My first all grain went into secondary today / Midnight Sun Imperial Stout.

So my first all grain went into the secondary to night. This is the best tasting any beer I have ever made tasted at this point. So here is the recipe...
Let me know what you all think...

Midnight Sun Imperial Stout
Russian Imperial Stout


Type: All Grain
Date: 3/23/2006
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Brewer: Jsin
Boil Size: 5.72 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: My Equipment
Taste Rating(out of 50): 45.0 Brewhouse Efficiency: 64.0
Taste Notes:

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
10 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 41.7 %
5 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 20.8 %
5 lbs Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 20.8 %
1 lbs Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM) Grain 4.2 %
1 lbs Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 4.2 %
1 lbs Honey Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 4.2 %
1 lbs Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 4.2 %
3.00 oz Cascade [5.60%] (60 min) Hops 39.0 IBU
0.50 oz Fuggles [4.50%] (10 min) Hops 1.9 IBU
0.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00%] (Dry Hop 8 days) Hops -
1 Pkgs Irish Ale (Wyeast Labs #1084) Yeast-Ale



Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.107 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.106 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.027 SG
Measured Final Gravity: 1.035 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 10.6 %
Actual Alcohol by Vol: 9.3 %
Bitterness: 40.9 IBU Calories: 508 cal/pint
Est Color: 78.0 SRM Color: Color

Thats a s%!@load of grain for a five gallon batch. I thought I used alot.

Can you really still call it beer at that high Alc?

Am I missing something here? Although that looks like a lot of grain, the only grain that seems fermentable is the 10 lbs. of 2-Row Pale Malt. How did you get such a high gravity reading only mashing 10 lbs of Pale Malt? I was unaware that Crystal malts could yield fermentable sugars.

Also, is that Irish Ale yeast working well at such high alcoholic levels?

the irish ale yeast can take that abv...

sonvolt said:

Am I missing something here? Although that looks like a lot of grain, the only grain that seems fermentable is the 10 lbs. of 2-Row Pale Malt. How did you get such a high gravity reading only mashing 10 lbs of Pale Malt? I was unaware that Crystal malts could yield fermentable sugars.

Also, is that Irish Ale yeast working well at such high alcoholic levels?

Click to expand...

The gravity booster is the oats. Man, are they hard to work with. 5 1/2 hours to sparge. But it didn't stick once and I got complete conversion. :rockin:

With a big starter the Irish Ale was more than up for the task.

budbo said:

Can you really still call it beer at that high Alc?

Click to expand...

One word for you on that subject... :rockin: Imperial :rockin:

sonvolt said:

Am I missing something here? Although that looks like a lot of grain, the only grain that seems fermentable is the 10 lbs. of 2-Row Pale Malt. How did you get such a high gravity reading only mashing 10 lbs of Pale Malt? I was unaware that Crystal malts could yield fermentable sugars.

Click to expand...

Gravity readings don't measure fermentable sugars, they just measure the density of the liquid regardless of what's in it, so all of the grains (some yielding fermentable sugars, some not) will end up contributing to the gravity of the wort. Note how high the FG is which indicates the presence of many unfermentable sugars (that, and the yeast may have stopped performing due to the abv).

That's going to be a chewy beer....sounds good!

So I cracked one open last night and wow that is one strong beer. It is like drinking heavy black velvet. It has a nice balance of flavors and you can't even taste the 10% abv. After a 1-liter grolsh of it I am glad I put most of it in 12 oz. bottles and not on tap or in bigger bottles. This is going to be a nice winter warmer. This is not a beer for the lightweights or the light beer crowds but if you want a dangerous black stout then brew it up. :rockin: :rockin:

Looks and sounds great! I'm converting my extract/partial RIS to brew soon and I'm flagging this recipe. Thanks for sharing!

sonvolt said:

Am I missing something here? Although that looks like a lot of grain, the only grain that seems fermentable is the 10 lbs. of 2-Row Pale Malt. How did you get such a high gravity reading only mashing 10 lbs of Pale Malt? I was unaware that Crystal malts could yield fermentable sugars.

Also, is that Irish Ale yeast working well at such high alcoholic levels?

Click to expand...

All those other grains will contribute to the gravity as well but don't ferment out like the base malt. That is one reason for the higher FG.
That is a lot of specialty grains though. What is your impression of the sweetness/malt profile?

Jsin said:

The gravity booster is the oats. Man, are they hard to work with. 5 1/2 hours to sparge. But it didn't stick once and I got complete conversion. :rockin:

With a big starter the Irish Ale was more than up for the task.

Click to expand...

5.5 hours of sparging? wow. Is that just because of the oats? I didn't know sparging could take anywhere near that long. What is the process you used?

RichBrewer said:

All those other grains will contribute to the gravity as well but don't ferment out like the base malt. That is one reason for the higher FG.
That is a lot of specialty grains though. What is your impression of the sweetness/malt profile?

Click to expand...

This beer is not sweet at all probably due to the heavy usage of black patent, but it did retain a nice malt-grain flavor. It's a little hard to explain but I really like it.

billism said:

5.5 hours of sparging? wow. Is that just because of the oats? I didn't know sparging could take anywhere near that long. What is the process you used?

Click to expand...

I closed the valve from my HLT to the point that my sparge arm just barely spun. I also let it drain slowly enough that there was about one inch of water on top of the grain bed the whole time.

Baron von BeeGee said:

Gravity readings don't measure fermentable sugars, they just measure the density of the liquid regardless of what's in it, so all of the grains (some yielding fermentable sugars, some not) will end up contributing to the gravity of the wort. Note how high the FG is which indicates the presence of many unfermentable sugars (that, and the yeast may have stopped performing due to the abv).

Click to expand...

Right..I was just thinking that. I'll be posting my Stout recipe and you will see some serious grav readings.

Sounds delicious Jsin !
cut...paste..save to "must makes"