Dry imperial stout

[knoosen]

I enjoy both dry Irish stouts and Russian imperial stouts. Having brewed some dry high-gravity Belgian quads, I'm wondering whether a Russian imperial stout could benefit from the same degree of attenuation or whether the mouthfeel, sweetness, and maltiness of a higher FG is needed to balance the roastiness and high alcohol. Does anyone have any experience of brewing a lower-FG RIS?

 

[thehaze]

I have brewed a roasty, 75 IBUs Porter this spring, where the FG was 1.011. This was done using Nottingham dry yeast and some sugar in the boil. The final beer was 8.1% and it was relatively dry and bitter. Became much better after 30 days in the bottle, but was still good 2 weeks after bottling.

I think it is entirely possible to brew a higher ABV Porter/Stout with an FG does closer to an IPA/Belgian Tripel style and still be good.

For my recipe, I just used Maris Otter, Black Malt, Chocolate Malt, English Crystal 90 and 160L + Sugar in the boil and fermented around 68-70F ( 20-21C ).

 

[specharka]

I made a solid RIS a few years ago that was bone dry...1.104 OG attenuated all the way to 1.015 FG. Pretty sure it got cross-contaminated with Saccharomyces var diastaticus, but the flavors were on point, and the beer was spectacular. If you’re looking for the same level of attenuation, consider adding 10% sugar at high krausen, mash low (147-149F), keep the OG under 1.090, and use a neutral ale yeast like US-05 to crank it dry. I would resist the impulse to use saison yeast or WLP099 to crank up the attenuation; you really need some residual sugars for mouthfeel.

FWIW, I dug up my old RIS recipe:

83% Maris Otter
6% Roasted Barley
4% Flaked Oats
4% Chocolate Malt
2% Special B
1% Midnight Wheat

75 IBU Cluster @ 90 min
15 IBU Cluster @ 30 min

WY1728 @ 62F for 30 days, then racked to a keg and cold conditioned for another 60 days.

 

[tennesseean_87]

I've used 3711 in big stouts, and they definitely taste way different when super dry--more belgian than stout. Mine had some other Belgian aspects, like special B.

 

[knoosen]

Thanks for the input and suggestions. I'm leaning toward using a neutral yeast but using a Belgian or saison sounds interesting as well.

 

[Hayden123982]

I would be interested to see how something like this would taste. What if... You take some glucoamylase and add that to your mash after temp has cooled... So do a lower temp mash like 146 and after about an hour, let it cool. Then add the glucoamylase for X minutes and start to bring it up to a boil to denature the enzyme. The timing on glucoamylase would be a crap shoot, but if you do over do it, you could always make more RIS and blend that in with the batch that was too dry.

Thoughts on this?

 

[Queequeg]

My current impy finished at 1.011. if you are going to go that route make sure you keep you in proportional and use a generous amount of flavor hops