Russian Imperial Stout Hops

[plankbr]

Hi all! I have a question about hops and a hopping schedule for my RIS (5 gallons). I have extra Magnum and Centennial hops and was wondering if they would be a good fit for my RIS. Hop schedule is as follows:

2 oz. Magnum FWH
2 oz. Magnum @ 60
2 oz. Centennial @ 30

Thoughts please?

 

[Slainte-brew]

Just looking at it without knowing your grain bill or OG, I would say 6 oz of hops is a lot. You could get away with a lot less, maybe even do a 90 minute boil with half the hops. You are well over 100 IBUs with that, I like to try and be around 70 IBU. Also anything over 100 I dont really know if you are getting anything out of it. I guessed your Magnum was 12% and centenial 10% and OG of 1.100. I prefer the maltier Stouts though.

Magnum is a great stout hop (magnum, warrior, columbus are great neutral bittering hops) so I think you made a good choice there. This one would hold up better to aging a bit longer, but I know mine never last long enough.

Maybe same hops but 2oz, 1oz, 1oz? It will make a good stout, just how much bitterness and hop forward will it be??? I have had a few 90+ IBU stouts, I just havent liked them as much.

 

[IL1kebeer]

It depends on how sweet you want your beer to be. RIS usually are aged so take that into consideration when deciding on hops schedules, IBUs, and hop flavor. 40 IBUs for a huge RIS and you will be sweet right out the gate. It will be much much sweeter in a few years. 100+ IBUs will obviously be less sweet for longer. Making this decision will ultimately depend on what kind of beer you want.

Same with hop flavor. Do you want hop flavor? Do you intend to drink this beer young (less than a year or two) or do you want hop flavor in the years or come?

For a point of reference. The Bruery's Black Tuesday is an 18-19% Barrel Aged RIS and it clocks in around 40 IBUs. It's already super sweet without much age. Stone's Imperial Russian Stout is a smaller beer at around 10% but it clocks in at over 100 IBUs all from the bittering charge. I tried a 4 year old pour the last time that I was at Stone and it wasn't nearly as sweet as a fresh Black Tuesday.

I personally would drop the FWH and move Centennial to a 5 min addition, but I like most of my beers with some hop flavor. Alternatively, you can certainly do without the Centennial and just keep the 2 oz 60 min Magnum addition. This just depends if you want hop flavor or not. Keep in kind the hop flavor will dissipate over the years but it shouldn't really disappear.

 

[Natdavis777]

I'd cut them down to 1 oz each and see how it turns out. For mine, I do:
Chinook 60min
Galena 30min
Galena 5min

Turns out nice with a typical FG around 1018.

 

[Remmy]

6 oz. for a RIS isn't bad.

I used 3 oz. of Challenger and 2 oz. of EKG on my last RIS. It came in at ~100 IBU.

 

[plankbr]

I ended up using:
2 oz. Magnum FWH
2 oz. Magnum @ 60
2 oz. Goldings @ 30

Good thing I rigged a blow off system, because 1.5 days later, re-hydrated S-04 had the lid lifted off.

 

[BeerdedBrewer]

How did that turn out by the way? Getting ready to do a RIS, that will probably ferment/batch condition for a month, then bottle condition for around 5 months.