Who's brewing 08-08-08 RIS? Post your notes here!

landhoney said:

In all seriousness; I freely admit, when it comes to many things I am slow and stupid. With that in mind, please be kind in answering my next question:

Did you brew this beer in addition to the 8-8-8 recipe?

I feel my previous question where I used the word 'too' could be taken two ways. I just don't understand why you're posting pics/detail of another RIS in the 8-8-8 RIS brewing thread. Not that I don't enjoy seeing them, I just 'need' to understand what's going on or I'll explode. Thanks Edwort, you rock!

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This Rasty Old Tom American Imperial Stout is my 888 recipe. I know everyone is doing Russian Stouts, but since old Pootie Poot
is Time's Man of the Year, I thought I would do an American one. :cross:

I don't have two Imperial Stouts going at one time.

BierMuncher said:

You're welcome...

I like the smell too.

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I thought it was you, but was not sure. Thanks ol' BM. Happy New Year!

The brewing has just started at the Falling Timber Brewing Company here in rainy Silverdale, WA.

It's just above 40 today, so I went with the indoor brewery (aka kitchen)


5# of specialty grains


Steeping. The water turned a nice dark color within a minute. (Looks like stout to me) and it's starting to smell good in here.

Well I have gotten a late...missed Jan 1 weekend... and getting a late start today. None the less... RIS will be brewed today and I am offically starting now with this post. 4:30 here in Southern Alabama and 65 deg. I will post some pics as it goes.

Since I'm in the kitchen I had to slip a pot of Mac N' Cheese onto an empty burner during the steep. Right now I'm getting everything up to a boil so I can add the DME.

Should have brewed outdoors, it's taking forever to get a boil going.

Finished 5.5 gallons at a group brewday. Ended up at 1.092. Took freakin' forever, but I'm happy.

Wort sample was sweet bitterness. This is going to be a long 8 months.

Mine didn't finish where it should have, ended up at 1.076. I have a theory though. I did a gravity measurement seperately on the steeping grains and ended up with 1.011, where I should have had 1.022 according to BTP. So maybe cramming five pounds of grain into a bag isn't allowing the grains in the center to fully extract. Probably should have used two bags instead of one.

The wort tastes good overall. Nice and sweet. I will update my pics later, still need to clean up a bit.

More Pics

Spent the brew session in chat




Moved to the smoker


Filling the primary

Just over five gallons of delicious dark goodness.

Did you ever have one of those days?? One of those brew days where everything is just not right with the world?? Today was that day for me. Listen to this.
I'm doing the 08-08-08 RIS using the recipie that was sent out. Same one you all got. I was lucky in that my LHBS had everything in it and so I made no subs in the recipie. I recieved a brand new Barley Crusher for Christmas and this was its inagural batch of grain. My efficiency in the past has been around 65% using the crushed grain from my LHBS. I have read threads of people saying that they gained 10% eff from using a BC w/ factory settings out of the box. Well I guess not me. I had to over-sparge because my pre-boil OG was 1.055 instead of 1.066 according to BeerSmith (I hit all my temps). So I over-sparged an extra 2 gal to make up for it and just boiled longer. Well with many painful calculations to accomadate the changes , my FG was estimated to be 1.080. I can live with that. Well guess what??!? I'll never know, cause when I was sanitizing my thief and hydrometer to measure my FG, I DROPPED THE FRIGGIN HYDROMETER and BROKE it. Oh well. It tasted right and I am pretty sure of my calculations. I guess we will just see. My advice to everyone...Hydrometers are not expensive...buy two and have on hand a backup because they are fragile. Don't let this happen to you. Oh the agony of not knowing the exact FG on a beer as important as this one. Oh Well, I had fun anyways. And it will be more than drinkable I'm sure.

Here are some pics of the brew evening...

Here are the rest.

Things have quieted down some. We're at 1.022 (down from 1.088) and seemingly holding steady. I do beleive I lost about a pint + in blow-off.

I couldn't resist tasting my hydro sample...not a good idea. Tasted like kahlua, coffee, licorice, and a splash of cheap rum. The alcohol warmth was huge.

I know, I know...this is a 7-8 month beer...minimum. But hey...you think I'm going to pour a sample down the drain???

WOW. That's really potent. Just tried mine too. Sitting at 1020.

Very dark. Very roasty. Very bitter. I see promise in it though. Just needs to chillax for a while.

Still working on it. I should just slam the last 4 oz. Sipping is slow.

This is what happens when common sense is misplaced. Beer is going to take the path of least resistance, kind of like that new kid who wants to make beer with the stuff in Mom's kitchen.
It's not going to go out the blowoff tube if the airlock is open. On the plus side, I know the starter was good.


It could have been worse

Well, just finished cleaning up after my 8-8-8 Brewday. Ended up with 5.5 gallons at 1.82. Not dead on, but I'm happy with it. That sure was a long day!!!

jacobyhale, is that right? 1.82???

I just finished up with my batch. I did a partial mash recipe. Somebody somewhere suggested trying to mash the LME with the 2-row to make the LME more fermentable, so that's what I tried this time. Well, I tried it with at least 5 lbs since my 5 gal boiler can only hold so much liquid and I thought I may need more than 2 lbs of 2 row. And for good reason, considering I used 14 lbs of LME and 7 total lbs of grain.

While it cooled I racked my porter off the WLP026 Premium Bitter Ale cake, and once it was cool enough, dumped the wort right onto the cake.

I'd considered doing concentrated malt additions because of the high gravity I'd predicted, but took a chance and dumped the whole thing in the bucket. My fears were unfounded. I got done cleaning up and 30 minutes later the airlock is going off like gangbusters. Glad I have a 9 gallon bucket.

OG is 1.118

jacobyhale, is that right? 1.82???

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My bad, I meant 1.082.

Just checked the gravity for mine. It came in a 1.025 for 8% ABV so far. It still has 3 more days in the fermenter at 60 degrees before kegging.

Mine officially quit at 1.030. Two packs of rehydrated S-05, my ass.

PseudoChef said:

Mine officially quit at 1.030. Two packs of rehydrated S-05, my ass.

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I used the same, but got 5 more points. I roused it for the next few days.

The hydrometer jar tasted wonderfully complex with a hoppy alcohol finish that will make this a wonderful winter warmer next winter.

EdWort said:

I used the same, but got 5 more points. I roused it for the next few days.

The hydrometer jar tasted wonderfully complex with a hoppy alcohol finish that will make this a wonderful winter warmer next winter.

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Yeah, I started high at 1.092, anyway. Hydro sample tastes decent. Definitely needs time. I'm still pleased knowing I'll be sitting on this one for a year (for the most part) anyway.

Yeah, it's kinda neat to have something stored away with a date so far in the future. I just noticed my keg of Apfelwein with the AHC Conference Tape on it. Made in May of last year and will be over a year old when I tap it in Cinci in June. Should be mighty tasty.

EdWort said:

Yeah, it's kinda neat to have something stored away with a date so far in the future. I just noticed my keg of Apfelwein with the AHC Conference Tape on it. Made in May of last year and will be over a year old when I tap it in Cinci in June. Should be mighty tasty.

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Are you going to Cincy? I'm thinking about heading out to it.

Well I just HAD to take a peek into the bucket to see how it was doing. The krausen got about 5" high and has fully fallen into the beer. I took a hydrometer reading and got..... 1.042. Ohhhh no it doesn't! That damned yeast cake isn't done by a long shot! So I roused it up a bit and more CO2 dissolved out of solution than the winner of a beerfarting contest. We'll see how it goes now won't we?

Poppy360 said:

Are you going to Cincy? I'm thinking about heading out to it.

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Yep. Heading out to visit family in Dayton. Making the drive from Austin. Should be fun. Reservation at the Sheraton made long ago.

Mine's been sitting steady at 1.024 for the past couple of days. I think I'll rack to secondary tomorrow. With this crazy big of a beer, I was expecting more than an 8% abv, but this'll make a much more drinkable beer.

I racked my 888 to secondary today. 1.018.

i sampled mine today. 1.030

temperature is a little low and it may have gotten stuck, so i gave it a swirl. should be ok, tho, it tastes wonderful but could definitely be a little more dry.

sampled my mild too. tastes really good, not sure about the lemony flavor from the sorachi hops (might not use those next time) but it's still a damn fine brew.
Here's to brewing wonderful beers with the help of HBT!

My 08.08.08 ended up at 1.024 when I transfered to the secondary. I racked to a 5gal carboy but forgot that I ended up with about 5.5gal in the primary, so I had a quart or so left by the time the carboy was filled to the brim. I decided I couldn't let that much of this beer go to waste so I primed it with a little bit of under attenuated mead I was transferring and bottled a 22oz and a 16oz. The sample I took when I transfered tasted so good I may give these bottles and early taste once they have carbed up.
Craig

Did mine yesterday, the OG ended up at 1.076, but that was after diluting it a little bit with 1/2 gallon of 1.040 starter. Ended up a little low, but it was the first time using the new keggle, so I'm still figuring out the specifics of it.

I bottled mine last Tuesday. It went from 1.088 to 1.029. Not sure why it stopped there, but it probably had something to do with the high mash temps. I'm gonna try a bottle this week sometime to test the carbo.

PseudoChef said:

Mine officially quit at 1.030. Two packs of rehydrated S-05, my ass.

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hehe, me too. I actually used an active US-05 cake, and had signs of fermentation within an hour. But it stopped at 1.029. Tastes AWESOME though. I can't wait for this to be ready.

Bottled half of mine yesterday afternoon at about 1.018 ish, the other 2.5 gals got some raspberry to play with, and I'll bottle it in 3-4 days or so. Yay!

It was Sunday and the LHBS was closed, so instead of puree, I used the Smuckers "100% Spreadable Fruit" - ingredients are simply water, razz puree, and some citric acid for preservation. Citric acid just = Vitamin C, if i recall, right? Anyways, I put 2 jars of it in a pan with some water, and simmered for a half hour, then I CAREFULLY took the jars out, let them cool to touchable temps (still warm) and dumped 'em both in. Yeast seem happy, the airlock is blubbin' away again.

Mine went to the secondary yesterday. Ended up a bit off, 1.080 OG and 1.027 FG. Still tasted great though. That is one dark brew!

chriso said:

Bottled half of mine yesterday afternoon at about 1.018 ish, the other 2.5 gals got some raspberry to play with, and I'll bottle it in 3-4 days or so. Yay!

It was Sunday and the LHBS was closed, so instead of puree, I used the Smuckers "100% Spreadable Fruit" - ingredients are simply water, razz puree, and some citric acid for preservation. Citric acid just = Vitamin C, if i recall, right? Anyways, I put 2 jars of it in a pan with some water, and simmered for a half hour, then I CAREFULLY took the jars out, let them cool to touchable temps (still warm) and dumped 'em both in. Yeast seem happy, the airlock is blubbin' away again.

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Asorbic acid is Vitamin C, but citric acid should not cause any problem. The only issue would be some pectin haze from the heated fruit and pectin in the spread but good luck noticing that in this beer.
I'm giving most of mine another few weeks in the secondary to age before bottling. No rush on this beer as I hope to stay out of the stash until August.

Craig

Just bottled mine. 2 cases of 22's and one rack of 12's. OG 1084 FG 1027. I'm drinking the half bttle left over right now and it is very good. Hats off to BrewPastor for a great recipe. Looking forward to the swap.

PTN

I brewed mine on Sat. overshot my OG by a couple(1.092) pitched to a pale ale 05 cake and had action within 2 hours. I used a blow off tube but I didn't really need it. I still have a nice 4 inch krausen in 6.5g carboy at 64*

Evan! said:

I bottled mine last Tuesday. It went from 1.088 to 1.029. Not sure why it stopped there, but it probably had something to do with the high mash temps. I'm gonna try a bottle this week sometime to test the carbo.

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Suprise, suprise, mine's at the same place Evan!(we brewed this together and divided the wort, but I used a different yeast). However, I neved did add the water so it started at.....I don't remember, ~1.098? I'll be bottling soon too, I guess. Tastes good, not nearly as sweet as the 1.030 would indicate to me and has a dryish finish.