08-08-08 Russian Imperial Stout Exchange

[BierMuncher]

...How about you just PM the three who haven't stepped up yet to save yourself from waiting?...

Good idea...

Of course if I recall, we're mailing sometime in May(ish)?

I know my batch is happily resting away in the keg in my 45 degree garage.

 

[Chriso]

Down to 3 more people. Brewpastor, McKBrew, and LouT. Sending reminder PMs now. As soon as these 3 come in, we are ready to distribute lists! Exciting!

Did already. Received email from McKbrew, thanks very much. 2 to go.

BM, Shipping during month of April. By the end, not in May (Except possibly if drawing Poindexter, who will be in the middle of a move at that time. Details to follow, for whoever draws his name. )

 

[BierMuncher]

...BM, Shipping during month of April....

Cool. Better get to "cleaning" a corny out to make room in the fridge to get that batch carb'd up.

 

[TerapinChef]

Kinda put the swap in the back of my mind, but here's my place holder for safe keeping. BTW, I love this beer

 

[McKBrew]

Kinda put the swap in the back of my mind, but here's my place holder for safe keeping. BTW, I love this beer

You drank it already? I keep resisting the urge to try it, but the original plan was to drink on 8-8-8, so I'm trying to hold out.

 

[CBBaron]

You drank it already? I keep resisting the urge to try it, but the original plan was to drink on 8-8-8, so I'm trying to hold out.

I have no patience for sampling beers as they condition. I have already had a couple. They are even better than my first RIS which "was" my favorite beer. This beer has almost no alcohol taste but a great chocolate flavor. Its wonderful. :rockin:

Good thing we are shipping in April or I may not have enough bottles to meet my requirements.

Craig

 

[BierMuncher]

I have no patience for sampling beers as they condition. I have already had a couple. ...

You dirty dog...

I have mine in the keg, in the garage (45 degrees), under a shelf. I figure it's safe from me there.

My problem will be when I drop it into the keezer to force carb and actually have it on tap.

I'm sure I'll have to "taste" to make sure I'm not shipping crap. Maybe I'll take some tasting notes (BJCP judging style) and pull those notes out on 08-08 when the "official" tasting is underway and compare taste differences.

 

[korndog]

You drank it already? I keep resisting the urge to try it, but the original plan was to drink on 8-8-8, so I'm trying to hold out.

I had a bottle at my club brew last weekend. People loved the stuff.

 

[paulthenurse]

I sent a few bottles to a local competition. Got points off for low bitterness and being immature but still got a respectable score. (39) This stuff will only get better.

Wish I could have let the judges know the whole 888 thing. Not that the 88 IBU thing would have changed their opinion any, it is still a bit light on the IBU's for the style but...

Same thing on the immaturity.
(Imaginary conversation with the judges...)

'Ya, but it was brewed on Jan 29th to be opened on 8/8/08..."
"Then why did you submit if for judging 5 months early?"
"Uhhh, cause I was curious what you would think?"
"We think it should have waited till August."

PTN

 

[korndog]

I sent a few bottles to a local competition. Got points off for low bitterness and being immature but still got a respectable score. (39) This stuff will only get better.

Wish I could have let the judges know the whole 888 thing. Not that the 88 IBU thing would have changed their opinion any, it is still a bit light on the IBU's for the style but...

Same thing on the immaturity.
(Imaginary conversation with the judges...)

'Ya, but it was brewed on Jan 29th to be opened on 8/8/08..."
"Then why did you submit if for judging 5 months early?"
"Uhhh, cause I was curious what you would think?"
"We think it should have waited till August."

PTN

Yeah, i got the same comment on the IBU's fro some BJCP guys at the club.

 

[Brewpastor]

The 88 IBUs is well within the parameters for the style and will mellow with age. Ray Daniels (I think) has this beer at the 1/1 range between OG and IBUs (1.088/88 IBUs). It will mellow well. It is like a Barleywine, if it tastes balanced when it is young it will not be balanced when it is of age.

 

[CBBaron]

I sent a few bottles to a local competition. Got points off for low bitterness and being immature but still got a respectable score. (39) This stuff will only get better.

Wish I could have let the judges know the whole 888 thing. Not that the 88 IBU thing would have changed their opinion any, it is still a bit light on the IBU's for the style but...

I'm not sure I understand the low bitterness thing. This beer is 88 IBUs and a 1/1 OG/IBU ratio. Thats high for everything except an IIPA. According to the guidelines:
Vital Statistics: OG: 1.075 – 1.115
IBUs: 50 – 90 FG: 1.018 – 1.030
SRM: 30 – 40 ABV: 8 – 12%
This beer is medium low on OG and ABV but high side of IBU.

I was surprised how mine seemed to lack alcohol flavor but I consider that a plus not a negative. I think this one could really sneak up on you.

Craig

 

[Brewpastor]

Maybe we are experiencing the "Imperial" effect. So many beers are being pushed to the extreme on hopping that maybe that is becoming what is expected. Stone Imperial Stout is an example of this. I love the beer but it is definately hoppy.

I have often had judges who judge with an expectation that only represents on aspect of the style guidelines. Last year my RIS at the nationals was dinged for not being roasty enough, but it definately had roast character and I would say feel easily within the style guidelines.

Comps are a game anyway. I like to play the game, but I still believe it is a game.

 

[TerapinChef]

Biermuncher....if I was aging in a keg I would never drink green beer....as it is it is just too easy to say "It's only been three weeks, but it's only one bottle, just to see how it tastes now...."

As it was I intentionally put 6 of these into Gulden Drak bottles so I could tell myself I was just having "a little one" as a sampler. The plan was for one a month, but I've already had three...I'll just have to space them out nice.

 

[paulthenurse]

Agreed about the comps. A beer can be 'dead on' in a style and get hammered by the judges. The 888 didn't get hammered at all, in fact for a 3 month old RIS I think it did quite well. I submitted a beer that I knew wasn't really ready. I did it just to satisfy my curiosity. In the end the judges confirmed what I thought about the beer. They see a snapshot of the beer in time and can only assume that it is at it's peak and is where the brewer wants it to be. Those of us who brewed this beer on the 888 schedule know it's not there yet, but the judges comment certainly indicate that it's getting there, and that it will be quite ncie when it does.

 

[BierMuncher]

Biermuncher....if I was aging in a keg I would never drink green beer....

Trust me...if there were a cobra tap anywhere in sight...this keg would have been sampled by now.

AS it is, parking it in a dark corner of the garage was an intentional move.

THough these sampling posts are making me thirsty.

 

[korndog]

I would like to enter this into a comp at my club, but need to re bottle into 12 oz. bottles. i am carbed pretty low per guidelines as is. What would you suggest as my best and easiest strategy for re bottling?

KD

 

[DeathBrewer]

i kinda want to sample one of these...ooooohhh....no, i can wait at least until month 4.

 

[Chriso]

WOW this got active all of a sudden! Glad everyone's taste samples are going well!!!!!

I haven't cracked a single bottle of mine yet. The downside to splitting my batch 1/2 raspberry is that I only have 24 bottles of RIS. Subtract 6 for the swap, and I'm already at danger levels!!! I need to take an FG on the Brettanomyces Raspberry RIS and see how it's doing. I want my fscking bukket back, I want the bugger into bottles ASAP.

Does Campden kill Brett too? Because in order to prevent bottle bombs from ongoing Brett fermentation, but to still enable me to bottle it now, I was thinking hit it with Campden, keg, force carb, wait a week to stabilize, then BMBF it. Crazy idea?

Anyways. Regarding the list, I have everyone's address except LouT. His profile sez " Last Activity: 01-26-2008 07:08 PM " so he may be M.I.A. but I will try sending him one more PM. With that exception, the list will be ready to mail out very, very soon. Stay tuned for more info!!!

 

[Chriso]

I was surprised how mine seemed to lack alcohol flavor but I consider that a plus not a negative. I think this one could really sneak up on you.

That's exactly what I love about Old Rasputin, and I hope one of the things I'm going to love about this RIS too.

 

[CBBaron]

That's exactly what I love about Old Rasputin, and I hope one of the things I'm going to love about this RIS too.

Old Rasputin was good but I think this one is better even young. It may even be better than my favorite beer BORIS the Crusher from Hoppin Frog. Come August I may have to do a side by side. Ofcourse that will require friends because BORIS only comes in 22oz and I will have 4 versions of 08-08-08 to compare.

Craig

 

[BierMuncher]

... I was thinking hit it with Campden, keg, force carb, wait a week to stabilize, then BMBF it. Crazy idea?
...

I'm BMBF'ing mine. I'm not dealing with the brett though. YOur plan sounds plausible.

 

[BierMuncher]

Well, I floated a keg last night in the ole keezer...so I reckon it's time to gas up the RIS.

My goal is to gas it. Sample it. Then get it off the liquid line until I'm ready to bottle it up. If I have a 9% stout on tap, my productivity levels will plummet. :cross:

 

[paulthenurse]

Chriso,
you got the list yet?

 

[Brewsmith]

Mine is getting bottles today. It's been sitting inthe secondary now for about 2 months.

 

[BierMuncher]

Moved my keg to the chiller last Thursday and put on the gas. Walked down to the brewshop this AM and found my 2 # tank is empty...DOH ! ! ! .

Oh well. Been going strong since July. I prolly got 60+ kegs out of that tank.

It's off to Airgas on Monday at lunch time.

 

[Chriso]

ALL PM'S ARE SENT.

IT'S GO TIME. WOOOO HOOOO!

Reminder, ship by April 30, and if you use 12oz bottles, include at least 2 RISes and 2 whatever-you-wants. Complete details in the PM I sent out.

Time to drink, m'fers. Peace out.

 

[Brewsmith]

I just bottled mine today. As soon as they're carb'd up they're going out. Everyone's getting 22's from me. I can say it tastes great and pairs well with chocolate.

 

[BierMuncher]

ALL PM'S ARE SENT.

IT'S GO TIME. WOOOO HOOOO!

Reminder, ship by April 30, and if you use 12oz bottles, include at least 2 RISes and 2 whatever-you-wants. Complete details in the PM I sent out.

Time to drink, m'fers. Peace out.

Thanks Chriso.

Did you use the excel random name generator thingy?

 

[Chriso]

Yeah, and it helped a ton, but it kinda borked again. I didn't input data exactly as I should've, I was deleting cells and rows all over the place... user error, i figure... it only took a few seconds longer to copy/paste the rows manually, but it worked really well... about 50 minutes for 30 PMs. Not bad at all. Thx again for the hook up on that