Old Rasputin

[Firestorm159]

Old Rasputin Imperial Stout (clone)
5 gallons, extract with grains
OG = 1.090 FG = 1.022 IBUs = 85-95 ABV =9%

Ingredients
9.9 lbs. Coopers Light malt extract syrup
1.0 lb. Hugh Baird Carastan malt
0.5 lb. Hugh Baird Brown malt
0.5 lb. chocolate malt
1.0 lb. crystal malt (120° L)
0.25 lb. roasted black barley
22.7 AAU Cluster hops (bittering)
(3.25 oz. of 7% alpha acid)
9.0 AAU Northern Brewer hops
(aroma hops) (1 oz. of 9% alpha acid)
8.8 AAU Centennial hops (aroma)
(1 oz. of 8.8% alpha acid)
1 tsp Irish moss
White Labs WLPOO1 (California Ale)yeast or Wyeast 1056 (American Ale) yeast
0.75 cup of corn sugar for priming

Step by Step
Steep the crushed malts in three gallons of water at 150° F for 30 minutes. Remove the grains from the wort, add malt syrup and bring to a boil. Add the Cluster (bittering) hops and Irish moss and boil for 60 minutes. Add the aroma hops (Northern Brewer and Centennial) for the last two minutes of the boil. When you are done boiling, strain out the hops and add the wort to two gallons cool water in a sanitary fermenter. Top the fermenter off with cool water to 5.5 gallons. Cool the wort to 80° F, aerate the beer and pitch your yeast. Allow the beer to cool over the next few hours tó~ 68-70° F, and ferment for 10 to 14 days. Bottle your beer, age for two to three weeks and enjoy! (Yes, that's right, this beer so well- balanced that North Coast releases it to the public in less than a month.)

All-grain option
Replace the light syrup with 14 lbs. of pale malt. Mash all your grains at 152° for 45 minutes. Collect enough wort to boil for 90 minutes and have a 5.5 gallon yield. Decrease the amount of bittering hops to 2.75 oz. of Cluster to account for the increased hop extraction efficiency in a full boil. The rest of the directions are the same.

I found this Rasputin clone on the forum and I've decided to brew it. I have a couple of questions that hopefully someone can answer.
1. I would like to do a full boil but I'm unsure about how much to reduce the bittering hops? The all-grain version says to reduce from 3.25oz to 2.75oz so I'm thinking that's what I need to do for an full boil extract batch?
2. It says (5 gallons, extract with grains) But in the instructions it says to top off your fermenter to 5 1/2 gallons? If anyone else has brewed this recipe any reviews or comments on it would be appreciated. Thanks..

 

[tooldudetool]

I've not made this clone, but I think I can answer your questions.
1. Yes, reduce the bittering hops as they suggest for the all grain version. You are doing a full volume wort boil, so the bittering needs to be dropped as they suggest.
2. The extract recipe assumes you are doing a partial boil, so disregard the top off instructions. Just use the appropriate amount of water at the beginning of the boil so that it is down to 5.5 gallons by the end of the 60 minute boil. The starting water volume depends on your particular setup as far as how much will evaporate in an hour.

I think the suggestion to pitch at 80 degrees is a little odd, usually I will chill the beer down to fermentation temp or a little below before pitching. You will NEED to make a starter for this, don't just pitch a single vial or pouch with an OG of 1.090. According to mrmalty.com, you will need 3 vials or a 2 liter starter. Also, make sure you have some type of fermentation temperature control. This thing will ferment like a beast, and you don't want it to creep up above 70F or you will end up with some strong fusel alcohol flavors that may make it hard to drink. If you can, try to keep it in the 65-67 degree range.

 

[tooldudetool]

Sorry, double post

 

[MarathonMurse]

Wow, I need to give this a shot.

A local bar used to carry this about 5 years ago, and I haven't seen a bottle since. Old Rasputin was my first non-BMC, believe it or not.

 

[Firestorm159]

Well I ordered all the stuff so when it's done I'll let ya know how it turned out.

 

[Viperboy]

How did the brew go on this one/how is fermentation going? Have you bottled or tasted yet? Looking at doing this version (extract) soon so I can have it ready this winter....

 

[Firestorm159]

The brewing process and fermentation went well. I let it ferment for a month then I racked it and let it sit for another month then added oak chips and 15 oz of bourbon. I let it go for about I think about three weeks then bottled. It's been bottled for about 5 weeks I think. The beer still isn't carbed the way it should be but it tastes and smells awesome so other than not having enough carbonation it turned out good.