Belgian Style Imperial Stout Critique

My latest evil plan

15 pounds pilsen
8 oz aromatic
8 oz special B
8 oz caramunic
8 oz roasted barley
8 oz biscuit
6 oz black barley
5 pounds table sugar
2 gallon chimay yeast starter
1.080 or so OG before sugar additions
2 oz magnum at 90
1 oz willamete at 10
1 oz willamete at FO
roughly 45 IBU
30 srm

I will let the primary fermentation at 65 degrees start to wind down, maybe 7 days or so and then I will inrease temp to 73 degrees and start adding table sugar 1 pound at a time with a tsp of nutrient until the yeast calls her quits or I use up 5 pounds of sugar.

This should put the OG at around 1.130 I would love to see it hit 1.020 or less and I think with the incremental feedng, high pitch rates and sugar/nutrient additions I should be able to make this happen.

roughly %83 apparent attenuation and 14.7 ABV.....I know it is asking alot out of the yeasties but if there is a strain that can do it, this the one!

Do you think this is a feasable recipe and plan of attack or am I wasting resources here! Recipe look good?

For that much gravity, and your target FG, I wouldn't use any crystal malts, so I'd cut the caramunich.

The Biscuit and aromatic might get lost in the mix, but I doubt they'll hurt. With that much pils malt, I don't think you'll have a problem with malt flavor/aroma, and they might keep the FG a bit high.

Other than that it looks good.

Nateo said:

For that much gravity, and your target FG, I wouldn't use any crystal malts, so I'd cut the caramunich.

The Biscuit and aromatic might get lost in the mix, but I doubt they'll hurt. With that much pils malt, I don't think you'll have a problem with malt flavor/aroma, and they might keep the FG a bit high.

Other than that it looks good.

Click to expand...

Maybe ditch caramunic and double up the special B?

I would have no problem with straight Pils, roasted barley and black barley...

I wonder if droping 5# of pils for 5# of munich would be a good idea?

Solid plan. My only suggestion would be to go with some more flavorful sugar, dark candi syrup would be great, many some unrefined sugar, or how about some date sugar? That would help to replace some of the flavor from the caramunich without the added sweetness (although honestly I don't see the harm in half a pound).

Good luck.

Oldsock said:

Solid plan. My only suggestion would be to go with some more flavorful sugar, dark candi syrup would be great, many some unrefined sugar, or how about some date sugar? That would help to replace some of the flavor from the caramunich without the added sweetness (although honestly I don't see the harm in half a pound).

Good luck.

Click to expand...

I have finalized my grain bill and ordered the grains.

Briess Pilsner 18 lbs
Special B 1 lbs
Crisp Pale Chocolate Malt 4 oz
Briess Black Barley 4 oz
Briess Roasted Barley 4 oz
Crisp Chocolate Malt 4 oz


I think the special B will give me that nice deep, raisin, plum burnt caramel sensation, and I am a huge fan of chocolate malts, especially in smaller amounts so I think I have a nice grain bill here to work with.

I upped my base malt, because pilsen tastes great and base grains are cheap.

I have 1# of amber inverted sugar and 1# of light inverted sugar that I will use up, then the rest I can get creative with.. turninado sugar, date sugar, honey, etc..etc...anything to bring more to the party.

I am brewing this in anticipation of a brew off next april. It should be aged about right in 6 months.\


I am going to start up two 1 gallon chimay yeast starters, stepping up from 1/2 quart each, slowly but surely to raise up the most healthy colony of yeast I can.

Just a quick question, I am thinking about adding 2# of oats to the grainbill. Also I am considering mashing at 140 with just the barley for 45 minutes and then adding a 2 gallon near boiling cereal mash with the oats to ramp it up around 153 for the next 45 minutes...then do a double batch sparge.

I will then reaerate 12 hours after pitching and add a shot of yeast nutrient after 24 hours. I will also add 1/4 tsp nutrient with every sugar addition.

Here is another question, when should I ramp up the temp? when I start adding sugar or after the last sugar addition?

I have also decided on a single large charge of magnum for bittering and 4-5 oz of late willamete for the aroma and flavor. I am hoping to get a more spicy, floral character with this method as opposed to the "C" hops.

just an update. I sparged more than I initially planned and decided to turn this into a bigger batch. So ended up with about 8.5 gallons of 1.065 WORT.


I pitched the yeast from a 2 gallon chimay yeast starter and fermentation took off. After 48 hours it is at 1.015! So I added 1# clear candi sugar, 1# amber candi sugar,2# table sugar and some yeast energizer/nutrient to the fermenter and raised the temp to 75 to really dry this beer out and get some belgian flavors.

The sample I pulled tasted amazing!! This is going to be one nice beer......the added sugars bring my OG up to about 1.085 and I am hoping to dry this beer out to below 1.010 and think with the sugar addition, super fermentable wort,huge yeast colony and increased temp it will get there.

It tasted like a nice, roasty stout after 2 days! I couldn't beleive it.