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

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mcgovern570 said:
I'm a beginner and I'd like to try this recipe. Can anyone offer instructions for this recipe? thanks
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Ditto to everything TxBigHops said.

If you are looking to brew some kind of stout, you might try an Irish stout or an oatmeal stout. Simpler recipe and much less time aging. You'll be grain-to-glass in weeks, not months.
 
Brewed in June; Bottled in November. In April it has been fantastic. This year I'm going hold a case until its a year old. Unfortunately its April and I just finished my last pint. The last was the best, u must get as old as you can.
 
I am going to brew this beer sometime next week. I will keep it in primary for 30 days then age for 240 in a recently used bourbon barrel. will update as I make notes for those that are interested.
 
Brewing this today with slight modifications!! The wort smells and tastes amazing already, this will be a really good beer!
 
ntheknow said:
I am going to brew this beer sometime next week. I will keep it in primary for 30 days then age for 240 in a recently used bourbon barrel. will update as I make notes for those that are interested.
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I hope you're brewing a big batch. You're going to lose a lot of beer keeping it in a barrel for 8 months.
 
Brewed this afternoon. Missed my numbers and ended up at 1.091. Smells amazing. Plan on keeping in primary for a month, racking to secondary on some bourbon soaked oak and vanilla beans for 2-3 months and then bottling. I've never added yeast to bottle so I'm a little concerned about that process. Need to research a little more.
 
rbach2 said:
Brewed this afternoon. Missed my numbers and ended up at 1.091. Smells amazing. Plan on keeping in primary for a month, racking to secondary on some bourbon soaked oak and vanilla beans for 2-3 months and then bottling. I've never added yeast to bottle so I'm a little concerned about that process. Need to research a little more.
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My advice I've brewed a couple big stouts and buy Cbc-1 it's a cask conditioning yeast works great. I use half a pack rehydrated in boiled and cooled water for 5 gal of beer and it works great. I use it for any beer I make that's over 9% abv. Go to danstar website and why have more info too.
 
Has anyone added espresso or coffee to this recipe? I brewed it last year and thought it was too mild for an RIS (maybe because I used 350L instead of 500L roasted barley) so was thinking of adding some cold brewed espresso in the secondary.
 
Finished at 1.018 and tasted fantastic! I think I'll take small samples every couple weeks to see how the oak is taking and bottle once I reach the flavor profile I'm after. After reading through these comments, I think my goal is to brew up a batch of this every six months.
 
I'm entering this into the Ohio state fair this month, we will see how I did. Everybody who tastes this says it's incredible
 
Brewed just finished brewing this, I'm excited!

I've brewed a few big beers recently, around OG=1.090s, and keep getting what I would consider low brew house efficiency. I'm told that 72% is a good target, but I'm down at 60%. Is that normal for a beer this size? I mashed for 2 hours, and stirred the grains a lot.

I'm using decent equipment, the Grainfather, which holds a stable temperature and recirculates the grain through the wert. Hence my surprise at the low efficiency.
 
Seems pretty low, but maybe someone else with Grainfather experience can help. I hit 79% brewhouse at 1.110 OG. It was my first that big, so I'm not sure if it was a fluke or not. Mashed in a 10 gallon Igloo cooler at 156, and batch sparged.

And congrats on the first big beer! I know it felt great for me.
 
Thanks for the reply. This is actually not my first big beer, but I've had the same problem with all of them... efficiency around or below 60%. If you're able to hit such high numbers then there must be something I'm doing wrong. I'm just not sure what!

What sort of water/grain ratio do you tend to use when you mash? I wonder if that's the source of my problem.
 
Mine has been sitting for 5 months....pretty far from being a great beer....but it gets better and better. Haven't had any in 2 months. I will cold crash one and wait unit next Friday to sample. It's a different profile every time.
 
Glad it's getting better gtibrews2, if it keeps changing it'll keep you interested!

Just sampled mine. It's been fermenting for only a week and is down to 1.030. Happy about that, I've had several that have finished high. Tastes remarkably good for such a young strong beer. I have high hopes for this...
 
markusreadus said:
It's been fermenting for only a week and is down to 1.030. Happy about that, I've had several that have finished high..
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Mine finished at 1.026, down from 1.112. Super tasty after two months in the bottle, trying hard to age them without sampling every now and then.
 
If anyone is interested I will be serving my version of this at HomebrewCon this weekend. Look for the West Chester BUZZ club booth.

It is Imperial scotch Stout - aged on Laphroaig
 
Just brewed this one last week, I've been obsessing over this recipe for about a month or longer, read through the entire thread!

Of course the June Seattle heat wave had to coincide exactly with my brewing schedule, temps in the 90's, I was worried about fermentation temps.

Couldn't find the white labs yeast so used Wyeast 1028 london ale instead.

Ended up with 5.5 gallons of 1.097, cooled her down and pitched my 1.75L starter. (I bought an 8 gallon primary for this, figured that would keep it contained since reading the stories on here about the way this thing ferments). After about 4 hours began to see some action, went to bed, woke up and checked on it, surprise! It stayed contained in the bucket. Not much activity since then, I thought it would be going for a few days but it was over quick. Took a sample a couple of days ago, then again today, fermentation was over. Finished at 1.018!

Now the waiting...

I'm so glad I found this thread/recipe Thanks to everyone for supplying all this great info!
 
So I took 4th out of 44 entries in the stout category at the Ohio state fair. Got dinged a little for it being a little alcohol hot
 
Kegging the RIS here @ 6 AM in AZ...

Measured OG = 1.084
Measured FG = 1.020
ABV = 8.4%

Tastes superb!
 
Bottled tonight. I don't know if I'll be able to wait 6-months. Pulled a half-glass at the end and enjoying right now. Good stuff.
 
Im going to brew this in the very near future. Im going to rack it onto oak spirals for aging and I'm just curious if someone can suggest how much oak I should use. I tried looking through the thread but didn't find anything. 5 gallon batch,
 
Roland_deschain said:
Im going to brew this in the very near future. Im going to rack it onto oak spirals for aging and I'm just curious if someone can suggest how much oak I should use. I tried looking through the thread but didn't find anything. 5 gallon batch,
Click to expand...

I used a single medium toast oak spiral and aged for 5 weeks. I thought it seemed oakey enough, so I bottled. In hindsight, I could have left it on the oak for longer. I also soaked the spiral in some good bourbon for three weeks before the secondary, and I dumped the few ounces of bourbon into the secondary with the oak. Hope this helps.
 
can someone please give review of how this tastes and smells? I brewed this before Christmas it's been aging for 9 months, I've tasted it here and there.....it's been a month since I last tasted it. I'm going to crack one open tonight.


please someone give their description on what it tastes and smells like.
 
okay....my taste description....

rich strong chocolate fades into a splash of direct coffee bitterness. it then spreads into a complex vanilla raisiny bread pudding....with a sweet fruity walnut finish that warms slightly
( 13%abv). another delightful note I noticed after the second drink. Is the juicy acidity dancing on the back of your tongue.


this is a beautiful complex beer....I'm cellaring most of it. it's been 9 long months and God damn it's worth it.
 

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