Imperial Stout Imperial Bastard Stout

[EA18Brewer]

Is there any issue with making this a full boil with 5 gallons? Or should I just keep it at a 2 gal boil?

 

[billsquared]

Is there any issue with making this a full boil with 5 gallons? Or should I just keep it at a 2 gal boil?

I brewed this tonight, such a great color for the wort! Glad I was watching it like a hawk when it came back to a boil after adding the extracts, because another 30 seconds of heat and I'd have had an awful mess on my hands. Boil-over is definitely to be watched with this one. EA18, even without sparging the grains, all of the extracts brings it to just under 3 gal at the start of the boil -- my 4 gal pot barely held it together.

I ended up giving the grains 25 minutes, mostly because I was waiting for the Lovely & Talented to return from the grocery store with the dark brown sugar. I set this with a blow-off tube right from the word go due to the comments above, hopefully it stays put. Looking forward to giving it a first taste in 10 days!

 

[gmcastil]

I brewed this tonight, such a great color for the wort! Glad I was watching it like a hawk when it came back to a boil after adding the extracts, because another 30 seconds of heat and I'd have had an awful mess on my hands. Boil-over is definitely to be watched with this one. EA18, even without sparging the grains, all of the extracts brings it to just under 3 gal at the start of the boil -- my 4 gal pot barely held it together.

I ended up giving the grains 25 minutes, mostly because I was waiting for the Lovely & Talented to return from the grocery store with the dark brown sugar. I set this with a blow-off tube right from the word go due to the comments above, hopefully it stays put. Looking forward to giving it a first taste in 10 days!

Just some advice, having brewed this beer before, but you really ought to let it sit on the yeast for 3-4 weeks. Best thing you can do for it. With this recipe, I let it sit on the yeast for a month and then bottle it. The bottles from my first batch of it are about 8 months old and they taste amazing. It really needs time though, so consider letting it sit.

 

[billsquared]

Just some advice, having brewed this beer before, but you really ought to let it sit on the yeast for 3-4 weeks. Best thing you can do for it. With this recipe, I let it sit on the yeast for a month and then bottle it. The bottles from my first batch of it are about 8 months old and they taste amazing. It really needs time though, so consider letting it sit.

Thanks for the advice. Giving it more time actually works with my schedule, so hurray.

 

[SoupNazi]

I still have a couple of bottles that are 3 months old now that I'm saving for a special occasion. Fantastic stuff, guys.

Going to brew this again as a pm now that I have the equipment for it and save them for winter time.

 

[drummerboyas157]

This beer looks great i am going to brew it next. Just waiting for my current one to get out of my 7.5gal bucket to have room for extra spillover. Hows everyone liking it? Any pictures?

 

[VipertheIV]

Yeah, I really would like to see a pic. I'm intrigued.

 

[drummerboyas157]

Just made this today. It was on the pricey side at the brew store I spent about 65$. But it always seems like I spend that much on stouts. Anyway it was fun to make. Now we will see how it turns out 2 months from now. I ended up with a OG of about 1.082 And thats after i added around a pound extra of dark liquid malt because i always seem to come up short on every recipe... idk why I top it off to 5 and its always low but adding a 1/2-1lb extra seems to work for me.

 

[gmcastil]

Just made this today. It was on the pricey side at the brew store I spent about 65$. But it always seems like I spend that much on stouts. Anyway it was fun to make. Now we will see how it turns out 2 months from now. I ended up with a OG of about 1.082 And thats after i added around a pound extra of dark liquid malt because i always seem to come up short on every recipe... idk why I top it off to 5 and its always low but adding a 1/2-1lb extra seems to work for me.

I have four bombers left from last November and I really wish that I'd let the entire batch sit for a year. They are fantastic.

Just make sure that you get good oxygenation, pitch an appropriate amount of healthy cells, and control your fermentation temps.

 

[drummerboyas157]

Man fermentation is going crazy i wonder how much beer im going to lose i have a blow off tube set up and the bowl of water it goes into is already a dark brown and its the first 24hrs still

 

[Nukinfuts]

Yea, fermintation is crazy on this one. I love the taste, but for some reason this beer gives me a headache after only a few and a worse one the next day. I think it is too strong for me. I want to brew it again, but how do I lower the alc%?

I followed the instructions to a T, and let it ferment in a carboy for 3 months. I don't have all the specifics, as I am at work.

 

[BassBeer]

Thinking about brewing this one Saturday as a Christmas present for my mother.

How did it taste after 3 months? If I wanted to make it around 7% could I just omit the 3lbs. dark DME?

 

[billsquared]

Has anybody had any issues with bottle conditioning on this one? The flavor and color are fantastic, but it's been in bottles for about 2 months now, and the head on it is REALLY weak. The first one I opened, after 4 weeks, had absolutely no head to it, and one I opened last weekend only had a very little head. Any thoughts?

 

[SoupNazi]

Has anybody had any issues with bottle conditioning on this one? The flavor and color are fantastic, but it's been in bottles for about 2 months now, and the head on it is REALLY weak. The first one I opened, after 4 weeks, had absolutely no head to it, and one I opened last weekend only had a very little head. Any thoughts?

I cracked a 7 month old bottle this past weekend. It was carbonated, but still lacking on the head. I believe its just the way this beer is.

 

[ectoplasmicfunk]

Brewing this Tuesday when my scale gets in. Looks like a winner.

 

[ectoplasmicfunk]

Brewed this last night and my OG came in at 1.094, pretty close to target. This stuff looks like Iraqi crude...cannot wait.

 

[billsquared]

This stuff looks like Iraqi crude...cannot wait.

The color of this is interesting. In the carboy or glass, it's pitch black, but pay attention to the color of it when you're siphoning it from vessel to vessel for secondary or bottling. I noticed that mine had a distinct reddish tinge to it... I'd describe it as a mahogany color.

 

[ectoplasmicfunk]

Here's my half batch of this 24 hours after pitch...

I keep my house at 76 degrees, but still!!

 

[SoupNazi]

Fermcap is your friend

 

[inhousebrew]

Wow, so I noticed several people on here say they made this and fermentation took off quickly and was agressive so there is no need for a yeast starter on this beer. Kind of can't believe no one noticed this or commented on that yet.

So, long story short; for any beer above 1.060 you should make a starter. 1.099 Definitely falls into this catagory. Someone was complaining about headaches, I think this is probably a result of fusel alcohols in your beer which could be from too warm of fermentation or a prolonged lag phase because you didn't pitch enough yeast. Starters are the beginning of a good big beer.

 

[Unferth]

+1 on that.

Just did this recipe with an OG of 1.090 (used molasses instead of brown sugar) and it is black as sin

Put a 1 liter starter of mixed cooked DME, water and WLP004. 5 days in with just a nice even layer of krausen... No blow off tube necessary. No bad smells, and no fusels from lag time. Use a starter, watch your temps. When yeast are pissed, bad **** happens to your beer.

Nice aromas in the steeping grains BTW! This is gonna be a good one, thanks for the recipe.

 

[VegasJ]

I have got to try this one. Will be on my next list!

 

[downey542]

Has anyone kegged this yet? im thinking of doing this next and kegging it.

 

[BassBeer]

Kegged it about 2 weeks ago. Came out awesome and still has aroma out the wazoo.

 

[downey542]

I'm brewing this tonight with some very minor alterations. I will comment back with progress. Can't wait to try this one!

 

[downey542]

I threw two table spoons of coffee when steeping the grains and used wyeast 1084(equivalent) but did the rest according to recipe. I had an og of 1.074. It's been less then 24 hours and I already have it coming out the blowoff tube. I'm going to keg this but may transfer after two weeks into another fermentor for an additional week or two. I'm not sure yet but ill check back and post.

 

[downey542]

So I'm on day 15 of fermentation and I still have activity in the airlock. Has anyone else had bubbling for this long? I did have a blowoff tube in there the first 10 days and had a small amount of blowoff then put the airlock in and it's been bubbling since.

 

[Jrbetz]

Sounds like a winner to me!

 

[downey542]

I kegged last night. I had it for a total of 29 days in the fermentor and finished with a fg of 1.024. 6.45%abv. Disappointed. I was hoping it would of ended up higher. But it does taste amazing. I deff will be making again. Thanks for sharing.

 

[raider72]

So I'm on day 15 of fermentation and I still have activity in the airlock. Has anyone else had bubbling for this long? I did have a blowoff tube in there the first 10 days and had a small amount of blowoff then put the airlock in and it's been bubbling since.

I had the same thing going on and was told that my yeast was slow and possibly going dorment..and he was right my fermantation temp was to low . So I wrapped a heat blanket around it than finally after a couple of days it Finished..I'm not possitive but, I've heard you don't want your beer in your primary too long.