VBRIS extract recipe

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sweed

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Hello all,

New guy first post. I have checked out this forum as a lurker for a while, so decided to join to get some feedback on my Vanilla Bourbon Russian Imperial Stout extract recipe. Mmmmm sounds good, doesn't it!

My first brew is in bottles now, I'm going to crack one open tomorrow (carbing for 6 days) So this will be my 2nd brew. I have a starter going, 1L, I need 2L, but only have a 1L flask, so thought I could do another starter right after this one gets pitched. I will brew this tomorrow, so any suggestions would help :)

copy & pasted from hopville beer calculus

% LB OZ MALT OR FERMENTABLE PPG °L

75% 12 0 Briess Sparkling Amber LME 34 10

6% 1 0 Black Patent Malt 27 550

6% 1 0 Roasted Barley 25 300

6% 1 0 Muntons Amber DME 46 14

6% 1 0 Chocolate Malt 34 475

Batch size: 5.0 gallons edit
Original Gravity
1.105 / 24.8° Plato
(1.094 to 1.110)
Final Gravity
1.018 / 4.6° Plato
(1.016 to 1.019)
Color
73° SRM / 144° EBC
(Black)
Mash Efficiency ?
75% edit
Late Boil Additions
Show | Hide
hops
USE TIME OZ VARIETY FORM AA

boil 60 mins 3.0 Centennial pellet 8.4

boil 30 mins 2.0 Fuggles pellet 4.0

Boil: 4.0 avg gallons for 60 minutes edit
Bitterness
57.2 IBU / 25 HBU
ƒ: Tinseth edit
BU:GU
0.54
yeast

White Labs Super High Gravity Ale (WLP099)
ale yeast in liquid form with medium flocculation and 83% attenuation edit

Alcohol
11.6% ABV / 9% ABW
Calories
342 per 12 oz.
misc
USE TIME AMOUNT INGREDIENT

secondary 7 days 8.0 liquid ozs Bourbon - Maker's Mark

secondary 7 days 1 ea Oak Chips, light toast

secondary 7 days 1 ea Vanilla Bean


I might add some molasses/honey in the boil, and thought about getting some special B for the darkfruit/ plum flavors? But also thought this would be complex enough with the vanilla. This is going to be huge, 11.6%, but figured if it is only 9% that would be fine by me, and I will age this all the way until December, while taking a few 'samples' here and there. I hope it turns out great! It's my recipe I put together looking at a bunch of other ones.
any comments/ feedback, please share!
 
So I hit the SG at 1.104, but a few things are different. I noticed the breiss lme is 3.3lbs, not 3 lbs, so its actually 13.2lbs lme. Also, I sparged with 2 gallons, added and extra boiling 1/2gallon or so to bring up the temp after sparging, I boiled for 60 mins, but it still takes a long time to get to a boil on the stove, but with 4 packages of lme, it adds some volume. I poured 2 gallons of spring water in my fermentation bucket, then cooled my wort to about 110, and dumped it into the 2 gallons chilled water, and brought the temp down to just under 80. All this added up to about 5.5 gallons, so looks like I'll hopefully keep my OG to keep a potent beverage with a little more liquid :)
I have another starter going to add tomorrow, and then will add the other lb dme at some point to get fermentation going more.
I had to crush the barley, choc, and black malts with rolling pin, and wasn't that bad.
I really hope this one works out. I made a blow off tube with a 3/8" tube into a gallon jug with water/sanitizer. I just stuck the tube into the rubber gromet where the air lock goes, hopefully this works!

Lastly, I tried out my first homebrew, and it turned out great! Still early in bottling, but already tastes good.
 
I'm glad everyone likes this recipe, lol :p

I added my other 1L starter with the additional 1lb dme, to get fermentation going more last night. It was going like mad the day after pitching, then it slowed a bit yesterday, so I added this to keep it going and to hit FG eventually with enough yeasties.
The krausen layer was thick, but not to the top of my fermentaion bucket, so my blow off tube wasn't need, but still there just in case. Once I added the new yeast and dme, it started fizzing up and got real active, real quick. It wasn't quite as active as it was a few days ago, but that's probably it's running out of fermentables to eat up. :)
Also the temperature in Mass has been cooler the last few days, and its been 65-66 degrees in that room, so maybe once it warms up in a day or 2 it might get some more action?
Anyways, I made my first JAOM mead last night. Very easy and can't wait to try it out in 2 months.:) I'll make some more in diff flavors to age longer.
 
Up until a day ago this was blurping every 3-4 seconds, now it's every 8 seconds or so after 12 days. It's still busy, so I will keep it in the primary for another 2 weeks. The temperature climbed back to 67-70 the last week.
The blow off tube is still connected, and I figured I wouldn't disturb it to take it out, and replace it with an airlock. I need to pick up some bourbon and vanilla, I'll let the vanilla soak in the bourbon for a week before adding it to the secondary. And it also looks like I can leave the oak chips in the secondary for more than a week, more like a month. I don't want a lot of oak, just enough to get a hint of it. I've heard to leave RIS's in the secondary for up to 3-4 months. I'll probably go with 3 months, then bottle it.
Gosh I want to try this already! I'm going to have to make another batch of this, this fall, because I love RIS all thoughout the year. I'll probably tweak it a bit, and add less barley/choc/black patent, or take out the choc and add special B. and/or make a small batch of Choc Imp Stout? Any ideas for a Choklat clone?? anyone? haha
 
I like the recipe, and want to try something similar. I am a complete newb at brewing, so I don't have any advice or tips other than to say that it sounds delicious!

Cheers!

:mug:
 
I like the recipe, and want to try something similar. I am a complete newb at brewing, so I don't have any advice or tips other than to say that it sounds delicious!

Cheers!

:mug:

Thanks! I hope it turns out delicious! My advice would be to look at the Stout recipes subforum and look though the extract/partial recipes to figure out a good base RIS. I also have "The joy of homebrewing" book and he give a bunch of base recipes for guidelines. Of course you can, and I did, change them around a bit. The only thing I am worried about it using too much additional grains, my temp got up a bit too high while sparging, so I hope I don't have any off flavors. But this being such a big beer, they can be masked a bit if there are.

I don't think I mentioned it, but I did add a lb of molasses at the end of the boil. Don't be worried if this looks like a hard recipe to make. It's pretty easy to do, you just have to follows the few directions to make the wort. The 'hardest' part is making sure you have everything clean and sanitized.

I'll add the tasting notes to this in a few months when adding to the secondary, and then bottling, and then after it's been bottles for a few weeks, a month, 2 monthes etc.... end then... :mug:
 
Can someone help me out? I've been searching around everywhere to figure out how to rack my vanilla beans and oak chips/ cubes in my secondary. Do you just place them in a muslin bag and have the top hanging out the top while they are soaking in the middle of the beer, and plugging the top of course with an airlock? I found chips take shorter time to get oak flavor, and cubes longer. I was thinking cubes for a month, and for my vanilla beans I am not quite sure, only to take samples every few days or every week, but I don't want to expose it too much, even though it will be a higher abv. Can you soak the vanilla beans for a month (they will be cut and scrapes, and soaked in bourbon for a week prior to racking to 2ndary), with getting a nice vanilla taste, not being very very present? My LHBS has Madagascar vanilla beans, and I will either get Makers Mark, or Woodford Reserve bourbon. I have heard Woodford Reserve is better and ages better. I am also thinking 2 vanilla beans, as I first thought 1 would be enough.
Thanks
 
Alright, so after some research and talking with my LHBS amigo's, I will use 1 oz (LHBS said to use 2 oz) of light toast american oak chips in the secondary. I cut, split, and scraped 2 vanilla beans, put them in the jar in came in and filled it with Woodford Reserve bourbon, about 4-5 oz? These will soak until Saturday, and then I will rack my RIS onto the oak chips, and dump in all the bourbon and vanilla (bean, seeds and all) into the RIS. This will be in the 2ndary for 2 weeks. I read anything after 2 weeks and the chips and vanilla will be a lot more pronouced. So we will see what happens, its not the end of the world if there isn't enough or too much flavor, I would like a little more vanilla, and just a hint of oak. Aging this will benefit greatly. I will be making another RIS after this one, so I will change it around slightly to see the differences. I plan to have RIS thoughout the year because they are awesome.

I planned to keep this in the secondary for 3 months, but since it can only go on the chips for a few weeks, that seems to be fine Then I will bottle age it for a few months, 4 if I can be patient enough to try my first one, but I wont be and will try a tiny bit at bottling, and then maybe a 12oz every month. I plan to put all of these into bombers, and know they will age different than the 12 oz, but just for testers I'll bottle a 6er.

I've been wanting to open my fermentor so bad the last week, but I know it'll only be better to leave it alone! Saturday I'll be able to see the black goodness, and taste a tiny little bit.

Next up Hooters Simple Hefe on Sunday :)
 
Alright so I racked this to the secondary. I took a gravity reading of 1.020. So that puts it right at 11%. The taste is pretty strong, but definitely a stout. A good coffee finish at the end. I added the vanilla beans and bourbon after I racked and took a gravity reading. I can't wait for this to be ready in a few months!
 
And since everyone loves pics...

IMAG0043.jpg


IMAG0044.jpg
 
Sounds good let us know how it turns out.

I'll def let you know in a few months when it's nice and ready. I'll be honest and if I'm unhappy I'll work to improve it. Hopefully it'll be great around Thanksgiving.
 
I bottled this guy last night. I had some warm flat samples. After 2 weeks (well 17 days), the oak was very apparent. I was hoping got more vanilla, but we'll see how this puppy ages.
While racking to the bottling bucket, it reminded me of Oscar Blues 10Fiddy, black silky motor oil, mmm. This stuff is black, and while in a pint glaas, only the very top you has the slightest dark red haze at the edge.
I will take a sample in 1 month. I got out 24 bombers, and 7 12 ozers. Those 12oz, I will use for sampling every month.
Enjoy the pics!

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First test taste after a month in the bottles. Better than I thought, haha. The smell was terrific, roasted malt, dark chocolate, oaky. The taste, the same, the oak still over powers a bit, buy its very drinkable, alcohol is no where, and after a bottle, I have a buzz. I want more vanilla/bourbon. I'm not sure if after some time the oak will fade and the vanilla will come through, so I'll see in a few months, then I'll brew it again. I think I may have kept the oak in too long. But its not way over the top. I could drink this all night, and I know it will get better, but I won't drink it all night because it'll rock me, lol. If you like oaky stout, you'll love this one.

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I should probably update this after another month (2+ months in the bottles). Its getting really good. The oak is settling down, the dark chocolate and roast flavors, with coffee and the vanilla is making an appearance. The flavors really come out great when it warms up a bit. It's such a great a sipper. I need someone with a better pallet than me to try this and give their review. But, I love it, and could drink it all night, but 1 bomber is good enough, ok maybe 2 when its really cold outside. :p
I'm glad I have a case here, and another case at my parents to hide out, and save for the holidays, and to age a long time.

Oh ya, still no head. The little carbonation is good, but the head is a thin layer of carmel color bigger bubbles. Looks nice, and if it were a thicker 1 finger head, that would be nice. It needs more time though. The carbonation now is really good for the style now IMO.
 
Another update. Over 3 months in bottles. I can't get enough of this. The vanilla is starting to 'pop' out, and the oak is selling down. This is what I wanted, I need to make more soon. I'll probably leave it in the secondary for a few months, if I can wait, then add the vanilla, oak chips, bourbon again. I was thinking about leaving the oak chips out, but they add that extra flavor that makes this a great beer. It needs aging, at 12%, yes and I can't wait to try it after a year, if any are left ! I'll make sure to save a couple for a year and maybe 2 but who knows.

Still no head, just some bubbles, but I gave up, its too high of an abv, but the carbonation is perfect for the style. When it warms up, that's the best time to drink it, too cold and you don't get the best from it. Good yes, but better as it warms, and it'll warm you right up as well!



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Update after a while. I popped a bottle ( 2nd to last! :() and it has been in the bottle about 9 months. It's getting realy good, the flavors are mellowing into each other, getting very smooth. I enjoyed it a lot and wish I had more to drink other times. 1 bottle was enough for me. My last bottle will be opened the 2nd week of August down the cape (Cape Cod) where we do our annual family vaca. I'll do a side by side with my latest batch that will be in bottles for about 5 months to compare.

So my advice if you try this recipe... don't even bother opening them for at least 6 months! :)
 
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