RIS thoughts

[el_kirk]

OK, so I've never done this, but I thought I'd give it a shot since I can't brew for almost a week...

I'm making a Russian Imperial Stout that I'd like to stash until this winter and thought I'd post the recipe for all to see and open myself up to everyone's comments and criticism.

So here it is, what do you think? What would you change? What's your favorite RIS?

***RIS thoughts***

Recipe Specifics
----------------

Batch Size (Gal): 6.00 Wort Size (Gal): 6.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 20.75
Anticipated OG: 1.094 Plato: 22.47
Anticipated SRM: 79.1
Anticipated IBU: 73.6
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75 %
Wort Boil Time: 120 Minutes


Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
72.3 15.00 lbs. Pale Malt(2-row) Great Britain 1.038 3
9.6 2.00 lbs. Roasted Barley Great Britain 1.029 575
6.0 1.25 lbs. Chocolate Malt Great Britain 1.034 475
3.6 0.75 lbs. Crystal 120L Great Britain 1.033 120
3.6 0.75 lbs. Crystal 80L 1.033 80
2.4 0.50 lbs. Crystal 40L America 1.034 40
2.4 0.50 lbs. Flaked Barley America 1.032 2

Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.

Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
0.75 oz. Warrior Pellet 15.00 37.8 60 min.
0.75 oz. Nugget Pellet 13.00 32.8 60 min.
0.75 oz. Goldings - B.C. Pellet 4.50 3.0 15 min.

Yeast
-----
Wyeast 1056 2 liter starter

Mash Schedule
-------------
Mash at 151

All temperature measurements are degrees Fahrenheit.
All infusion amounts are in Quarts.
All infusion ratios are Quarts/Lbs.

 

[Oldsock]

Looks like a great recipe to me. Plenty of roast, nice amount of crystal (a bit high, but you are mashing cool enough to dry it out), solid hop bitterness without overdoing the aromatics. Hope it turns out well, good luck.

 

[rwmiscik]

id go with magnum for the bittering hop but thats just me to each his own.

 

[iijakii]

It's a solid recipe. Are you into the super roasty stouts, though? Nearly 10% roasted barley is sure to put hair on your chest, that's for sure!

 

[KyleWolf]

I agree that the recipe looks good, but it will be very, very roasty/burnt. If that is what you are aiming for then go ahead and I bet it will be dead on. However, if you were wanting a little smoothness I would switch the amounts of the chocolate and roasted barley. You won't lose much but it will give you a more round flavor instead of one with as much bite. Otherwise, it looks similar to a stout that I brew and it rocks!

Good Brewing!

 

[el_kirk]

id go with magnum for the bittering hop but thats just me to each his own.

So what do you like about Magnum that Warrior and Nugget don't provide (or what does Warrior and/or Nugget provide that you don't like)?
I've not used Magnum.

 

[el_kirk]

It's a solid recipe. Are you into the super roasty stouts, though? Nearly 10% roasted barley is sure to put hair on your chest, that's for sure!

I agree that the recipe looks good, but it will be very, very roasty/burnt. If that is what you are aiming for then go ahead and I bet it will be dead on. However, if you were wanting a little smoothness I would switch the amounts of the chocolate and roasted barley. You won't lose much but it will give you a more round flavor instead of one with as much bite. Otherwise, it looks similar to a stout that I brew and it rocks!

Good Brewing!

Yep, looking for a VERY roasty RIS...I upped the crystal malts to kind of help balance that out, we'll see how that goes. Thanks everyone for your input, I was curious to see what other folks that had brewed a RIS thought about the recipe.

 

[KyleWolf]

Looking forward to see it happen! keep us posted.

 

[el_kirk]

So I just brewed this.

My preboil gravity wasn't quite high enough, so I boiled an extra half hour. Hit my OG spot on by doing that, but lost 1/2 a gallon in a boilover. Haven't done that in a long time.

Also decided to dough in an extra 5 lbs of Pale malt and a pound of C60 to the mash tun for a smaller beer after I had collected the RIS. Looks like I'll get 4.5 gallons of a 1.044 brownish ale out of that. Gonna call it the brown headed stepchild, I guess...

 

[iijakii]

Awesome!

I've never done a Partigyle due to equipment, but I've always really really wanted to.

 

[el_kirk]

...and thanks to the pint of yeast slurry that I got from our local brewery the RIS took off in about an hour (actually I think it was less!) I tasted a little of the wort and this certainly is a roasty beast!

Since I hadn't planned on the smaller beer I didn't have a starter for that and wound up pitching some harvested slurry that was in my keezer. That still hasn't taken off yet, but it hasn't even been 24 hours, so who would expect it to be up and foaming? Not me.

This was my first partigyle. I thought about it a little while I was working on the recipe, but ultimately decided I didn't want to try to make two beers and risk having the second one steal my focus while I had the RIS bubbling away in the kettle. Turns out, it's a lot easier than I thought it would be. I will do that again.

Many thanks to the Lander Brewing Company...free slurry, reasonably priced grains and a brewmaster that's willing to talk to homebrewers about their process. Suggestions and criticism when you ask for it, can't ask for more than that.

 

[el_kirk]

So the bubbling stopped last week and I pulled the heat control a few days ago because I needed it for another batch. Right now the gravity is at 1.036. Our local brewer pointed out that over pitching can sometimes cause the yeast to poop out because they've not gone through their reproduction cycle, so they just go to sleep. I certainly overpitched.

"Too many people and nobody knows how to f*** because they're all juveniles" is the analogy.

I have a starter going upstairs to see if I can drop the gravity 10-12 points. We'll see if that pans out. Temp control is back and slowly bringing things back to 67.

 

[el_kirk]

Oh, and the gravity sample is really good, even without CO2 in it!