now.

I think it matters on how long you secondary whether you should re-yeast or not. I secondary for 4 months at basement temps of 55-60. I did re-yeast. It still took 3 months to carbonate. If you just secondary shorter before bottling. Re-yeasting shouldn't be necessary.

My secondary was 3 months long, my bottles took 3 months to to carb. I can't imagine wanting this any sooner anyway

Also there is very little sediment in the bottles. Barely noticeable

I had this in secondary for 5 months also at basement temps.

So I'm bottling mine off of the bourbon oak cubes after 6 weeks due to the fact I have way more headspace than is desired, I'm new to brewing so I didn't know until last week that the amount of headspace I have is undesirable in a secondary. I was planning on ageing for 4-6 months but I'm going to bottle condition the rest of the way rather than risk the batch to oxidization or infection, I'll add bourbon at bottling if it needs the extra. So after 6 weeks at 63deg is consensus that I DON'T need to add yeast when bottling? I pitched a HUGE 5.5 L stater for this beer just as an FYI and I plan on bottle conditioning the rest of the way prob 6-9 months and then saving one for long term cellaring.

How much head space are you talking?

If your conditioning that long I would say absolutely let it ride without adding yeast. My 2 pennies.

Dixon said:

How much head space are you talking?

If your conditioning that long I would say absolutely let it ride without adding yeast. My 2 pennies.

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I'd say its prob atleast 1 gal shy in a 5 gal carboy. I showed my lhbs guy a pic and he said its def to much headspace for that long term of secondary ageing.

So u say bottle now with no added yeast.

Did you have an airlock on it? If it showed any CO2 pressure I'd leave it in bulk until it didn't anymore. The worry for headspace is oxidation but if there's still CO2 present there will be no oxidation.

But yes, I would say you don't absolutely need more yeast.

Dixon said:

Did you have an airlock on it? If it showed any CO2 pressure I'd leave it in bulk until it didn't anymore. The worry for headspace is oxidation but if there's still CO2 present there will be no oxidation.

But yes, I would say you don't absolutely need more yeast.

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There is an s type airlock on it now and its cork tight in there but I just don't want to risk the beer. Next batch now I know to increase my batch size to include blowoff and grub loss and hopefully I can put 5 gal in and let it age on the cubes longer for more complexity. I'm gonna brew This every year so it'll b interesting to compare the changes.

You guys weren't kidding about this thing kicking up some krausen. It's the most intense fermentation I've ever experienced. My only modifications from the recipe were subbing 1# wheat malt for 1# 2 row (probably totally unnecessary) and using 4 packets of rehydrated S-04 instead of liquid. It had 2 inches of krausen within 3 hours of pitching and now it's exploding into the blowoff jug.

I made a black IPA from the 2nd runnings with some additional chocolate, C77, and biscuit. I got 5 gallons of pre boil 1.030 wort, to which I added 2# raw sugar and got it up to 1.057. I hopped the crap out of it. A pinch of challenger and apollo for bittering, citra, simcoe, cascade and a ton of mosaic at 20 and 2 mins from flamout. These are both easily the best tasting worts I've ever sampled. Can't wait to drink them! Thank you OP for this recipe!

Edit: This picture is 20 hours after pitching S-04 in the stout and US-05 in the black IPA.

I finally tried my first bottle, after a little more than a month. I know it needs to age more, but I wanted to try one to make sure it's on the right track. Besides, I had just poured 45 bottles of an infected rye beer down the drain last night and I needed to have one in the win column.

It tastes fantastic! It poured with 1/4" cream-colored head and has a nice roasty aroma. Taste was spot-on, with plenty of coffee and chocolate notes, and I could detect the bourbon oak from the cubes I used. Could've used just a bit more of the bourbon oak. Maybe those flavors will pop more after more aging. The FG was only down to about 1.028, but the hops balance it well, and it certainly isn't cloying.

At bottling I added 3g of CBC-1 yeast. No doubt that helped, as the fermentation yeast was probably toast after 5 months aging. I had used Denny's Favorite 50.

I'm going to serve a few to family at Thanksgiving, but I think it will really taste awesome in a few more months. I'm definitely brewing this one again!

Hi all guys,

I would like to ask only three questions.
Can I use Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale yeast for this beer?
Can plastic bucket fermentor hold fermentation of 17 liters of this beer?
I am not sure about the water, so If i add 1 tbsp of CaCO3 how is possible to be in the mash pH ballpark?

Thanx and cheers

You guys.

I started with about 4.5gal of 26 brix wort post boil (about 1.11 SG). I pitched 4 packets of rehydrated s04 at 7pm on Saturday. It's now 4:30pm Tuesday and it's down to 14 brix. Ignoring wort correction, this means it's in the area of 1.022. It tastes almost dry, and super boozy. This is crazy.

Entered this into a local competition and out of 9 entries in imperial stout, it took second. I added a bit of bourbon soaked oak chips to secondary (for about 5 days) for a bit more flavor. Great beer!

Just completed a carbonation review and taste test after 10 months in bottle conditioning. Noticed a pillowy chocolate head finishing with Belgian lace on the glass. A very nice RIS.

i need to brew this again. it won't be ready until march, but nights in phoenix will still be in the mid 40's... i would not change much, maybe go with 2 vanilla beans over one next time. got a lot of oozin' ahhs for it. this next batch will be all MINE! i'm not sharing, you can't make me!