Imperial Stout Russian Imperial Stout (2011 HBT Competition Category Winner)

[jsun]

You dont want it to attenuate well on this beer, it will become too dry. I would not suggest using that yeast at all.

Ok thanks. I have never brewed this style before so I appreciate the feedback.

I know that using 3711 would result in in a different flavor/style from the OP's recipe, but do you think it would necessarily be a bad beer? Others have used saison yeast before to clone Great Divide's Belgian Yeti.

I'm not trying to be stubborn, just trying to learn...

 

[ja09]

Ok thanks. I have never brewed this style before so I appreciate the feedback.

I know that using 3711 would result in in a different flavor/style from the OP's recipe, but do you think it would necessarily be a bad beer? Others have used saison yeast before to clone Great Divide's Belgian Yeti.

I'm not trying to be stubborn, just trying to learn...

Maybe mash higher and add some unfermentables like maltodextrin? Not sure I haven't brewed this recipe yet. There are a lot of other recipes you could use that cake for. Personally I wouldn't do it... but it could turn out well. This to me sounds like a recipe that I'll do exactly as is, and maybe age some variations

 

[steinsato]

Winter is coming.

 

[thaymond]

Winter is coming.

Rolled onto the floor laughing. Sort of an inside joke with my wife and I. Gotta throw it in there whenever it seems appropriate.

Otoh, you're right. Time to get on this for next winter.

 

[WSJ]

Winter is coming.

If you like to drink your stout while it's winter, you better start brewing NOW or you will be too late.

PS! Never understood why stout is for winter. Probably because I like smooth Irish stouts with low ABV.

 

[Shenanigans]

Good point about brewing this soon.
If I want this to be ready for Christmas what's the latest I should start brewing?
I'll be bottle conditioning it and will be sticking (mostly) to the original recipe - so no soaking on oak chips or other sh!t like that.

I might have to skip brewing an ESB and using the yeast cake and just go ahead and make this my next brew; make a starter out of my vial of WLP002.

 

[WSJ]

Do not take my word for it but I think you can do the typical 20-21 C for 3 weeks and then < 18 C from there on.
It depends of ABV, etc. (from various sources)

• < 5% ABV, 1-4 moths
• 5-7 ABV up to 2 years
• 7.5 - 10 not even drinkable before several months, but will be fine for 5 - 10 years.
  BTW, like wine, beer has &#8220;waves&#8221; of drinkability. It can taste good and then not so good an then come back again.
• 10% > wait at least a year or two before you bother drinking it and then enjoy for the next 10 years.

Obviously you need a constant temperature.

 

[ultravista]

How would this turnout with WLP007 instead of 002?

 

[ja09]

Good point about brewing this soon.
If I want this to be ready for Christmas what's the latest I should start brewing?

Yesterday

 

[Jupapabear]

Just bottled mine. A few months and ill try one with an up date.

 

[Shenanigans]

Yesterday

Maybe for Xmas 2015 then

 

[Jupapabear]

I brewed this on April 5th and tasted a sample while bottling. Good but with a noticeable hot bite. Pretty mush what I was looking for. I will age it for a few montha before I sample a bottle, but I assume its going to take awile as the op suggests.

 

[D_Nyholm]

Brewed this up today and didn't get the boiloff i was expecting. Ended up with almost 6.5 gallons of 1.093 wort. It smelled like fresh brewed coffee with chocolate!! The bees were very persistent and almost ended up with Yellow Jacket Stout but kept them out with only one of them stinging me

Can't wait for 6-8 months down the road with this one!!

Has anyone added bourbon soaked oak chips to this one? I have 2 gallons sitting in a 3 gallon fermenter that I may want to experiment with. Any idea on the ratios? I have never used them before.

 

[ultravista]

Has anyone added bourbon soaked oak chips to this one? I have 2 gallons sitting in a 3 gallon fermenter that I may want to experiment with. Any idea on the ratios? I have never used them before.

I've read that 2 ounces of medium oak is standard for a 'normal' beer. A RIS or other high gravity beer may require more.

Check your local Walmart. Mine has the Jack Daniels bourbon oak 'smoking chips' for $5 a bag (about 2 #).

 

[ja09]

2 oz medium oak cubes is more than enough for only 2 gallons. You'll only need 1 oz or less. Make sure to taste it often after a week or two so you don't over oak. Or, boil the cubes then soak in Bourbon for a couple weeks and pitch everything and let it age a couple months. Boiling will drive off the harsh tannins and give it a nice mellow oak. Nothing worse than ruining a great beer by over oaking.

 

[Fordzilla]

I over oaked this last time I brewed it. It was still delicious, but the oak overhsadowed the bourbon and the roasty flavor.

I'm brewing this again on Saturday and doing a parti-gyle smaller stout for the first time ever.

 

[finsfan]

If anyone is concerned with over oaking, check out oak beans. I picked some StaVin oak beans up at a home brew shop because that was all the had, but am glad I did. Here is some info on them, and they look just like regular oak cubes.

"StaVin's oak beans are made with three year air dried American oak from Missouri, 2 year air dried French oak from the center of France (Cognac) and two year seasoned European oak from Hungary.

The oak they select matches the same quality requirements as staves which are used for premium wine barrels. The StaVin oak bean is a one-of-a-kind invention that is unparalleled in the industry today.

Staves are traditionally fire toasted using methods coopers have perfected over the centuries. Experienced production personnel pay careful attention to thermal parameters, ensuring full heat penetration for specific toast levels.

Once toasted, a percentage of staves go into full stave systems for barrels and tanks, while others are processed by a proprietary bean machine. This machine cuts the staves into beans and sends them through a stainless mesh to eliminate any excess particles.

The minimum recommended contact time for barrel quality extraction is eight weeks, using a ratio of 1 to 2 pounds per sixty gallons (2 - 2.6 oz per 5 gallons) of wine. The StaVin oak bean has a useful life of eight to ten months, at which time it is fully extracted.

The oak bean, which is more dense than oak chips or oak powder, produces less phenolics- giving your wine more rounded, complex flavors which will enhance your wines. We are proud to be a distributor of Stavin Oak Beans."

 

[D_Nyholm]

Those sound interesting. I doubt my homebrew shop will have anything like that. Maybe I'll have to try to source them online since i have about a month until I will use them.

 

[finsfan]

Those sound interesting. I doubt my homebrew shop will have anything like that. Maybe I'll have to try to source them online since i have about a month until I will use them.

My last taste test of this on the oak beans was great. It just hit 3 months on the oak beans yesterday and I will bottling it before the end of the week so I will get back to you on how much oak there really is.

 

[D_Nyholm]

Sounds good. Searched quickly and found a few places to get them. Did you soak yours on Bourbon or anything or just straight oak? I am thinking a few ounces of Bourbon might add just a bit extra.

 

[finsfan]

Sounds good. Searched quickly and found a few places to get them. Did you soak yours on Bourbon or anything or just straight oak? I am thinking a few ounces of Bourbon might add just a bit extra.

Soaked it in Jameson for close to a month. I also put 2 vanilla beans in with it per wobrien's suggestions.

 

[D_Nyholm]

That sounds tasty. Did you dump all the Jameson in (how much did you use?) Or just filter out the beans and use them?

Sorry for all the questions, chips and hard alcohol in brewing are a first for me.

 

[finsfan]

That sounds tasty. Did you dump all the Jameson in (how much did you use?) Or just filter out the beans and use them?

Sorry for all the questions, chips and hard alcohol in brewing are a first for me.

Not a problem at all, happy to share. I put the oak beans and vanilla beans into a mason jar and added enough Jameson to cover them all. Id guess maybe 8oz which was actually a little more than I needed to cover it. I left that on the counter for a few weeks shaking it often (not sure if that helped at all, but it made me feel better), then put it in the fridge for two weeks (again not sure if that does anything). I just dumped it all into secondary before racking where it has been the last three months. The mixture smelled phenomenal before I poured it in.

 

[finsfan]

Wow! Final sample before bottling in the next day or so and this is fantastic. The oak and vanilla are there but not in your face at all. I will be brewing this time and time again and will probably only be using oak beans in the future. Its amazing already.

 

[1fast636]

After how ever many moths she finally carbed and is heavenly as hell

 

[Jupapabear]

I just bottled mine, how long would you say it took you? And did ypu add any yeast at bottling or just priming sugar?

 

[ohiobeer29]

congrats sounds really good!!!

 

[jschumacher]

Looks delicious. I will definitely need to brew this up soon.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[fenners]

Brewed this up yesterday, with less hops than the original recipe, but the rest the same. BIAB, 5 gallons, hit 1.090 & target (according to beersmith) was 1.094. I can live that Used two packets of rehydrated Nottingham yeast.

As soon as I approached my office this morning, I could hear a loud pop-pop-pop coming from my make-shift fermentation chamber. In all my time of brewing with it, I've /never/ heard that sound without taking off the lid + insulation... No gunk in my blow-off tube, but it's been putting out enough CO2 to cause sanitizer to spill out & soak through the cardboard box that the chamber's built from.

Still popping away, more violently than before. It sounds like it's raining outside. Apparently the dog growled at it earlier.

 

[Jupapabear]

I thought my bucket was going to lose it's lid! This was fun to watch.