Increasing grain bill

[agslax]

What would happen if you took the grain bill to an imperial stout (for example) and doubles it, keeping everything else the same? Assuming you use a yeast that could handle the alcohol content, what would the beer taste like? I have always wondered this and figured some of you may be able to save me a botched brew day if you have some wisdom to impart.

 

[JonM]

Well, for a 5-gallon batch, you might be mashing upwards of 40 lbs of grain, which would be tricky. Then assuming you got any kind of efficiency from mashing so much grain, you'd get wort that was too sugary for the yeast to handle it.

In short, I think it'd be a mess to do that. But I've never tried.

 

[Yooper]

You'd have to increase the hops as well, since more malt means higher sugar and needs more hops to balance that.

 

[Leithoa]

If what you're going for is a double imperial stout and you don't want 5 gallons of it you could try doing a partigyle. That way you're not out 5 gallons of beer if your recipe's crap and you can get a nice robust porter out of the second runnings.

 

[agslax]

If what you're going for is a double imperial stout and you don't want 5 gallons of it you could try doing a partigyle. That way you're not out 5 gallons of beer if your recipe's crap and you can get a nice robust porter out of the second runnings.

Sounds like a good idea!