I feel like I failed A Russian Imperial Stout

[thetmaxx]

Ok, so this was my first massive grain bill, that was targeted to hit 1.100 @ 75% efficiency. So it took 20lbs. of grain, and I used 1 lb. rice hulls.

I don't think it is wise to do that in a 5g cooler mash tun. Couldn't stir the mash at all, bent my plastic spoon/paddle, then the sparge wouldn't flow, ended up collecting lie 4g wort. and after the boil (90 mins) i had like 3 - 4 gallons wort @ 1.075...

I feel like i might not have screwed up so bad if I wasn't getting hammered with friends while trying to do this, but I wish I would have thought of these few things:

1 Try stiring the mash with the non spoon side...
2 Just sparge more hot water, I only limited it because it was getting stuck real bad

Also since my ABV is already going to be slightly low (7%) would anyone bother topping up the carboy, or just leaving it low @ 3-4g?

 

[broadbill]

It would have been tough to get a mash with 20lbs of grain in a 5gallon MT, regardless of your sobriety. The think to have done would be to scale back the mash size and add DME/LME to get it to 1.100.

I'd leave it, and replan to do this properly taking into consideration your mash tun size.

 

[barroomhero1234]

well you made kinda a foreign extra stout!

 

[seabass07]

Next time you have to figure out how much space you will need for your mash here. You probably ended up with something tasty though.

 

[JerseyBrewer]

Another option (I've never done it, but it looks interesting) is double or reiterative mashing. Here's a thread on the topic (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/double-mashing-2-sets-grain-116616/). You might be able to get away with using a single small mashtun and still get the numbers you want (and have a small beer as well). It sounds like a long day though...

 

[thetmaxx]

The LME/DME is an option, I don't know why but I feel now that I have the All grain setup working I don't want to use Extract, like its a step down or something... Crazy I know!!

Thank you Jersey brewer! I saw a post on there:
"It is a great option for newbs and cheapskates like me."

That pretty much sums up why that would work so well for me. Never even thought of breaking it down like that, but next time I think I will do the reiterated mash.

One more question, can this brew be aged? I haven't really looked into what it takes to age a homebrew, is it the ABV that preserves it or??? I read before that most home brew is only good for 6 months...?

THANKS SO MUCH!!

 

[Eric]

Another consideration for the future is efficiency with big beers. 75% is my normal efficiency, but I've noticed once I get above 1.070 efficiency begins to dip slightly. The couple times I've done barleywines my efficiency was closer to 60%.
Oh yeah, and....get a bigger cooler.

 

[thetmaxx]

Yes larger equipment is in the future, I wasn't sure how good the beer would be, how much fun it would be, how fast my friends would drink all of the beer, etc. Now that I know I can do it (somewhat) successfully I think I need to try to set up a larger rig in the garage! I really want to get kegging first though. (bottling is such a pain!!)

 

[coypoo]

I think the biggest factor besides storage conditions for aging beer is the alcohol. At 7% it should age nicely for up to 2, maybe 3 years. I've got a lot of bottles that are closing in on 2 years old.

 

[JonM]

Just out of curiosity, how did you get it all in there? Green Bay Rackers says that, with 20 lb grain, the most water you could fit in a 5 gal cooler is about 2/3 qt per pound.

 

[thetmaxx]

Just out of curiosity, how did you get it all in there? Green Bay Rackers says that, with 20 lb grain, the most water you could fit in a 5 gal cooler is about 2/3 qt per pound.

yeah, not much water in there! It was a mess, stirring I had gain splashing all over the kitchen!

 

[thetmaxx]

I tried to upload a pic of the carboy, but the advantage of having a small volume was it didn't blow off, the krausen went right to the air lock then feel back down.