Imperial Stout kit concerns

[TheBrewBrotha]

Ordered a recipe from Keg Connection to brew tomorrow. Entered the specs into BeerSmith and the projected OG comes out to 1.069

With tomorrow being xmas eve and my LHBS is closed, how can I ensure the OG is met? I have a ton of DME to add to the boil if needed but wasn’t expecting to use it. Also the recipe calls to mash with 7.5gal of water at 150F. I do believe mashing at 150F will make this Beer awfully thin for an Imperial Stout so I am aiming to mash at 155 for 90 min to see if that will encourage a higher post mash gravity reading.

Any help during this holiday season would be appreciated.

 

[thehaze]

The recipe nails some points right. I just put the recipe thru Brewer's Friend calculator and the OG is indeed 1.099 with 75% brew house eff. The FG with a low mash temp and a clean, high attenuating yeast should be around 1.020-1.022.

If you mash say at 154F, you will most probably not reach the 10% alcohol, without a sugar addition. But if you have great efficiency, you should be able to hit more than 1.099. So if you mash high, I would use some sugar. If you mash lower, you will probably be fine.

The SRM colour is however only 29, but assuming you only will do a 5 gallons batch, it will get a tad darker. I usually go for 5.5 gallons as you will lose some beer in the fermenter.

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

What kind of efficiency do you normally get? I've gotten over 70%, but never 75% and that was with 12 lb grain bills. I have a big stout planned for january and I'm assuming 60% on that. Short of a HERMS or RIMS rig, I really don't know how to maximize efficiency with big grain bills. I'll be interested to see if anyone chimes in (or if you come up with something brilliant).

Best of luck....

 

[stz]

YMMV but I'd never (rarely, but couldn't imagine a reason) mash a big beer higher than 65C because the alcohol and the typical unfermentables left over from just base malt are more than enough.

Like if you assume 2 points left per 10 (typical, quick and dirty recipe assessment) with base malt alone (you'll have more with the roast and kilned!) then at a starting gravity of .099 you'll have a provisional gravity of 20. You might come out of the boil higher. Quite often a longer boil (evaporation) helps these beers if you need to bring up your starting gravity.

Alcohol contributes body and a perceived weight as well. This is why double IPA/triple IPA and so many (english!) styles use brewing sugar for a portion of total extract to prevent a big IPA with an FG of .018-20. While you won't necessarily want that for an imperial stout a normal mash temperature is certainly enough of an effort towards body for me.

Like I see people with knowledge who want to use every technique to reach an aim when only one or two of them is often required. High starting gravity with typical attenuation, high abv, crystal, chocolate, oats, carafoam (what?!) hot mash .. Pick one or two, all of them are a recipe for a "my imperial stout finished at 1.038?" thread.

You'd be surprised how many beers are mashed at 65.5C for efficiencies sake. Thick, thin, mouthfeel etc are more often directly influenced by grist composition, fermentation profile and yeast selection. The only time we play with temperature is often the opposite end of the problem, getting a 3.4-3.7% beer to finish at .009-.010 instead of <.006!

Also wanted to say that choice of base malt is important for sweetness/character notes. At higher abv you'll get plenty of whatever that malt throws. High FG typically is disappointing in respect to sweetness because the dextrins AREN'T very sweet. Typically 15 points of dextrin is the threshold for perception let alone sweetness.

 

[TheBrewBrotha]

What kind of efficiency do you normally get? I've gotten over 70%, but never 75% and that was with 12 lb grain bills.

I usually hit about 70-73% efficiency but I assume with a 20lb grain bill I set myself for 60% efficiency based on the big grain bill. I also will be doing a brew in a bag with this recipe and plan to fly sparge w/ squeezing

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

I usually hit about 70-73% efficiency but I assume with a 20lb grain bill I set myself for 60% efficiency based on the big grain bill. I also will be doing a brew in a bag with this recipe and plan to fly sparge w/ squeezing

Sounds about right.

 

[TheBrewBrotha]

Had the opp of brewing this recipe and was a little underwhelmed with the ingredients and turn out. The recipe is designed to be more of an imperial porter than a stout. Not enough chocolate, roasted/dark grains to bring the SRM to the appropriate color for a stout as this beer ended up looking like a latte or chocolate milk. Also, the oats included with my specific recipe was crushed, although packaged separately from my base crushed grains, and had an infestation weavels in it but luckily I had more on hand to sub out. The build and brewing instructions of the recipe had the OG at 1.088 but I added some DME to get up to the 1.099 the recipe anticipates. Letting it ride for a bit to see how it turns out but not the most exciting stout recipe i've seen locally. The response of customer service was pretty good while it lasted.

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