Imperial Stout Double-W Imperial Stout

[FailureDrill]

Finished fermentation at 1.040, which is a little on the high side. It tastes awesome, with a really balanced flavor. Next time I will pitch two packs of S-05 or S-33 for a beer this large. I probably underpitched the Pacman by a considerable margin. This will be bottled and definitely repeated.

 

[Yeastie]

1.040?!? That certainly seems high how long was it aged? I mean 1.040 would be close to the OG for a really light beer. If you haven't bottled it yet I suggest you keep aging it.

Unless of course this is just an unavoidable tasting which occurred while the beer was still in the carboy.

 

[claphamsa]

1.040 is terribly far off the target gravity, I would certainly be weary, but its not sooo far off.

 

[FailureDrill]

It was in primary for a month. It was definitely done. I attempted to pitch some Notty to push it but it was only good for 4 points. Oh well, it did taste awesome and my wife and sister in law thought the warm, flat sample was great. My Sis-in-law said that it made her want to have a steak dinner.

Next time I'll rock two packets of S-05 or S-33 for this and future big beers. Lesson learned, oh well, still ended up with tasty beer.....dammit.

 

[Jeepnbrew]

I am going above that, and will post the new recipe. My B-day's coming up, so I want to brew a big one for the occasion.

I am looking at 100IBU or so that this can age a bit. Currently, at 10 months in a bottle, the bitterness needed to balance it is gone.

I have some 16.6AA Zeus and 11.2AA Centennial. I'm going to go larger with the bittering hops.

Did you brew it yet??:rockin:

 

[r2eng]

Not yet... I had a hankerin' for a DIPA. Read the article in Zymurgy, and had to create a 7.5%, big hop bomb. By the time the dry-hop takes place there will be just shy of a pound of hops in the 5.5 gallon batch.

And, there was also a need for a Belgian pale. The stout will be brewed by August.

 

[Jeepnbrew]

Not yet... I had a hankerin' for a DIPA. Read the article in Zymurgy, and had to create a 7.5%, big hop bomb. By the time the dry-hop takes place there will be just shy of a pound of hops in the 5.5 gallon batch.

And, there was also a need for a Belgian pale. The stout will be brewed by August.

Looking forward to it... I cracked a W tonight and man its tasty! I took one to Left Hand brewery and somehow the brewmaster was sitting there beside me and the bartender poured 6 samples out. Everyone loved it including the brewmaster. He said he loved the roasty beginning and gave me a few pointers.. Bottled my hobgoblin II tonight as well.. I was thinking a belgian myself. Was looking at the westy or I saw a triple IPA out there too..

 

[conpewter]

Looks great!

What is Black Barley? Is it the same as black patent or something different? Looking for it at BrewMaster's Warehouse.

 

[r2eng]

Get "black malt" at BMW...

 

[conpewter]

Thanks! I'll be brewing this one up in August I think.

 

[FailureDrill]

Cracked one open after 1.5 weeks in the bottle. It's obviously green, but the bitterness was excessive on mine. I think this was due to my low efficiency and boiling the bittering hops too long. I'm going to jam these in a closet and open them again in October to see how they're doing. Other than the bitterness, the coffee and chocolate flavors were prominent and excellent. Thanks again for the recipe.

 

[FailureDrill]

Popped another one open today. It benefited from another couple weeks in the bottle. The bitterness has faded noticeable degree which is good with mine. The roasted flavor is awesome and the dark tan head stays solid at about 1/4 inch for the length of the glass. Good coffee aroma, and though mine is a little sweeter than I would hope, it in no way detracts from the solid flavors in this one. I think I will try this one again and this time repitch on a yeast cake from a Dark Lord clone I will be racking soon. That should give it the legs to fully ferment.

Also, if you were going to add oats to this to smooth it out a bit, how much would be appropriate?

 

[aredling]

I wanted to throw in my experience with this beer. Let me say that all the feedback in this thread was extremely helpful in brewing this beer. My heaviest beer brewed so far.

I don't have very good notes on the exact amount of water I added to the brew, but i remember not hitting my mash temperature at first so I supplemented with 1 gallon of boiling water to spike the temperature up.

I was unable to sparge with as much water as a result of this, but still did OK with gravity. 1.097 for the OG.

Fermentation was very strong to start, but wasn't as insane as I expected. It did get up to the blowoff tube, but went extremely strong for 4 days.

The temperature of the fermentation got a bit high at a few points since it's summer and I don't have AC in my house. I went on vacation and came back to a settled beer, that had about 4" of krausen stuck to the walls. Took a hydro readying after 4 weeks in the primary and it was at 1.024. Tastes great, but really really really needs a while to mature.

Thanks to everyone for their input.

 

[claphamsa]

Popped another one open today. It benefited from another couple weeks in the bottle. The bitterness has faded noticeable degree which is good with mine. The roasted flavor is awesome and the dark tan head stays solid at about 1/4 inch for the length of the glass. Good coffee aroma, and though mine is a little sweeter than I would hope, it in no way detracts from the solid flavors in this one. I think I will try this one again and this time repitch on a yeast cake from a Dark Lord clone I will be racking soon. That should give it the legs to fully ferment.

Also, if you were going to add oats to this to smooth it out a bit, how much would be appropriate?

1-2 lbs should be fine.... and I think it could work out well too!

 

[greenbirds]

I'm brewing this this weekend. r2eng, did you end up increasing the bittering hops for your later batches like you were considering? I'm thinking of upping it to the 100 IBU range.

Also, even though I have a couple packs of S-05, I will try using a large starter of WLP007 Dry English Ale yeast. Specs say it attenuates well and should be able to hit ~12%.

 

[r2eng]

I think 100 IBU's would be good.

I haven't had a chance to brew this one again. I have been brewing for friends/family events lately, and that will continue through the weekend. I hope to get back to polishing this beer recipe soon... unless others like you improve it for me!

 

[FailureDrill]

1-2 lbs should be fine.... and I think it could work out well too!

Thanks dude!

 

[greenbirds]

Brewed a 2.5 gallon batch on Monday. OG: 1.110, pitched a big starter of WLP007. Only differences were Magnum for bittering, and I added 4 oz of flaked barley in hopes that I will get to see that deep brown head retention all the way down the glass.

Also, just for kicks I took the third runnings and boiled them down to a 1 gallon batch that came in at exactly half (1.055) gravity, and scaled down the hops to match.

 

[GLWIII]

I brewed this a while back and hit all the numbers that I wanted. However, after 5 weeks in the bottle I very disappointed in the carb level - hardly any at all. Stirred em up and will try it again in a few weeks.

That said, it tastes terrific. Once it carbs up it will be a wonderful stout. I will definitely brew this one again.

 

[greenbirds]

Thought I would update.

Mine got down to about 1.036-37 with the WLP007 and still tasted a bit sweet, so I rehydrated (to at least give a fighting chance) some US-05, racked to secondary, and threw it in the fermenter. It produced a little activity.

2 weeks later it is currently at 1.034. That is still high, I know -- but perhaps not too high given a 1.110 OG: 69% apparent attenuation and 10.0% ABV. I taste a hint of residual sweetness, but with a beer this green and warm/flat, I just can't tell if it's from a stuck fermentation, malt/caramel sweetness, or the alcohol (which can be perceived as sweet at higher concentrations).

I bottled a single beer with a 1/2 teaspoon of dextrose to see if the yeast can carb it up.

 

[HalfPint]

Alright, I've never brewed a beer like this, but I think I'm going to give it a shot.

This is what I'm thinking-

Use your original grain bill, but with a couple of differences. First, I'll run off about 8 gallons and boil it down to around 5.5 gallons. Second, I'll add hops to achieve 100 Ibu's. I will make a 2 L starter of some washed S-05 decant and step up with another 2L twice. What do you think about pitching some champagne yeast at around 1.040 and letting it go till it gets to around 1.020. Once it hits 1.020 or so, I'll cold crash and rack to secondary for a bit of aging?

I think the added Ibu's will really help with the higher alcohol content I'll get from the champagne yeast. If I achieve a Fg of 1.020 with an OG of 1.120, I'll get around 13% ABV.

This would be a huge beer, but I think with a bit of aging (maybe 6 months-1 year), it would be AMAZING.

Comments??

Thanks,
J

 

[r2eng]

I would tend to disagree that IBU's help with alcohol content...

Keep in mind that a beer this big needs balance: balance between IBU's and alcohol AND malt. I think the champagne yeast would make this beer hot. Drier beers bring out the bitterness, and the roasted malts add some bitterness, too.

Skip the champagne yeast and you have a great plan. IMO

 

[greenbirds]

This beer scored a 41 (avg) in the Florida Sunshine Challenge competition. Beer was 5 months old at this time. I'm going to enter it one more time in a different competition at 10 months to see how it does with more aging. From a National rank judge:

Aroma: grainy, raisins, alcohol is hot, some sherry notes, no hops 10/12

Appearance: Dark brown, low tan head, good legs 1/3

Flavor: big raisin-like malt flavor, almost port-like but balanced by hop and alcohol, fruitiness lingers throughout the aftertaste 17/20

Mouthfeel: Full body, very chewy, very warming 5/5

Overall Impression: Well made beer the raisin character in the malt is really nice, would be a great night cap beer 9/10

Total: 42/50

My personal opinion pretty much mirrors this. Thanks r2eng for the recipe, very nice beer.

 

[r2eng]

WAY cool!

I have found that this beer goes through an interesting curve: Nice balance at first (2-4 months old), then gets sweet and almost cloying from 4-8 months, and past 8 months (especially at 1 year +), turns into something you'd sell you wife to get. Well, not quite sell the wife...

Congrats greenbirds! Keep in mind that the recipe does not make the beer... the brewer does. It's your 42, not mine.

 

[HalfPint]

I would tend to disagree that IBU's help with alcohol content...

Keep in mind that a beer this big needs balance: balance between IBU's and alcohol AND malt. I think the champagne yeast would make this beer hot. Drier beers bring out the bitterness, and the roasted malts add some bitterness, too.

Skip the champagne yeast and you have a great plan. IMO

Thanks for the advice.

Hmm, so you think that 100 IBU's is going to produce a more balanced beer, or should I stick with the 80 or so you had in the OP?

 

[r2eng]

I would up it to 100.

Keep in mind, with such a big OG, the hop utilization goes way down.

I am picking up the grain to re-brew this one and will post the results. Maybe I'll take photos this time!

 

[HalfPint]

I would up it to 100.

Keep in mind, with such a big OG, the hop utilization goes way down.

I am picking up the grain to re-brew this one and will post the results. Maybe I'll take photos this time!

Pictures would be awesome. Hey, I'm not sure if you already said this, but what size MLT do you have?

 

[r2eng]

It's a 64qt Igloo Maxcold with a CPVC manifold.

I also like to mash with more water now, too. I will be really full this time.

 

[HalfPint]

It's a 64qt Igloo Maxcold with a CPVC manifold.

I also like to mash with more water now, too. I will be really full this time.

Hmm, well I have a 48 qt MLT. The biggest mash I've ever done had around 26.5 lbs of grain (Double batch of https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f126/bee-cave-brewery-robust-porter-56768/). It was very full, but it seemed to work out ok. I actually was over my expected OG and hit my temps perfectly.

 

[motobrewer]

resurrecting...

did you ever rebrew this with more hops?

what was the change?

also, was this really mashed at 158F?