Imperial Stout Double-W Imperial Stout

nice beer for a cold winter's night-thanks for the recipe

just moved this over to secondary. incredibly smooth. what a great beer.

It gets better with age - at 1 year, it's at it's best.

You upped the IBUs to 100, correct?

More Warrior/Willamette, or a different hop?

I am out of Warrior, so I subbed another hop (I think it was Magnum). However, I really like Willamette for this stout.

Next batch I am going to dry hop with Willamette, too!

yeah, i'm gonna try and keep my hands off it for a year. might be tough.

do you just age it in a carboy for a year?

I used a keg. Purged, pressurized to 15psi, and put a gauge on it. That only lasted 6 months - couldn't wait to try it!! I carbed and tasted.

I bottled most of it from the keg, and let it age further. It was really at it's best at 1 year.

I would recommend bottle or keg. Bottles allow you to grab a taste as it ages.

I am going to re-brew this next weekend for the 2012 NHC.

i might bottle....but probably not. i'll probably leave it in the carboy for a good 10 months then keg. i don't have any spare kegs so if i were to keg this now i'd be down a tap for a year....not gonna happen.

before i racked i filled the carboy with CO2 so hopefully it'll be good.

well i brewed this today! i have an round 10 gallon mash tun. It filled it up to the brim! I had a hard time stirring it up and i know i didnt get all the clumps broken up. I also normally double batch sparge, but didnt have enough sparge water to do this. Ended up with 65% efficiency! so mine will end up around 9.5%. not terrible, but definitely not what i was going for. cant wait to taste this one! i plan on letting it age at least 6 months before kegging.

65% is pretty good! This is a big beer.

I need to brew this again...

So ill probably be moving this to seconday to bulk age for about 6 months next week. i have never used a carboy with beer brewing. when bulk aging, i would assume i have to worry the oxygen getting in the beer. how do you guys secondary in carboy? do you somehow get co2 in the carboy first? i have a kegerator so i guess i could just use a gas quick disconnect, depress the little knob on the inside and hold it over the opening of the carboy before i transfer this?

Just got around to transferring to secondary. Gravity was 1.046! I figured two packets of yeast would have knocked this out by now. Will let it sit a week and see if it moves any more.

still in the secondary, and it's been just over 3 months since i brewed this (just under 2 since i racked to 2ndary), but i pulled a sample last night.

it's incredible. that big hop presence has faded and it's developed some deep bourbon and coffee notes. alcohol is just a bit noticeable but doesn't take away from the drinkability.

Thanks for the recipe! Enjoyed the 90 minute boil in the 95 degree nyc heat. Into the fermenter at 1.110 and looking forward to it for the fall/winter.

Any updates from anyone else who made this recently?

I've been looking for a good RIS to brew for winter. Its June, I probably wont get around to brewing this until mid/late July. Will it be decent to drink after our first snow, probably late November/early December? Thats only about 4 months of aging.

My $0.02:

I loved it after 2 months. It's good, but MUCH better after a longer time.

After 3 weeks in primary I racked it to a keg to age for a bit. The hydro sample was amazing, like bittersweet chocolate hop syrup. I think it was at 1.035, so about 9.8%. Again thanks for the recipe, it's fantastic!

I helped a friend brew this recipe once and it turned out awesome. Ever since then I've been using 1lb of Special B in all my stouts. I think that's really the touch that puts this over the top! (That, and the 24.5lb grain bill...)

Anyway, great recipe!

so, I brewed this end of december, and it's been sitting in the secondary at basement temps (low 60's) since mid February.

it was excellent mid-april. i took a sample about a week ago, and it just seems kind of...muddled. don't know how to describe it. r2, i remember you saying something about how this goes from good to bad to awesome, is this what you're talking about?

Just an update if anyone is considering making this, DO IT! Brewed this May 29 so I'm a bit more than 3 months out and its unbelievably good. The body is so thick and the aroma is just unreal. The keg is almost gone already but I have 20 bottles to store for awhile, thankfully. This is definitely something I will make annually and I cant think of anything to change. Thanks!

I didn't see a whole lot of discussion about trying other yeasts. I've been told that 1056 is basically a liquid version of US-05 though my own experience has proven there to be noticable flavor differences between them. I would think this would be a good candidate for 1084 (Irish Ale) or 1728 (Scottish Ale).

Has anyone tried any of those 3? (Wyyeast 1056, 1084 or 1728)

I would only use a clean fermenting yeast that leaves the ingredients to come through. Using different yeasts will change the beer (not a bad thing either), but it will not be the same beer. I would shy away from yeast which leaves it's own "flavor" like Scottish - this type of yeast leaves a malty, fruity note which IMO would be getting in the way of an already complex beer.

If you taste the difference between US-05 and 1056 (I agree, by the way!), don't go even further from the intent of the recipe by using yeasts like 1084 or 1728 unless that is what you want to do.

I would recommend brewing it as is, then change the yeast when you have a firm grip on the beer's flavors. Or, maybe split a 5-gallon batch into 3 or 4 smaller batches using different yeasts.

I prefer to use liquid yeast and a starter so I'm inclined to try 1056. If using us05 it seems you would need several packs to achieve a sufficient pitching rate.

That'd be my choice for liquid.

I used 2 packs of US-05 - started fermenting in 8 hours, finished quickly.

Made this back in early May, also made a small stout from the 2nd runnings. Came out about 3.5% ABV. Needless to say is was delicious and we ripped through it in a hurry. Will be doing a tasting and gravity reading later today from secondary. Will post results later. Thanks for the great RIS recipe!

Glad you liked it!

I am re-brewing this weekend. New mash tun will be broken-in in a BIG way.

motobrewer said:

so, I brewed this end of december, and it's been sitting in the secondary at basement temps (low 60's) since mid February.

it was excellent mid-april. i took a sample about a week ago, and it just seems kind of...muddled. don't know how to describe it. r2, i remember you saying something about how this goes from good to bad to awesome, is this what you're talking about?

Click to expand...

I bottled this last weekend and it was awesome, lol. 7 months in secondary, 8.5 months since brewday. It's an incredible beer, i don't even know why i bothered carbing it. it's awesome out of the fermentor. when i tried it back in june it just seemed kind of off. now its incredible.

i had several issues with mine. fermentation stopped at 1.040. i transferred to secondary, added another packet of yeast (notti), and ended up forgetting about it for about 6 months. im in the process of moving all my brew stuff and came across the carboy. it has a slick looking film on top of it, very thin. it also looks like there are little green dots in suspension. it smells fine, but was scared to taste it. what do you guys think? it has been on that packet of notti for 6 months, still at 1.040. think its infected?

only one way to find out, gotta taste it.

i pitched 2 packs of us05 and it was at 1.032 within 10 days.

Cool!

I just re-brewed it with a substitute of Galena for Warrior, and changed the mash up a bit. Easily got 1.110. Bumped the IBU's to 100 (+/-).

Dropped some US-05 from and IPA on it and it went nuts for 48 hours. I cannot wait to try it. I did change up the mash schedule, and will post the findings when the primary fermentation is complete.

motobrewer said:

only one way to find out, gotta taste it.

i pitched 2 packs of us05 and it was at 1.032 within 10 days.

Click to expand...

He's correct... a big beer like this could be great at 1.040 - what was the starting OG?

my efficiency was pretty bad. og was 1.094

Do you think this would taste okay with a couple sliced peppers added to the secondary to give it just a slight amount of heat to go along with the bittersweet chocolate notes?

I want to make an Imperial Pepper Stout and this looks like a great candidate for adding a couple peppers...

Thoughts?

It would stand up fine with the chili, but I will wait for others to chime in. I am not a fan of chili beer!

Chili's are for tacos!

I brewed this without any modification to the receipe on 8-13-2011. My OG was 1.10, and I pitched two packs of us-05, bloomed. Fermentation started quickly, and seemed ok. Ambient temp during fermentation was around 65F. It sat in primary until today, when I racked to a keg. I checked the FG and was surprised to see 1.050... not sure what to think. I'll give a couple months of keg conditioning and see what happens.

did you use any yeast nutrient? did you aerate really well? mine fell to 1.031 (from 1.107) in 8 days.

Hmmm...

I have "restarted" a beer that was stuck by making a small starter, letting it cook for a day, then adding-in a bit of wort to feed it. After that cooks for a day or two I dumped it in the beer and it lowered the gravity. It wasn't a huge, frothy fermentation but it did bring it down.

kbuzz said:

Do you think this would taste okay with a couple sliced peppers added to the secondary to give it just a slight amount of heat to go along with the bittersweet chocolate notes?

I want to make an Imperial Pepper Stout and this looks like a great candidate for adding a couple peppers...

Thoughts?

Click to expand...

I thought about this last night as I was sipping some of this beer and it isn't a great idea. The flavor is already very complex and full and I cant imagine a peppery spice adding anything positive to this particular stout. On the other hand, I added a very small amount (mL's) of bourbon to my glass and liked it quite a bit. Bourbon/oaking this would do wonders.

Regarding the FG, mine went from 1.10 to 1.040 with 2 packets of S05 in about 2 weeks.

grundig5 said:

I added a very small amount (mL's) of bourbon to my glass and liked it quite a bit. Bourbon/oaking this would do wonders.

Click to expand...

I may have to split my current batch and try this out. I bourbon-oaked an oatmeal stout, and it was really nice.

Just measured my gravity: Used half of the US-05 from my IPA primary, and it took the beer from 1.110 to 1.034 in 5 days!

I love US-05!

I forgot how complex this beer is. I am sipping the hydro tube now.