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

[Humboldt1976]

I am a weak fool who still does the extract brewing. I took morebeers RIS recipe and added 1 lbs of DME and added 3 star anise seed pods to the boil at 10 minutes left, and I like to add 2 oz of oak chips soaked in makers mark into the carboy. Even though it calls for dr English yeast I find the 'American style' low temp yeast in the red packet works best. It does blow off like crazy btw.

 

[ruger988]

Getting ready to brew this and have some concerns with using the 1968/002, building up a big starter now, anyone had any issues with it not finishing out?

I'm also doubling the chocolate (cutting the roasted barley down to 1lb and cutting out the cara-pils completely) to try to get some big chocolate flavor, too much?

 

[olotti]

Getting ready to brew this and have some concerns with using the 1968/002, building up a big starter now, anyone had any issues with it not finishing out?

I'm also doubling the chocolate (cutting the roasted barley down to 1lb and cutting out the cara-pils completely) to try to get some big chocolate flavor, too much?

I just bottled a ris I designed and used wlp002 and it went from 1.098 to 1.020 in prob 2 weeks but I didn't check it for the first reading until the two week mark. Now I mashed for 90 min and mashed low at 152 because I wasn't sure this yeast could get low without some help, I just didn't want it to stall out. I made a 5.5L starter but that's mainly because I don't have a stirplate. Anyway, if u mash a little lower and use a huge starter this yeast will do the trick. Oh my ferm temp never got higher than 66 during primary fermentation then when it stopped blowing off I put in an airlock and moved it upstairs where it's 68-70 deg and I def think that helped the yeast cleanup. Good luck.

 

[m1356guy]

So I brewed this 3 weeks ago and screwed it up pretty bad. Started with 1.25/qt per gallon of filtered San Jose tap water and mashed for 60 minutes at 151F. pH during the mash was 5.7, surprisingly high for the amount of roasted grains. Preboil OG was 1.060, post boil OG was only 1.078 after a two hour boil and 6oz of DME in boil (what I had on hand). A lot lower than the anticipated 1.100 OG

I took a trip out of town for a night the day of brewing, and came back to my chest freezer the next day with 3" of RIS at the bottom. The blowoff was so strong that the liquid came up and out. I know that I screwed this up by using my bottling wand as the first half of my blowoff tube, because my standard housing wouldn't fit on my airlock I had to adapt. The bottling wand was nearly touching the wort without krausen.

Was my OG so low because I only mashed for 60min? Should I wait 90? Runoff slower? I'm re brewing this again and don't want to screw it up. Thanks for any help!

 

[bowserm]

Hey everyone,

I bought the ingredients for this at half batch. how do I go about mashing? I assume I take the 10 pounds of grain, mash using 4.5 or 5 gallons, and don't sparge?

then I am going to try the parti-gyle with the sparge water and do 2 boils.

Am I close on this?

 

[ameadrat]

June 27(Saturday) I made a 50 qt batch using 28 lbs of maris otter. yield after boil was 8.5 gallons. OG was 1075. racked last night at 1020. Flavor was very coffee. I made 2 mistakes. First I forgot the cara pils.
Second, I'm a cooler brewer and did not change my water heating strategy. hence it did not hold in the 151 degree target. so I lost some sugar development. I figured I'd hit 1.090 easily. I tasted while sparing and flavor was excellent. On rack it was heavy on the coffee flavor. To this point excellent recipe. My thoughts at this time a little more chocolate. The recipe called for wlp002. I used 1968. I racked into 2 carboys. I will bottle in November for drinking in December.

In 2008, I was introduced Founders KBS by Mike at the Oak Café in Wyandot, Mi. Fell in love with KBS. I felt it was a little too bitty. So with
my usual not to leave good thing lie. I dumped the oatmeal stout and bought a batch of wort from homewine supply in Dundee, Mi. only I bought 5 gallons of RIS and on rack added 4 oz Starbucks Coffee beans, soaked 10 oz of dark toasted French in a pint of xo brandy for six months. I call it a gentlemans coffee stout. This is what I will be tasting later this year. Note I drain the brandy off the oak before adding to carboy. I figure the brandy adds at least 1 percent alcohol to mix. Friends with taste buds tell me I fit between KBS and Black note.

 

[GCGBrewing]

I'm finally going to be able to brew this one, and I'm going to scale it up to 9 gallons. I think that is about all I'd manage to fit into my keggle Mash Tun, and still have enough room to stir it up! I think I have the recipe down. I entered it into BeerSmith, and tinkered with it until it matched pretty close to the original. If you haven't read through all the pages, then I should note that the percentages on the hops were accidentally reversed by the OP. If you enter them as they are listed, you'll have trouble getting the right numbers.

Anyway, going with the following:

30 lbs 2oz Briess Pale Malt
2lbs 10 oz Roasted Barley
1lb 12 oz Special B Malt
1lb 5.3oz Chocolate Malt 350L
14.4oz Carapils

10.5 oz Challenger 60 min
5oz EKG 30 min

Bumped up slightly so I have an anticipated OG of exactly 1.100, and an ABV of 10.1%

Using US Base malt, because I already have it. Hops are measured with the percentages of the original poster, so I will adjust accordingly once I go out to my freezer and check my actual percentages.

Once brewed, I plan to age it in my whiskey barrel I purchased, but have never managed to use. I hope to have this one ready for late January for either my birthday or the Super Bowl in early Feb 2016!

 

[rockdemon]

I brewed this one about 6 months ago. It was a superb stout already after 1 month in bottle. Now its even better and everyone loves it! I will definitely brew this one again but with more hops in the late addition...

 

[NWMushroom]

Great beer. This just placed 3rd in Table 13 (Stout) at the 2015 Oregon State Fair Homebrew comp with 40.5 points.

Brew, keg and immediately brew again. Don't get caught out with the wait on this one!

 

[orangemen5]

Great beer. This just placed 3rd in Table 13 (Stout) at the 2015 Oregon State Fair Homebrew comp with 40.5 points.

Brew, keg and immediately brew again. Don't get caught out with the wait on this one!

How old was your beer at time of judging? Just brewed my 2nd batch of this. Congrats on placing.

 

[jjbrewhouse]

I bottle this this weekend, can't wait. I did 4 weeks primary and 3 months secondary

 

[NWMushroom]

How old was your beer at time of judging? Just brewed my 2nd batch of this. Congrats on placing.

Thanks! The beer was brewed last October - so at the time of judging it was around 10 months old.

 

[ApatheticNow]

Anyone plug their version of this into Beersmith and feel like sharing a cloud link?

 

[Wreck99]

Anyone plug their version of this into Beersmith and feel like sharing a cloud link?

Here's a copy of mine on beersmithrecipes.com from my old setup.

http://beersmithrecipes.com/viewrecipe/680187/rasputins-beard-ris

I am planning to make this again within the next week or two with my new rig and see if I can improve the OG. Supposed to be 1.107, but I think I got 1.090ish last time I brewed this about 1 yr 1/2 ago.

 

[waverz]

Almost forgot about this one. It's been hiding in the corner of my basement since 11/18/14. Gonna be tasty I'm sure.

 

[TxBigHops]

Almost forgot about this one. It's been hiding in the corner of my basement since 11/18/14. Gonna be tasty I'm sure.

An entire batch??? Daaayum! Let us know if you need some help with that!

 

[Brett3rThanU]

Is it really necessary to rack this to the secondary? I never really use a secondary anymore, but being this one is aging a little longer than my typical brews I thought I'd ask. I plan on kegging it at the 3 month mark.

 

[ja09]

Not nessesary if you have an extra keg for aging. Kegs are ideal for keeping out light and oxygen. Just let it age in the keg a few months before serving or bottling.

 

[Brett3rThanU]

Not nessesary if you have an extra keg for aging. Kegs are ideal for keeping out light and oxygen. Just let it age in the keg a few months before serving or bottling.

I was contemplating that as well. Should I add priming sugar and bulk age, or skip the priming sugar?

 

[finsfan]

I was contemplating that as well. Should I add priming sugar and bulk age, or skip the priming sugar?

Whether you prime in the keg or even rack to the keg instead of a carboy is your call. I think whatever you decide to do, you need to rack off the primary yeast if you're letting it sit for 3 months. May not have any negative effect but why risk it when its easy to avoid.

 

[ja09]

I've personally been aging this in a keg without priming sugar for the last 8 or so months. Plan on doing a couple 1g experiments and bottling the rest with a beer gun. For priming I've had good luck with prime dose capsules, although a lot of people haven't. I think it depended on when/where they were made.

 

[orangemen5]

I'm looking to tranfer mine to a keg for aging as well.
Will a keg stay sealed without constant co2 pressure on it ?
I would think the beer would absorb some co2 therefore losing the seal?
I could be wrong though seeing as I've never aged in a keg, but have plenty of extras to do so.

 

[ja09]

Beer doesn't absorb co2 very well at room or cellar temps, so if your keg holds pressure it should be fine. Mine is still pressurized after 8 months sitting around 65-70*. Make sure to purge well and seal the lid with around 30 psi. I then drop it down to 10 or so, not sure what others do. Go Cuse.

 

[orangemen5]

Beer doesn't absorb co2 very well at room or cellar temps, so if your keg holds pressure it should be fine. Mine is still pressurized after 8 months sitting around 65-70*. Make sure to purge well and seal the lid with around 30 psi. I then drop it down to 10 or so, not sure what others do. Go Cuse.

Thanks good to know.

 

[rockdemon]

I bottled this beer in april after 2 months of fermentation. So its now about 7 months since i brewed it. It was excellent right from the start and its been getting even better every month. Its now becoming very complex and everyone loves it, it tastes licourice, coffe, chocolate and is very creamy with a big grey head! Im definititely brewing this again soon!

 

[Wreck99]

I just brewed this on Monday. This will be the 3rd time I've made it. Everyone loves it. I plan to primary it for 3 weeks to a month, then secondary for like 4 months before even considering serving it. Definitely well worth the wait in my opinion. From brew to glass last time was 6 months and was awesome. I agree this one gets better with age, because I would taste a bottle as much as a year later and it's amazing. Only difference I made this time was using S-04 yeast instead of WLP-002 as I usually do. Looking forward to seeing any differences in the final product. Cheers!

 

[smagic14]

Brewed this in may and it is finally carbonated tastes great and can't wait to see how it ages

View attachment 1443838969980.jpg

 

[rockdemon]

I just brewed this on Monday. This will be the 3rd time I've made it. Everyone loves it. I plan to primary it for 3 weeks to a month, then secondary for like 4 months before even considering serving it. Definitely well worth the wait in my opinion. From brew to glass last time was 6 months and was awesome. I agree this one gets better with age, because I would taste a bottle as much as a year later and it's amazing. Only difference I made this time was using S-04 yeast instead of WLP-002 as I usually do. Looking forward to seeing any differences in the final product. Cheers!

I tried making this but with cascade and us-04 but that one didnt attenuate enough so i ended up with some really heavy stout. Im really interrested in hearing about how it works out for you. its easier and cheaper to use the us-04 instead of ordering that liquie fullers yeast...

 

[roncruiser]

Does anyone know what temp the OP fermented at? Did he go through a temp profile? In other words, stepped up the temp gradually while in primary?

 

[govner1]

Does anyone know what temp the OP fermented at? Did he go through a temp profile? In other words, stepped up the temp gradually while in primary?

Based on the yeast choice I'd say 66°F-70°F.