Overnight cold steep and 30 minute boil is very interesting with my brew day approach where I only brew once a month but brew multiple beers each time. By overnight steeping and preheating water to boil in a brewzilla, I could knock out one beer in the first 45 minutes......
Anyone have a favorite (extract-based) imperial stout recipe?
- Thread starter Hoochin'Fool
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It's not an exact science, not for me at least. I use a gallon jar because it's easy to pull the grain bag out, this capacity seems to be working well for my 6 gallon batches. The night before brew day I put the grains in a fine nylon hop sack, tie it closed and drop it in the jar, then fill it up to the neck with water (I use RO but bottled drinking water works too) and either leave it on the counter over night or put it in the fridge, hasn't made any difference as far as I can tell. On brew day morning I pull the bag and let it drip into a bowl or whatever to catch runoff, then with about 20 minutes left in the boil I dump the jar and bowl into the kettle, leaving any sediment behind.
I also recommend using de-husked aka de-bittered malts i.e. Carafa Special (thanks @IslandLizard ) I/II/III vs. traditional dark malts.
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Agreed! ^
With one correction:
Carafa Special (type I, II, or III) is the de-husked variety.
Cloud Surfer
Well-Known Member
I transfer my Imperial Stouts from fermenter into bourbon or whiskey barrel then to keg for cold conditioning then to bottle. I do all those steps very carefully without introducing oxygen. As the guys have already suggested, if you can’t transfer to the conditioning phase without introducing any oxygen, then best to bottle out of primary and let it age there. Bulk cold conditioning really is a great step for these big beers, but it has to be done no oxygen.
If you do end up with a long conditioning phase in your process before bottling, don’t forget to add bottling yeast. I’ve found CBC-1 yeast does the best job. I have 14% RIS that’s fully carbonated within a week of bottling with the CBC-1.
If you do end up with a long conditioning phase in your process before bottling, don’t forget to add bottling yeast. I’ve found CBC-1 yeast does the best job. I have 14% RIS that’s fully carbonated within a week of bottling with the CBC-1.
flanmail
State of Franklin Homebrews
I dug this out of the mothballs of my partial extract days.
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Just took a refractometer reading, to see how close to done I was, and I gotta say, it tastes amazing! That super-harsh bitterness I noted immediately post-boil is gone. It's still pretty sweet, but I'm feeling much better about this one! Hopefully it's finished by this weekend, can't wait to enjoy a whole bottle!
![Craft A Brew - Safale S-04 Dry Yeast - Fermentis - English Ale Dry Yeast - For English and American Ales and Hard Apple Ciders - Ingredients for Home Brewing - Beer Making Supplies - [1 Pack]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41fVGNh6JfL._SL500_.jpg)
I just brewed a stout with midnight wheat. I'd use that one instead of other roasted malts if I'd want to limit roast derived bitterness. Midnight wheat, or dark wheat or whatever name is the least acrid dark grain/malt I know.
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Refractometer doesn't seem to have changed between Tuesday and today (brought to 68F a week ago), so I went ahead and took a sample for the hydometer test -- gravity is exactly 1.018-ish, so I think it's done (software predicted 1.019). The sample tasted quite boozy, but also quite bitter and sweet and flat.
Should I put it back in the fridge to cold crash until Sunday when I could bottle, or leave it at room temp for another week?
Should I put it back in the fridge to cold crash until Sunday when I could bottle, or leave it at room temp for another week?
Um....no....or maybe yes. It won't hurt the beer either way. If you cold crash you will need to let it warm up to carbonate in the bottle. If you leave it at room temp for another week or even more, the yeast will flocculate and drop out leaving you with less in the bottle.
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Was going to bottle today, but my hydrometer reading has gone down to 1.016 -- which I suppose means either the Nottingham is still slowly finishing up, or something wild got into it. The sweetness I noted Friday seems to be completely gone now, so hopefully things are actually done now, but at this point, I think I'll wait at least another 24 hours.
I don't really have enough of this beer to keep discarding hydro samples! For now, I put some plastic cling wrap over the top of my sample tube (with hydrometer inside). That should be an accurate way to know what the rest of the beer inside the bucket is doing, no? (they are right next to each other, at room temperature, which is currently 65F).
I don't really have enough of this beer to keep discarding hydro samples! For now, I put some plastic cling wrap over the top of my sample tube (with hydrometer inside). That should be an accurate way to know what the rest of the beer inside the bucket is doing, no? (they are right next to each other, at room temperature, which is currently 65F).
D.B.Moody
Well-Known Member
You seem to be rushing this. It's not clear to me when you actually brewed this beer, but on the 25th you were still talking about plans for steeping grains. So this beer is at best not quite two weeks old. Is that right? This is a big beer. You were advised, correctly I believe, to not do a secondary. This does not mean you need to rush the bottling. You need to figure at least three weeks. I'd suggest four. This is a big beer. The last drop in the gravity reading could just be stuff dropping out of suspension. Be patient, my friend.
edit: reading back, I see that the brew day was the 23rd, but I'll let my post be.
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Thanks DB, I appreciate the advice. I'll give it four weeks, and keep this is mind for next time I attempt an imperial.You need to figure at least three weeks. I'd suggest four. This is a big beer. The last drop in the gravity reading could just be stuff dropping out of suspension. Be patient, my friend.
I used the cold-steep method from above to help make my Halloween wee heavy this weekend. Will see how it turns out in a few weeks.
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So I just finally cracked a bottle of my RIS (post #20 in this thread). I know I screwed up my priming sugar, but had no idea just how badly I'd screwed it up...
I filled 28 bottles, and didn't thoroughly mix the priming sugar into the beer before I started filling bottles. I figured for sure the first bottles would be pretty flat, but that the last 4-pack would be great, maybe even over-carbed. Anyways, I just cracked a bottle from the final 4 bottled beers, and it's completely flat.
Poured it into a glass anyways, and it actually tastes quite good! Disappointingly FLAT, of course, but reminds me of a good barley wine.
Is there any hope of rescuing these with some carbonation? (I don't have CO2 tanks or anything like that). Brewing software suggests that a 12 oz bottle at 68F needs 0.66 tsp (0.1 oz) of table sugar. Do I dare crack open each bottle, and if there's no "pop" at all, go ahead and add that much sugar, recap, and put back into the closet for a couple weeks?
I filled 28 bottles, and didn't thoroughly mix the priming sugar into the beer before I started filling bottles. I figured for sure the first bottles would be pretty flat, but that the last 4-pack would be great, maybe even over-carbed. Anyways, I just cracked a bottle from the final 4 bottled beers, and it's completely flat.
Poured it into a glass anyways, and it actually tastes quite good! Disappointingly FLAT, of course, but reminds me of a good barley wine.
Is there any hope of rescuing these with some carbonation? (I don't have CO2 tanks or anything like that). Brewing software suggests that a 12 oz bottle at 68F needs 0.66 tsp (0.1 oz) of table sugar. Do I dare crack open each bottle, and if there's no "pop" at all, go ahead and add that much sugar, recap, and put back into the closet for a couple weeks?
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If the beer is carbed at all and you try to add straight sugar to the bottle, it will start foaming a LOT really fast. You could try dissolving the sugar in water and chilling. That may allow you to add and re-cap. (I've done it before). But it is tough to predict if your yeast will still work (I don't remember your abv or if you chilled the beer yet). Anyway, this may not make your beer any better, could make it worse. But if you want to give it a try, there is a chance it will work (I'll optimistically give it 40% chance of working).
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So I went ahead and opened up every last bottle. Maybe two bottles emitted the tiniest "pshht" of air. Added 0.1 oz table sugar to each, and recapped.
As a precaution, I've put my thick leather gloves on top of the box. Plan is to leave them for two weeks, and then open another one (while wearing the thick leather gloves). If it's normally carbed, great! If it's super foamy, I'll gently place them in fridge and keep them as cold as possible. And if they are still not carbed, the only other thing I can think of is that the Nottingham yeast just doesn't want to make any more alcohol -- tho the beer is at 10.3 -ish % ABV.
As a precaution, I've put my thick leather gloves on top of the box. Plan is to leave them for two weeks, and then open another one (while wearing the thick leather gloves). If it's normally carbed, great! If it's super foamy, I'll gently place them in fridge and keep them as cold as possible. And if they are still not carbed, the only other thing I can think of is that the Nottingham yeast just doesn't want to make any more alcohol -- tho the beer is at 10.3 -ish % ABV.
Nottingham can go to at least 14%. So no worries there. If you got the sugar add and bottles recapped, you should be fine.
I use my own shorthand system for sugar & carbing (and admittedly overcarb my beer), but I think your .1 oz is about half what I add to 12 oz bottles.
I use my own shorthand system for sugar & carbing (and admittedly overcarb my beer), but I think your .1 oz is about half what I add to 12 oz bottles.
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What's weird is I used the same priming calculator I've used for all my other batches, and this flat RIS has been sitting right next to a chocolate porter I recently bottled (10 days ago? something like that), and the porter is carbonated -- so it's not too cold. Maybe I screwed up my "tare weight" setting on my scale when I was bottling the RIS -- I certainly screwed up everything else that day!
Especially for big (high ABV) beers such as a RIS, it's recommended to add some fresh, high alcohol tolerant (12%+) yeast to your batch along with your priming sugar. It's possible the yeast with which you fermented your batch is suffering from alcohol poisoning.
CBC-1 is a special yeast, meant for Cask/Bottling/Conditioning.
Margin note: CBC-1 is also known as a "killer yeast." But it doesn't matter for that final use, you won't be pitching anything after that anyway.
BrewnWKopperKat
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When I bottle condition my small batch barley wines (~10%), I use CBC-1 (roughly 1/10th gram per bottle) with good results on every bottle.
Do you add 1/10th gram CBC-1 to each bottle, or add the amount needed for ALL bottles to your priming solution for the whole batch? If you add to each bottle, how do you measure such a small amount?
BrewnWKopperKat
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It's 1/10 gram for each bottle. Jewelry scales have a 20g max weight and a 0.001g precision.
OP
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Just cracked a bottle (after re-sugaring, re-capping, and setting in a 70F room 2.5 weeks ago): zero fizz. Tastes like a mellow, overly sweet, completely flat, boozy barley wine. Seems the Nottingham yeast never sprung back to life after re-priming and re-bottling. I've got 23 bottles left, but I think it's time to cut my losses, and not try any further intervention on this one.
Crazy. It must be the Nottingham is done (no small feat). Since this thread started, I brewed a RIS and am using Nottingham. So I will be curious where it ends up (probably half way done, just eyeballing it). But I will be force carbing. But I've brewed a lot of 11%+ stouts with Nottingham and MG New World Strong Ale, and didn't have a problem.
I brewed an IS with a decent portion of invert, fermented with Notty, it finished rather high. I did not add bottling yeast, just primed with table sugar as normal. Carbonation took a lot longer then I was used to, but it did happen.
Take a look at post #18 & 19...
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/1914-courage-imperial-stout-which-one.693027/#post-9234444
Take a look at post #18 & 19...
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/1914-courage-imperial-stout-which-one.693027/#post-9234444
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I'd seen those pictures/thread before, but didn't notice the carbonation differences until you pointed them out. Guess I won't dump them, but will try to forget about them until November 2023.
I'm working on a keg of chocolate stout right now, that used nibs. Not sure if it was because of the nibs or not but there's like 0 head on the beer. At first I thought it hadn't carbonated and that was practically impossible. I ended up realizing that it was just tough to have that head, to see the obvious evidence of carbonation. It tasted sort of flat too - mostly because it was so rich. But if I shoot from the keg into a glass at any distance and let it really splash I get a ton of foam though only for a short time.
I guess I'm trying to say - you can be fooled on the carbonation. Pour a glass from like a foot up and see if it doesn't foam. If not then sure it's indeed flat. If it foams it may be carbonated just have really bad head retention?
VikeMan
It ain't all burritos and strippers, my friend.
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Nibs contain a ridiculous amount of fat, which is a foam killer. While I slightly prefer the flavor of nibs over cocoa powder, I usually use powder instead of nibs, because it has relatively little fat.
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Fair point! I did a fairly rough pour into the glass, and there was nuthin'. It also seemed noticeably sweeter than before I re-primed and re-bottled. I wish I'd taken a gravity reading before dumping the rest of that bottle -- would that be worthwhile at this point? Or should I just leave it be until next autumn?
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Just cracked one of these bottles... It's still got barely any carbonation, but the taste reminds me very much of Bell's "Third Coast Old Ale".
