Mightnight Oil Imperial Stout

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TwistedGray

El Jefe Brewing Company
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This is my first beer brew; however, I have made a few ciders in the past. I picked up the extract kit from the local brew store.

Midnight Oil - Imperial Stout
Description: A dark viscous ale with heaps of coco and toffee flavors layered with hints of burnt coffee. I added a few ingredients myself to up the coco intensity.
OG: 1.090-1.095
FG: 1.018-1.023
IBU: 56
Color: 36 SRM
ABV: 9%

Excited to see how it comes out!

*I ended up splitting off a gallon to make sure I didn't have a major mess to clean up. I think I am safe (pitched yeast early Sunday morning), and it's a bit cool in the garage.

Midnight Oil Imperial Stout.jpg


Midnight Oil Imperial Stout 2.jpg
 
I have a few questions if you don't mind.

How did your botteling session go?
What was the final gravity you reached and what yeast did you use?
Assuming your sample tasted fine, how long will you be leaving it to age before drinking?
And if course, care to share the recipe as well as your additions?
 
I have a few questions if you don't mind.

How did your botteling session go?
What was the final gravity you reached and what yeast did you use?
Assuming your sample tasted fine, how long will you be leaving it to age before drinking?
And if course, care to share the recipe as well as your additions?

Bottling session went well; however, it would have been so much nicer to have a bottle bucket. I racked two times and used a funnel. A pain in the ass, but it worked. Also, I think I'll stick with 1tsp of white sugar for each 12oz bottle as that proved much better at carb'ing than mixing the sugar for the whole batch together.

Final gravity was 1.020 so just around 9%. They included Nottingham dry which is what I used.

06/05: Pitched yeast
06/19: Racked off the yeast into secondary
07/03: Bottled
07/22: Tested first bottle*

*It is still quite immature. It is okay, and I would say quite boring. However, in a pinch I'd drink another. My wife noted that it was strong "you can taste the alcohol", and "tastes like something I would buy".

I don't know how long it should age, so I guess that's still in the air. I took a gallon off and mixed with some homebrewed hard cider and that's quite interesting, but unfortunately I should've known better. The hard cider I made had a bit of an off flavor and in hindsight I should've just pitched it...now I have two gallons of not so good beer.



Ingredients/Instructions/Recipe (Courtesy of BottomsUpHomebrew.com, my local brew store)
Ingredients
6lb Golden light LME
3.3lb Golden light LME
2lb Golden light DME
.5lb Pale chocolate malt
.5lb Black roasted barley
.5lb Midnight wheat

Hops
1oz Nugget
1oz Willamette

Yeast
Nottingham dry yeast, WLP001

*During brewing process I added three bars of Ibarra chocolate, but if I do this again I would add in significantly more. Maybe once aged it'll be more represented, but I suspect maybe not.
 
Looking back at my post it was very clinical. Let me start again because I missed something very important.

Congrats on your first homebrew! (ciders not withstanding, but congrats on the first beer)

Thanks for sharing the recipe, I am always on the lookout for new stouts as they are my favorite. I haven't made a RIS yet because I see a lot of people have stuck fermentations due to the yeast getting 'tired' for lack of a better explanation, the same can be said of some people having carbonation issues.

Great to hear yours went well, and after it mellows a bit more you should have a great homebrew. Keep us all updated with tasting notes as it gets more conditioned.
 
Looking back at my post it was very clinical. Let me start again because I missed something very important.

Congrats on your first homebrew! (ciders not withstanding, but congrats on the first beer)

Thanks for sharing the recipe, I am always on the lookout for new stouts as they are my favorite. I haven't made a RIS yet because I see a lot of people have stuck fermentations due to the yeast getting 'tired' for lack of a better explanation, the same can be said of some people having carbonation issues.

Great to hear yours went well, and after it mellows a bit more you should have a great homebrew. Keep us all updated with tasting notes as it gets more conditioned.

Thanks and will do. I'll probably pop a bottle in the fridge every four to six weeks or so. Fortunately, I the remainder of the year is packed with work travel so I won't be tempted to drink it otherwise :)
 
Updated tasting note: Still a strong alcohol taste and aroma, but the flavors are a little more settled than the last taste about a month ago. I will probably pop a bottle or two next month with I have some guests, but otherwise I don't think I'll bother again until the end of the year on this one.
 
Updating tasting note: It has fortunately lost some of its strong alcohol taste, and the flavors are finally starting to develop. Right now I would describe it as boring, as in not complex.

Just the right amount of head, too, which is nice.

20161102_153024.jpg


20161102_153641.jpg
 
Complete noob question forgive me. I brewed my first ever batch- a chocolate peanut butter stout- a few weeks ago. Primary for almost 2 weeks then racked to secondary about 2 weeks ago now. My stout is kind of a brown color, similar to what your pictures look like in the carboys. Does the beer eventually get darker in secondary like it pours in your last picture?
 
This is my first beer brew; however, I have made a few ciders in the past. I picked up the extract kit from the local brew store.

Midnight Oil - Imperial Stout
Description: A dark viscous ale with heaps of coco and toffee flavors layered with hints of burnt coffee. I added a few ingredients myself to up the coco intensity.
OG: 1.090-1.095
FG: 1.018-1.023
IBU: 56
Color: 36 SRM
ABV: 9%

Excited to see how it comes out!

*I ended up splitting off a gallon to make sure I didn't have a major mess to clean up. I think I am safe (pitched yeast early Sunday morning), and it's a bit cool in the garage.
Love seeing how this beer got darker I just made a stout two days ago looks a lot like this one and was wondering if it would get darker
 
Love seeing how this beer got darker I just made a stout two days ago looks a lot like this one and was wondering if it would get darker

Give it time, A LOT of time. At least for me, my storage is cold because it's kept in an uninsulated garage...so it's taking longer to age.
 
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