Imperial Stout Double-W Imperial Stout

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Few questions as I'm looking to brew this in a couple weeks when I plan to bottle Biermuncher's OkterberFAST.

1. I used WY1450 for the Oktoberfest, had an OG of 1.049, any thoughts on this yeast for this stout? My concern is that Wyeast rates tolerant to 10%.

2. Has anybody used a Belgian yeast, either for the whole batch or for part of it, thoughts?

3. I'll be doing BIAB, likely a 3.5 or 4 gal batch because of my setup, 11 gal kettle, and efficiency, until I get my own mill or get equipment for "full" all grain. I generally get 62% - 65% efficiency I think mostly due to the grain crush from LHBS. I normally do a 60 min mash, raise the temp to 168-170 and "sparge" for 10 min. Should anything change with this process?
 
Few questions as I'm looking to brew this in a couple weeks when I plan to bottle Biermuncher's OkterberFAST.

1. I used WY1450 for the Oktoberfest, had an OG of 1.049, any thoughts on this yeast for this stout? My concern is that Wyeast rates tolerant to 10%.

Go for it! I racked a similar stout onto a US-05 cake and it worked out nicely. I'm sure Denny's will work just fine.

2. Has anybody used a Belgian yeast, either for the whole batch or for part of it, thoughts?

Meh. I say the stout will be fine as-is. Then again, I've never been a huge Belgian stout fan.

3. I'll be doing BIAB, likely a 3.5 or 4 gal batch because of my setup, 11 gal kettle, and efficiency, until I get my own mill or get equipment for "full" all grain. I generally get 62% - 65% efficiency I think mostly due to the grain crush from LHBS. I normally do a 60 min mash, raise the temp to 168-170 and "sparge" for 10 min. Should anything change with this process?

BIAB is gonna be heavy! 25.5 lb of grain, plus all the liquid it will absorb. I'm planning to brew a similar recipe via BIAB soon, and am not looking forward to hoisting that bag out of the kettle. I'm actually considering re-converting my cooler back to a mash tun just for this brew. Might try a 90-minute mash. Also, see if the brew store will do a double crush or maybe (if they like you) adjust the mill gap.
 
Thanks for the input. I figured Denny's would be fine and am pretty sure I'll go with it since the cake will be ready and pitching on a full cake should be able to handle the alcohol.

I like Belgians, especially darker styles, but like a a good tripel and saison too. I had Allagash's Bourbon Barrel Black last year and was probably the best stout I've had, could've used a little more roast to it, but otherwise delicious for a non desert like big stout. Since then I've wanted to do a Belgian stout but there's not much info out there.

I really want to try this as the OP, but may take a gallon and ferment it with a Belgian strain to see how it goes, won't know unless I try it :)

As for BIAB, doing a 3.5 gallon batch would need 17.15lbs of grain and a 4 gallong batch would take 19.6 lbs. That's not taking my efficiency into account either, but that's why i'm looking into a little smaller batch, I don't think I could get the grain needed for a 5 gal, tkaing my efficiency into account, plus the water into my 11 gal kettle. I also use a straining basket that came with the kettle which takes up some available volume, but helps greatly with removing the grain and I never have to worry about the bag busting open.
 
2L starter made. Planning to put in the fridge Wednesday morning or night, decant thursday night or friday morning if it looks clear, then build a 4L starter Friday night. I want to brew this weekend but this schedule doesn't give me enough time to chill and decant the 4L starter. So, brew day may have to wait till next weekend unless I take a day off during the week.

Really looking forward to this one

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So are brewing Huna or double W, since the same post is in both threads?

(The correct answer is both to be able to taste side by side down the road!)
 
:) I would love to make both, but due to mainly time at this point. I'm making this, Double W, then after a month of fermenting will rack a gallon off and add the spices for Huna. Not really looking to do a side by side as I know they will be different for many reasons. I'm also planning to make Denny's BVIP soon to have them both ready/drinkable for the holidays.

How this started was I wanted to make a good RIS with a some bitter chocolate and noticeable roasty backbone. After looking through many different threads I decided this fit the bill the best, mostly going off Biermuncher's review and taking others throughout the thread into account as well. I also wanted to make something with a little heat in the finish, but not the usual Amber chili beer style, that's when I found Huna.

My reasoning for not just using Huna and only using a gallon of that to add spices to is the grain bill. Mainly the black patent and C120 compared to Black Barley and Special B. I have found I prefer Black Barley over Black Patent. Black Patent finishes more acrid and harsh in my opinion. I also think I'll like what the Special B brings in the way of dark fruits, plum, black currants, instead of the more caramel and burnt sugar like character of the C120.

The only other change I am contemplating is adding vanilla beans to the whole batch instead of just the "spiced" gallon. I'm leaning toward not doing this because I would prefer to taste the original recipe as is, even if I think it would be better after getting a hydro sample. The carbonation and a little bit of age might make it more enjoyable without needing vanilla.

The reason for posting in both threads is just out of respect for those who have made the Huna clone as popular as it is, since I plan to "copy" some of their work.
 
I brewed this recipe last weekend. I missed my the O.G. only got 1.091. Not too terrible considering this was my only big beer and only my 7th brew. I made the mistake of collecting too much wort. My pre-boil volume was 7.5 which I think was too much and I only boiled 60mins. My efficiency was ~66%, I think that is good for this much grain from what I am reading. If I had only collected 6.5 gallons pre-boil and boiled 60-90mins I think I would have been much better off on the O.G. Oh well I will get it next time

Also took my yeast two days to really get going but I only rehydrated the yeast not bloom on wort. What's the difference between blooming on wort and dumping the packet right in the wort?
 
Did you just put one packet in? Not sure that's going to be enough for something this big. It'll likely chew through it but you may get some off flavors from stressing the yeast.

I haven't really seen the term blooming on wort, I really only use liquid yeast so if that's a dry yeast term I'm sorry. The main idea is to build a large starter, in this case most would recommend at least a 2L starter, if not a 4L.

The main thing you're looking to do is get the yeast to "reproduce" in low gravity wort then settle out.
 
I rehydrated two packs of US-05 and dumped them in. In the beginning of the the thread r2eng said he bloomed 2 packages on wort. Most of my previous brews I did starters. I just didn't see the difference of blooming on wort and putting the packets straight in to the wort.?

Also I use swamp boxes to keep my fermentation temps down. I think I may have got a little carried away on the ice because I measured the water temp in the box and it was around 66-68. So that probably contributed to the slower start. I am not worried, I am sure it will still come out tasty.
 
Brewed this AM, didn't hit OG because of a few mistakes that could easily be fixed. Preboil OG was 1.071 which was on target for what I needed, planned for 4.25 gallons which would've put me at 1.117. Ended up with a touch over 5 gallons which is why i missed the OG.

Now the mistakes. I ended up getting 7 gallons after mashing and "dunk sparging," which is more than I expected so the grains didn't absorb as much as I planned for, I squeezed more than I usually do and let it drip out more than usual too. After that I planned to boiled for 90 minutes instead of 60 to account for the extra wort. Well, kids ended up distracting me more than usual and I forgot about boiling longer. If I had boiled for the extra 30 min I would've boiled off an extra .5 gallons at least putting me right around 4.5 gallons, just .25 gallon over what I planned for.

In the end I should end up with around 12 more bottles than I planned for, clocking in at about 8% ABV. Not horrible and my mistakes can easily be fixed.
 
Forgot to post this on brew day. I initially forgot to put my blowoff tube on so did 4 hours after pitching. When I began getting my sanitizer and tubing in place I heard bubbling from the airlock. I just thought there was no way it took off in 4 hours, so I took a peek:

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Primary fermentation seems to have stopped, actually haven't seen or heard any airlock bubbling since around 48 hours after pitching yeast. Like I said though, it was active within 3 or 4 hours after pitching and gargling in blowoff bucket was crazy for a good 24 hours.

I only ended up getting about 2 inches of krausen from what I can see through the bucket, I have yet to get much with WLP002. I'm going to wait to pull a hydro sample until this weekend or early next week to make sure the yeast didn't stall out but from my experience and other threads it seems normal for this strain to chew through wort very quickly then take some time to drop the final few gravity points and clear up.

I'm in no hurry for this to finish so unless it's stuck it will just sit for 4 - 6 weeks, then get bottles and sit till around Thanksgiving. Gotta love the waiting game.
 
Mine was in the primary for 2 weeks and ended at 1.030. O.G. was 1.093. Tasted fantastic, very chocolatey, although I wish it had a little more bittering hops to it to balance the sweetness more but maybe it will balance out more with age. Either way still very yummy. Racking to Secondary tonight.
 
Checked the gravity and tasted the sample yesterday. After a week its at 1.033, I'm hoping for another 5 points or so to end at around 8% ABV.
Sample didn't have a strong taste of anything but that could be because I tasted some of my pumpkin saison right before. Also, only being a week old I wasn't expecting much because its so early. I was expecting some roasty character from it and didn't get that, any body else experience that this early?
 
I tasted again and its tasting good. Can tell it needs time to come together, but the Saison I tasted before the first time definitely overpowered this. I plan to start cracking these open a around Thanksgiving which will only be about 3 months.
 
Checked the gravity this morning and it's at 1.030/1.029 was kind of hard to tell. Taste is pretty boozy with some chocolate on the back end at this point, I expect the booziness will mellow out with some time. Going to give it another 2 or 3 weeks in the fermenter then I'll bottle and let those carbonate and condition until Thanksgiving before opening any.
 
Yea. Thanksgiving will pretty much be the three months mark from brew day.
 
I have had this fermenting since 8/17, just over 6 weeks and added a vanilla bean about 2 weeks ago. Before adding the bean I got some roast in the back of the taste, after adding the bean the roast is good. Anybody have any idea why, or is it possible I'm just getting different parts of the fermentation and it's still coming together?
 
I split this into a two day brew. Mashed last night, two sparges. Mashed with 5 gallons, first sparge 3 gallons, second 2 gallons. I got 7 gallons wort. Boiled 2 hours today, got 5 gallons on the nose, and an og of 1.106, pretty close. I was worried when some were saying they had poor efficiency with such a big beer. Looking forward to it.
 
I'm starting to see why most of you have said this is better after 3 months or longer. I'm about a week and a half from 2 months and it's starting to come together, but still very green. The roastiness comes through after swallowing, upfront it's sweet more so than most cream stouts I would say, then some milk chocolate and dark fruit, raisin/plum (Special B fruits) notes, then some dark chocolate in the back.

I'm hoping after another month the roast comes through, I've usually seen the Special B character mellow with time, and with over 1/2 lbs of that grain I can see it taking a bit to settle down. If the black barley roastiness come through more this is a perfect brew, only wish I would've hit the OG, I will almost certainly be brewing this again!
 
I find that the roasty / chocolatey aspects of this beer tend to recede over time. At about a year, it tastes a lot like Old Rasputin.


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So, adding a pound of rice hulls to this was a bad idea... It was going to be a close call with my 10 gallon mash tun to begin with. Oh well. Currently mashing in at 156F with about a 1.15:1 qts of water to lb grain ratio.
 
r2eng I have to thank you not only for this recipe but for helping me improve my efficiency. I followed your double batch sparge technique on my latest big stout and pulled off a MUCH better efficiency after my first two big stout attempts being a lame missing on O.G. Thank you.
 
Bubbling away. I only hit 1.106 should have boiled a little longer maybe. Ended up with 2.5 gal exactly which was what I was shooting for at least. Will see how it tastes come february.
 
Just got done transferring to secondary. Gravity reading of 1.02, lower than supposed to be? Either way, tasted the sample and its amazing! Maybe slightly biased since I brewed it, and I love RIS's.
 
You guys are killing me. I need to brew this one again.

Heading to the lhbs tomorrow. I need this for the cold winter.
 
Arise! I had a go at this yesterday, Aside from having my first boilover, it went reasonably well.

I missed my mash temps slightly, hit 153 instead of 156.

I was set up to do a 90 minute boil, but my preboil volume was a bit high and my SG was a bit low, so I added an extra 15 minutes. OG ended up at 1.110 and just over 5.5 gallons in the fermenter, I pitched onto a yeast cake of US-05 from and IPA that I moved to secondary for dry hopping and within a couple hours it was bubbling into the blowoff tube pretty heartily.

I'm looking forward to seeing how this comes out, it's my first big beer.
 
I haven't had one in a long time so I really can't compare but the beer last night was pretty fantastic
 
Thanks for bumping. First time I saw this recipe after more than 3 years on here.
Maybe it's in the 35 odd pages but is it worth investing in the Maris Otter or does it turn out fine with normal pale ale malt? Also for the black barley can I just use roasted barley instead?
Thanks!
 
Never brewed with 2 row, so unsure on that count. I sub roasted barley for sure. This is my go-to yearly RIS.

Cool thanks.

I'm going to brew a Yeti clone as my first RIS but was also interested in this one as I have a lot of Nugget and Willamette I would like to use up.

I think with all the roasted malt in there it might be hard to taste the Maris Otter which costs about 1/3 more than the German/Belgian pale ale malt I usually use but maybe I am wrong.
 
I would say go with whatever base grain you want. As you stated there's enough roasted and caramel malt in this that I don't think the base is going to make a noticeable difference.
 
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