Could use a hand with my first Imperial Stout

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First of all thanks to all the contributors to this site, I've been getting a ton of good info to help me along as a newbie brewer. Hoping you can point me in the right direction on my current brew.

I'm doing the Tricentennial Stout from Brewing Classic Styles and I could use some input on my next steps. I steeped my grains (2.5lbs of roasted barley, 2.5lbs of chocolate malt and .85lbs of Crystal 120) using my normal process of placing the grain in cold then pulling it out once the water hits 170. I've learned now that it might have been better to pull it at 160 or even steep them overnight in cold water but that ship has sailed. I've had this in primary for 6 days so I realize that this will be a pretty rough now but the acrid flavor from the dark grain is causing me concern. Will this mellow over the aging period? I was planning to give it at least 6 months after bottling so maybe I just need to wait but if there is something I can do now I want to get ahead of this.

My other concern is that the target gravity is 1.037 (started at 1.100) and I’m at 1.040 now. I’m going to give this another week in primary regardless but if it doesn’t come down any more does repitching make sense? If I do repitch will there be enough residual oxygen in the wort to drop it down a few more points?

Thanks all!

 

[giraffe]

That recipe is overly heavy on the dark grains, even for an imperial stout, and uses a low attenuating yeast. It will need to age for years to mellow. I think I remember it even indicating that in the notes.

The harsh grain flavors will mellow a lot with time. The amount of time, is probably more than youd like.

If the gravity is stable its done 1.040 and 1.037 are within the margin of error. You may want to give it a mild swirl to rouse the yeast to see if it will go down a point or two more. That said, leave it in the primary at least 3 to 4 weeks, on big beers, the last few points can take some time.

If you want to dry it out more, you can add a attenuative, alcohol tolerant strain, in an active starter, and it may go do a little bit more. But at an intended gravity of 1.037 this was not intended as a dry beer, the residual sweetness is probably for balance (theres an insane amount of roasted grains) . It sounds gross to me, and I wouldnt brew it, but some people like their RIS' like that.

 

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Thanks for the info. I've got no problem waiting it out I just wanted to make sure there wasn't anything else I should be doing at this point. Your comment on the FG makes sense, might not be doing myself any favors by drying it out much further.

I'll give it another couple weeks in primary and see where it lands. If I'm lucky I'll have something good to drink for Christmas 2015.

 

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Quick update in case anyone happens to land in my same situation. Might have a happy ending with this one...

At 13 days in primary I took another reading and was at 1.042 (my other reading of 1.040 was off apparently). I stirred it and let the temp come up to about 74f to try to finish it out but it didn't budge.

Day 24 I hydrated and pitched a packet of US-05 and kept the temp steady around 74f but no change.

A lot of sources say big beers will take a while to drop the last few points but after 6 weeks this thing was stuck and I was desperate to get a little more out of it. It was definitely sweet when I tasted it and I figured the bitterness from the roasted malt would only soften in time leaving me with an undrinkable syrupy disaster so I took one last shot.

6 weeks into primary I picked up some WLP001 and made a 1.2L starter that matched the OG of my wort, 1.100. The hope was that acclimating the yeast to a high alcohol environment might ease the transition, no idea if this is sound but made sense at the time. I also dissolved 5oz of corn sugar and some more yeast nutrient in water and pitched that in with the yeast. I figured this might give the yeast cells some readily available food so they would get working right away. I kept the temp around 72f.

Within 4 hours I had activity in the airlock (maybe just the corn sugar) but after 6 days I was down to 1.038! Only 1 point away from my target. So far I'm pretty happy with this result considering I was close to dumping it. I'm going to give it a few more days to make sure it's stable then move on with the next steps.

I've always heard good things about WLP001 and now I understand why, if you get stuck like I did you might want to give it a try.