Imperial Stout Dark Night of the Soul Russian Imperial Stout

[Apendecto]

I'll be making a batch again in the fall months. The first time I made it with extract but this time it'll be all grain.

Did your blow off clog?

No, you can't clog a blow off you don't have. *Face Palm*

I thought 4.5 gallons would have plenty of headspace split into two 5 gallon carboys. I was wrong.

 

[smokinghole]

I did 5 gal in a 7 gal primary. I had blow off for a week. I think you'd almost need a 10gal fermenter to tame this as a 5 gal batch.

 

[Apendecto]

I did 5 gal in a 7 gal primary. I had blow off for a week. I think you'd almost need a 10gal fermenter to tame this as a 5 gal batch.

Live and learn. That's what I thought I was doing with splitting the 5 gallons into 2 5 gallon carboys.

 

[artyboy]

Has anyone tried this recipe with Nottingham's? I've got a Samuel Smith oatmeal stout that should be ready to bottle by next week. I'm thinking about just brewing this and pitching it on the cake.

 

[lumpher]

ok, i think i'll have to do a 5g of this 1 next weekend. judging from what i've read, i'll use high-grav yeast and my 15g fermenter...

 

[smokinghole]

Has anyone tried this recipe with Nottingham's? I've got a Samuel Smith oatmeal stout that should be ready to bottle by next week. I'm thinking about just brewing this and pitching it on the cake.

You could try it but the nottingham could stall out necessitating a second yeast.

I'll be trying this again as an all grain recipe and will split the batch into two fermenters. One will get oak after primary is over and the other unoaked. Hopefully I won't have too much blow off with 3gal in a 6gal BB.

 

[ftlstrings]

What is the max time you all have had this in secondary? I brewed up a batch with my cousin a few months ago now and have had it in secondary for at least 2 months...


We're moving soon, so I'm gonna have to get off my burro and bottle this on up soon, but I'm curious..

Mike.

 

[kingoslo]

Is this a balanced and rich brew, or is it just a huge black beer?M

 

[Brewpastor]

1st place SW regionals of the NHC a couple years back. 3rd place, same deal another year.

 

[humann_brewing]

1st place SW regionals of the NHC a couple years back. 3rd place, same deal another year.

how old was the beer you sent? and you must like rye

 

[smokinghole]

I'll say it's balanced. I just drank my last sample bottle tonight I finished brewing this up in Feb so at 5 months it still has an noticeable alcohol flavor but it's mellowed BIGTIME. I have two cases of it for holiday festivities at my parents basement.

Now mine was a DME based batch with all the specialty grains my first go around. I'm waiting for the fall months to do another batch of all grain this go around. I'm thinking I'm going to split the batch and oak one of the halves.

 

[Mustangj]

About to make a starter for this with WLP007.

WLP007 Dry English Ale Yeast
Clean, highly flocculent, and highly attenuative yeast. This yeast is similar to WLP002 in flavor profile, but is 10% more attenuative. This eliminates the residual sweetness, and makes the yeast well suited for high gravity ales. It is also reaches terminal gravity quickly. 80% attenuation will be reached even with 10% ABV beers.
Attenuation: 70-80%
Flocculation: Medium to High
Optimum Fermentation Temperature: 65-70°F
(18-21°C)
Alcohol Tolerance: Medium-High

 

[snowveil]

I've decided that this will be the beer that I plan on aging a year for my wedding on 9/10/11

With my system I've been averaging at about 68% efficiency...can anyone else who has brewed this chime in with what sort of drop I might expect? The biggest beer I've brewed yet is my belgian tripel that's in the secondary right now that started at 1.082 prior to adding any candi sugar (added the sugar in the primary during fermentation). This was a 2 hour boil (planned on 90 minute but overshot my pre-boil volume) and put my brewhouse efficiency at 69%.

I was shocked that my efficiency was so high on a high gravity beer (primarily due to the 2 hour boil I'm sure), but I'm not expecting lightning to strike twice

I also plan to throw this onto a yeast cake of notty that I have a brown ale sitting on now. I'll keep the post updated if it stalls out at a high gravity and I'm forced to pitch a more attenuative yeast.

I guess it's fate that I've got 6oz of Columbus in my freezer, eh? Looks like with repitching and having the hops on hand, I can brew this one up for just under 40 bucks!

 

[wacko]

Bought my ingredients for this today, should be making it tomorrow. This will be my first big beer. I plan on oaking this and adding a very small amount of cherries in the secondary.

 

[Mustangj]

The plan is to brew this tomrrow. My 2 gallon starter is ready!

 

[ftlstrings]

Just bottled ours today after 3+ months in secondary. Still tasted good, though a little thin and Waaaaay dominated by alcohol. Can't wait to crack these come Christmas-time... Should be a tasty little warmer.

Now I just need to research what the next year-wait beer we'll brew is gonna be, so we can make it while we enjoy this one......(any thots? I'm becoming more interested in soured ales. Not too sure about the brew buddies tho)


~M~

 

[wacko]

Made a little footage of the process from yesterday. Feel free to laugh at my ghetto brew in a bag method

brewday

 

[smokinghole]

I'm looking into doing this again with some customized tweaks. I think I might try and split the batch of grain and do two BIAB mashes. I'm replacing some of the malt with real dark jaggery and will probably let it age with oak cubes for 5-6 months.

 

[tieflyer]

Made a little footage of the process from yesterday. Feel free to laugh at my ghetto brew in a bag method

brewday

I am inspired by your method, great job!

 

[eulipion2]

So I subscribed to this thread a long, long time ago, and people were having trouble finding roasted rye (myself included), but I don't remember if issue was ever resolved. Curious, I decided to look again. Went to Midwest Supply's website and found THIS. They call it 'Crystal Rye,' and comes in around 80-100 SRM. Is this the same thing? Similar? Close enough?

 

[smokinghole]

http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?cPath=178_21_71_112&products_id=122

Someone mentioned this a while back. When I made my batch I roasted some of my own rye in the oven obviously didn't get it nearly as dark as the chocolate at AHS though.

 

[Mustangj]

Done!

OG 1.126

 

[smokinghole]

How'd the ferment go for you?

 

[Mustangj]

How'd the ferment go for you?

Crazy for about 3 days.

FG 1.019

 

[coax]

I just took my first try at this one, though a 5 gallon batch. Didn't have roasted rye available so I got a pound of flaked rye (plus I had a half pound of leftover roast barley) and stuck it in my drum coffee roaster. A couple ounces fall into the chafe tray and didn't roast, could have been a touch darker though it hit the max time the machine allows, a split batch of 1/2 lb each would get it a bit darker if I do this again.

If anyone else needs to do home roasting you could try using a hot air popcorn popper or a large stainless bowl and a heat gun, these are both simple commonly used devices for coffee.

I also cut the pale malt down to 18 lbs instead of 20, but my efficiency must have been horrible, came out at 1.094 instead of in the 1.120 ballpark I was expecting. Mashed with 6 gallons, temps were 146-148, iodine test looked good. Then did 2 batch sparges with 2 gallons each, ended up with a little over 7 gallons total, boiled down to 5.5. Even so, that's still a high enough gravity for me.

Made about 700 mL of starter with 1272, when I woke up there was quite a mess, even my blowoff needs a blowoff.

 

[Mustangj]

Samething happen to me! I ran out of foam control.

 

[smokinghole]

I'm fermenting my variation of this as a 6g batch in a 10g keg. Hopefully I don't have a whole lot of blow off. It seems like this Setup would be a good way to deal with crazy blowoff and beer loss due to the insane krausen from these high gravity fermentations.

 

[coax]

Yeah, I need to either get a 10 gallon bucket or setup up a return system like that. It's calmed down a bit now, but I lost close to half a gallon using a 6.5 carboy.

 

[smokinghole]

I just brewed up my first AG version of this. I used MO as a base malt and added roasted barley. My gravity was at 1.133. I have it sitting in a 10g keg so there's about 4.5g worth of head space. I hope I don't have blow off but I'm set up for blow off.

 

[coax]

So I'm 24 hours into my second batch now. This time I milled my own grain and got 1.124, so my efficiency isn't too bad now, could have gone slightly finer though. Also, got rye malt instead of flaked this time, roasted by stirring in a wok with a hot plate since the grains were too small for the coffee roaster.

I should have bought a 10 gallon bucket, but instead I picked up some foam control. Didn't work...

In fact, I've lost even more this time, about a gallon, though it's slowing down now. Higher gravity plus I made a stir plate to continuously aerate the starter, it was bubbling within 3 hours of pitching.

Could do with a colder room too, it's 64F while the carboy is 76F.