Imperial Stout from Extract

I am a huge fan of imperial stouts, really every single one I have tried, but I do prefer the ones on the slightly less hoppy side. I am wondering if it is possible to make a good imperial from extract? I expect to do some steeping but am really not ready to try mashing yet.

I have an Irish stout about 3 days into fermentation and I figure I can use the yeastcake from that, can anyone give me some ideas of what I should be boiling up for the Imperial?

I did a Russian Imperial Stout a few weeks ago when I realized I didn't like Imperial Stouts (whoops) - the DME was 8 oz. crystal 60L, 8 oz. roasted barley, and 8 oz. black patent, but also had a bunch of LME - 6.6 lb. dark liquid malt extract, and 2 lb. dark dried malt extract. It also had 8 oz. maltodextrin.

My friends who like stouts liked that, but I wasn't incredibly impressed and think it's a bit bitter for my taste.

I have one fermenting now, been in there for about 6 days. I'll let you know what it's like once it's done... wait... that won't be for another 2 months or so.

Extract is fine for imperial stouts, infact my mash tun is to small for a five gallon batch of imperial stout so i just bought northernbrewers extract kit, something like 12 lbs of LME and some steeping grains. turned out good IMO

My second batch ever was a Brewer's Best Russian Imperial Stout kit... 6.6 lbs of LME, 2 lbs DME + .5 lbs maltodextrin and 1.5 lbs of steeping grains...

Came out tasting very good... impressed a stout snob friend...

can be more or less hoppy... but yes you can make very tasty stout with extract...

Imperial stout is a great style to brew from extract as most of them only use base malt and grains that can be steeped, so there are no compromises in an extract recipe.

If you go to the Brewing Network and click on 'The Jamil Show/Can you Brew it?' and then search for "Imperial Stout" you can listen to his RIS show and he will give an extract recipe towards the end. It's got quite a few hops but they are EKG which is pretty subtle and then when you think that you are probably drinking this beer with a bit of age on it, it is not going to be a very hoppy version.

Steeping…mashing…boiling water…

You can do a partial mash if you can steep grains.

Just finished a partial mash two weeks ago; five pounds of grain and 10 pounds of DME…OG 1.114 and IBU around 90.

Grab a five-gallon cooler and make it your partial mash and steeping vessel. Add a manifold of false bottom and your golden.

With a partial, you will be able to really manage the imperial stout style guidelines. Even with 13 pounds of dark DME, you will not manage the color.

Good luck!

I highly recommend some chocolate malt (8-12 oz) and 4 oz or so of black patent, 2 oz roasted.

The roasted can come through as bitter (in addition to roasty) so I would go lighter on that.

9 lbs dark dme and the steeped grains, 1 oz fuggles 30 min.

WL irish ale yeast.

Viola.

tpseabird said:

Steeping…mashing…boiling water…

You can do a partial mash if you can steep grains.

Just finished a partial mash two weeks ago; five pounds of grain and 10 pounds of DME…OG 1.114 and IBU around 90.

Grab a five-gallon cooler and make it your partial mash and steeping vessel. Add a manifold of false bottom and your golden.

With a partial, you will be able to really manage the imperial stout style guidelines. Even with 13 pounds of dark DME, you will not manage the color.

Good luck!

Click to expand...

The color in imperial stout is mostly from roasted barley, why would you need a partial mash to get the color?

Chocolate malt indeed!

In case you need spouse purchase support…not that it would ever influence my purchase...the money you save on extract will support about $10 toward your MLT. Extract…or a new brew toy?

remilard said:

The color in imperial stout is mostly from roasted barley, why would you need a partial mash to get the color?

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........roasted?????? Chocolate or black patent provide more color.

tpseabird said:

Chocolate malt indeed!

In case you need spouse purchase support…not that it would ever influence my purchase...the money you save on extract will support about $10 toward your MLT. Extract…or a new brew toy?

Click to expand...

.........yes Chocolate malt........why?

And I may understand your other comment......but I may not.

remilard said:

The color in imperial stout is mostly from roasted barley, why would you need a partial mash to get the color?

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Not necessarily, but very common in stouts. Steep and your good for color...true.

cheezydemon3...chocolate malt in combination with roasted barley is common amongst NHC.

cheezydemon3 said:

........roasted?????? Chocolate or black patent provide more color.

Click to expand...

Well, that depends on which roasted barley, which black malt and which chocolate malt but either way, in RIS recipes most of the color is from roasted barley about 90% of the time.

I was always under the impression that any beer could be made via extract. Are there any styles that only come out well as all grains?

susitna4 said:

I was always under the impression that any beer could be made via extract. Are there any styles that only come out well as all grains?

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There are some types of malt that will not release their flavors with just steeping, so with extract some compromises must be made. Most common styles and flavors are available to extract brewers but some (like Rye) can't be used unless mashed.

cheezydemon3 said:

........roasted?????? Chocolate or black patent provide more color.



.........yes Chocolate malt........why?

And I may understand your other comment......but I may not.

Click to expand...

In a beer book that I recently read it said that it takes 10% of chocolate malt to make a beer dark in color. You can use 90% extra light and 10% chocolate and it will be dark beer.

I'm going with the respect imperial stout recipe out of the recipe section. I took out the black patent malt though and am adding some flaked barley, also planning on steeping some licorice in with it.

Babylon said:

I'm going with the respect imperial stout recipe out of the recipe section. I took out the black patent malt though and am adding some flaked barley, also planning on steeping some licorice in with it.

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Flaked Barley? Right on!! Oats are good too.

Licorice? HOLY ****.

Here is a RIS I brewed back in November. 4 weeks in the primary. It's been in the secondary since the end of December. I'm actually planning on bottling it tonight.

13.5# Light DME
1.43# Black roasted barley
0.95# Special B
0.43# CaraMunich
0.43# Chocolate malt
0.43# Pale chocolate malt

1.5 oz Horizon @ 60 min
2 oz Kent Goldings @ 10 min
2 oz Kent Goldings @ 1 min

Wyeast 1056

cheezydemon3 said:

Flaked Barley? Right on!! Oats are good too.

Licorice? HOLY ****.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I was debating between oats and barley and decided to go with barley partly for the head retention. I've had some delicious oatmeal imperial stouts but figured I'd try my hand at that later. Licorice is a favorite herb of mine and I find it adds sweetness if put in tea or something similar, I figure some licorice taste in an RIS sounds good to me.

And wow tuna, that's a lot of malt. What kind of OG did you get on that?

It came in at 1.108. I don't know the SG when I racked it off the top of my head. FWIW, I rounded the specialty grains up to the nearest half pound.

I brewed a Imperial chocolate stout last October using extract and speciality grains.
It was the hit of the party at our homebrew clubs christmas party.