Russian Imperial Stout - Third Extract Batch

Well on to my third batch..

A Russian Imperial Stout.. and day 2 the Krausen is just beautiful.. nice brown tips of yeast on top of a 1-1/2" tall head.. and its only at about the 18 hour mark..

OK a few things I am curious as how I will fix or will time do it..?

I boiled over and burnt at the very last minute..!

I THOUGHT I turned off the stove, and was going to let it sit a few minutes and let the handles cool off before I started to cool it. B

But that's not what I did.. I turned it to HI !! not OFF.. so it burned some on the bottom leaving the wort a bit burnt smelling. The level of burn on the bottom wasn't much.. but enough to leave black flakes in the Beer I could see when I transferred. Also the smell of the hops increased a bit too..

Will that calm down with fermentation and conditioning..?

BTW given the lower temps (High 50s) what can I expect.. the Yeast don't seem to have a problem.. (As they are very active.. ).

Anyway, I planned on secondarying on a bed of Oak chips soaked in a nice bourbon or scotch, and add some Choco Nibs.. will that help camo the burning..?

Also With a RIS is it better to condition in bottles, or mini-kegs ? I have a number of the 5L Mini-Kegs, and bottles.

Part of me is thinking of doing a mix to see the different results. Some in 12 some in 22 and some in the mini-kegs. Got a while to worry about that though.

Well this is what we look like at the 48th hour.. Pretty nice..

Lower temp isn't affecting these yeast anyway..

Should I consider skimming off the Krausen now and saving it for mixing back in during bottling..?

Or is it primarily All Grain brewers that have the problem with low carbonation with RIS's?

Leave it alone.

OK.. now closing in on a week.. it seems done with fermentation. But it is only coming up with a FG of 1.020 which is right on recipe. But when I do the math I am off by a 1% or so on the ABV..? So maybe not..?

Very hoppy.. but planning on oak chips soaked in Yukon Jack, and cocoa nibs and possibly some vanilla. So it should tone down a bit.

Now that said.. can I add a bit more Yukon for flavor without killing off all the yeast?

Depends on the yeast. It should give an alcohol tolerance.

Nah.. it came in the ingredient box.. don't have the sachet it came in.

Soaked the chips in Rum instead.. gave a real nice flavor. Also added cocoa nibs..

That said, used too much oak chips, and let it sit too long.. so it was REAL Oaky..

So I got a bottle of Chocolate extract from Brewers Best (4oz) and dumped that in it..

It turned out awesome.

How long did it sit on the oak chips? My first RIS I brewed up last year sat on oak chips for 13 days and that was a lot. It finally mellowed after 6 months.

Almost 3 weeks.. as I was out of town. The chocolate extract made a HUGE difference.. really toned it down, and it 3 weeks it was not only drinkable it was quite good.