My Birthday Imperial Stout

I did an imperial stout on my birthday. My thinking is to leave it in primary until July 12th, bottle, then leave in bottles until January 12th, 2012 (my birthday).

I've never done an Imperial Stout before, and because it was MY birthday brew, I made up a recipe going off of personal knowledge (or lack thereof). I wanted to make it my own, and thought it would be a nice tradition. Maybe by the time I'm 80 I will have a respectable IS.

I split it into two 1-gallon jugs, and used US-04 in one and US-05 in the other. I figured I would compare the two and see what happens. *This is the first time I have re-hydrated dry yeast.* I went to sleep and woke up four hours later and they were already fermenting away.

Smelled feckin' delicious... it's going to take all my will power to not try it before the year is up...



Here is the recipe, critique if you can, and throw in suggestions or thoughts on how it might turn out.

SG - 1.084
Est. FG - 1.020-1.022
Est. IBU - 79
Est. SRM - 42
Est. 78% efficiency -

3.5 lbs Briess Two-Row
2 oz. Crystal 120L
8 oz. American Chocolate Malt
6 oz. Flaked Wheat

.5 oz. U.S. Kent Goldings (60 min.)
.25 oz. U.S. Kent Goldings (30 min.)
.25 oz. U.S. Hallertau (30 min.)
.25 oz. U.S. Kent Goldings (15 min.)
.25 oz. U.S. Hallertau (15 min.)

152* Mash (75 min.)
170* Sparge (10 min.)

Final volume - 1.5 Gallons

The only thing jumping out to me is the lack of roasted barley. I prefer a big charge of this in my imperial stouts. Cool idea on the yeast split. Those two strains should make a significant difference in the beers.

Is it safe to leave in primary for 6 months? Never heard of anybody aging in the primary that long. Just wondering

Not a stout w/o roasted barley. looks more like a barleywine or Black IIPA with the IBU/SG ratio you got...

wonderbread23 said:

The only thing jumping out to me is the lack of roasted barley. I prefer a big charge of this in my imperial stouts. Cool idea on the yeast split. Those two strains should make a significant difference in the beers.

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I thought about the roasted barley, and actually had it in the original recipe, but decided against it in favor of a sweeter flavor. I love me some stouts, but sometimes I feel the coffee/roasted flavor is over the top on some, so I wanted to go the other way.

I'm not exactly sure how much of an idea you can get from tasting the sweet wort, but if that was any indication of the final product, it was a fantastic chocolatey/caramel taste with a nice hop bite.

flabyboy said:

Is it safe to leave in primary for 6 months? Never heard of anybody aging in the primary that long. Just wondering

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I've read about people leaving it in primary for that long (mostly due to forgeting about it), but maybe I will only leave it in primary for two months and just bottle age it until January. That way I know my yeast won't be too pooped to carb it up.

Poobah58 said:

Not a stout w/o roasted barley. looks more like a barleywine or Black IIPA with the IBU/SG ratio you got...

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Seems to fit in the Imperial Stout catagory, from what I've read. As per BJCP guidelines, they only state the abundance of roasted malts, not specifically roasted barley; as far as I know (again, not an expert in stouts, or any beer), chocolate and crystal are both roasted malts. All of the other guidelines fit fine (this is what I went off of when making the recipe).

Ingredients: Well-modified pale malt, with generous quantities of roasted malts and/or grain. May have a complex grain bill using virtually any variety of malt. Any type of hops may be used. Alkaline water balances the abundance of acidic roasted grain in the grist. American or English ale yeast.

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I looked at the guidelines for barleywine, and the color doesn't fit for my brew. I could not find any guidelines for a black IIPA, is this a newer style?

FWIW, I don't believe crystal and chocolate fall into the same roasted category. Crystal malt is roasted while still green/wet but chocolate malt is kilned first then roasted. Chocolate malt does fall into the same category as roasted barley however, so you might get a sufficient roasty character from the chocolate malt.

That being said, if you're not going to enter it into a competition, you can call it whatever you'd like, and it looks like you've made a stout to me.

In a competition I would be worried about the roast character not being forward enough as the guidelines state, "Dark fruit flavors meld with roasty, burnt, or almost tar-like sensations."

In any case, good luck holding onto those beers for an entire year without drinking them...I don't believe I could do it Bottoms up!

Oh, okay. I thought that crystal went through the same process as chocolate and roasted malts. I will have to write on my notes to put in a quantity of roasted barley for next year.. unless this just turns out too good. heh heh

This is for me, for my birthday; I won't be entering it into a competition.

MetallHed said:

Oh, okay. I thought that crystal went through the same process as chocolate and roasted malts. I will have to write on my notes to put in a quantity of roasted barley for next year.. unless this just turns out too good. heh heh

This is for me, for my birthday; I won't be entering it into a competition.

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Looks delicious in that primary! You'll have to update us if you do decide to taste it a bit early!

I bottled after a month after reading some people getting off-flavors from the rubber stoppers in small batches, and needing the room...



Tastes pretty damn good, so far, but I'm sure it will mature and evolve as time goes by. I just worry now about the flip top bottles. I've never used them; hopefully they'll carb up okay and won't ruin the beer!

Tasted the mixed yeast bottle today (had a half full bottle left from the US-04 and topped it off with the US-05 beer)... and holy crap.. for just throwing this together... it's freaking delish. Sweet with slight roasty-ness. No alcohol notes that I can taste. I've done good holding out so far, so it shouldn't be a problem to keep until January, but I can't wait to taste it then, cuz it's damn good now.