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

[DagoBrewer]

So after 7 days it has come from 1.095 to 1.018, roughly 10% abv! Smells like hot alcohol still, but tastes outstanding! Gunna transfer to secondary and let it sit the closet til December!

 

[AfroHopster]

Any one add vanilla or put this in a barrel?

 

[DagoBrewer]

Any one add vanilla or put this in a barrel?

No but that's a good idea! Mines just sitting in secondary, i think I'll add 2 vanilla beans.

 

[BrewerE]

So after 7 days it has come from 1.095 to 1.018, roughly 10% abv! Smells like hot alcohol still, but tastes outstanding! Gunna transfer to secondary and let it sit the closet til December!

what yeast did you use?

 

[DagoBrewer]

what yeast did you use?

Saf-04. Made a big fat starter the day before

 

[armenianbrewer]

There'll still be some residual co2 in the beer at this point that will escape and push that oxygen out. You should be just fine, I've never had an issue with a gallons worth of head space and bulk aging.

Awesome! I'm happy to hear that..

I have a new question.. I brewed this July 3rd, and Transfered to secondary a month later around Aug 8. Now I'm wondering when I should go to bottle and if I need to worry about bottle conditioning/carbonation.

For my bulk aging schedule, I was thinking Halloween might be a good time to bottle which would give it about 3 months in secondary.

With the yeast inactive for this long, and especially since it's been off the cake, will I need to add yeast to the bottling bucket to ensure bottles get carbed when I add my priming sugar? Or should I leave it as is and hope whatever residual yeast floating around in the beer should be sufficient to carb my bottles? Would it just take longer than the typical 2 week wait?

 

[DagoBrewer]

Awesome! I'm happy to hear that..

I have a new question.. I brewed this July 3rd, and Transfered to secondary a month later around Aug 8. Now I'm wondering when I should go to bottle and if I need to worry about bottle conditioning/carbonation.

For my bulk aging schedule, I was thinking Halloween might be a good time to bottle which would give it about 3 months in secondary.

With the yeast inactive for this long, and especially since it's been off the cake, will I need to add yeast to the bottling bucket to ensure bottles get carbed when I add my priming sugar? Or should I leave it as is and hope whatever residual yeast floating around in the beer should be sufficient to carb my bottles? Would it just take longer than the typical 2 week wait?

The yeast will wake up and start eating the sugar you introduce at bottling time which will cause your bottles to carbonate. I'd say check a bottle after a couple weeks. If it's carbed good enough get those babies in the fridge so you don't get bottle bombs. if it's not, let it sit another week or two.

 

[armenianbrewer]

The yeast will wake up and start eating the sugar you introduce at bottling time which will cause your bottles to carbonate. I'd say check a bottle after a couple weeks. If it's carbed good enough get those babies in the fridge so you don't get bottle bombs. if it's not, let it sit another week or two.

Great! My OG was 1.1 and had a FG of 1.024... but do you think if I kept the bottles cellared and only refrigerated when I was closer to drinking, I could end up with bottle bombs? I am not even anywhere close to being able to keg right now (no fridge nor keg nor knowhow and so on to keg so I just bottle everything I make).

 

[DagoBrewer]

I guess just do what you've been doing. I live in san diego and its hot in my garage almost year round so if i do bottle some i have to keep it cold once it's carbed cuz I've had a few blow up and that sucks! I just keg. It's a million times easier!

 

[jjbrewhouse]

People have added yeast back, go back in the thread it's talked about. The last batch I brewed took forever to carb

 

[JBone120]

Great! My OG was 1.1 and had a FG of 1.024... but do you think if I kept the bottles cellared and only refrigerated when I was closer to drinking, I could end up with bottle bombs? I am not even anywhere close to being able to keg right now (no fridge nor keg nor knowhow and so on to keg so I just bottle everything I make).

As long as you don't add way too much primary NF sugar, you shouldn't have to worry about bottle bombs. The yeast should have already eaten all the sugars it will eat in the beer, so all it will eat is the sugar you add.

And it might take a lot longer than a few weeks to card up with the high ABV, as the remaining yeast will likely be a bit sluggish to get going. The last high ABV RIS I made took a couple months to finally carb up to where it was supposed to, your results may vary though.

 

[JBone120]

As long as you don't add way too much priming sugar, you shouldn't have to worry about bottle bombs. The yeast should have already eaten all the sugars it will eat in the beer, so all it will eat is the sugar you add.

And it might take a lot longer than a few weeks to card up with the high ABV, as the remaining yeast will likely be a bit sluggish to get going. The last high ABV RIS I made took a couple months to finally carb up to where it was supposed to, your results may vary though.

 

[rbach2]

I used CBC-1 at the direction of another poster in this thread (https://www.morebeer.com/products/dry-yeast-cbc1-11.html?gclid=CKOg99X2oc8CFY9bfgodDKwFxQ). I used half of the packet with some priming sugar. Couldn't tell you how it turned out though. Bottled in June and I still haven't cracked one. Hid them away in a closet.

 

[armenianbrewer]

As long as you don't add way too much priming sugar, you shouldn't have to worry about bottle bombs. The yeast should have already eaten all the sugars it will eat in the beer, so all it will eat is the sugar you add.

And it might take a lot longer than a few weeks to card up with the high ABV, as the remaining yeast will likely be a bit sluggish to get going. The last high ABV RIS I made took a couple months to finally carb up to where it was supposed to, your results may vary though.

I was aiming for a target of 2.5 vols of CO2, as even for my stouts I do like a little bit of extra carbonation since this is a sipper.... and two months is nuts! I think my bottling volume will be somewhere along the order of 2.25-2.5 gallons so I'll definitely have plenty of bottles to sample for a while since it's such a big beer and thus see how the carbonation improves/changes over time

I used CBC-1 at the direction of another poster in this thread (https://www.morebeer.com/products/dry-yeast-cbc1-11.html?gclid=CKOg99X2oc8CFY9bfgodDKwFxQ). I used half of the packet with some priming sugar. Couldn't tell you how it turned out though. Bottled in June and I still haven't cracked one. Hid them away in a closet.

Thanks for the advice and tip! Since I still have about 6 weeks before I'm ready to bottle, I will most certainly read up on it. I'm just very weary and scared of bottle bombs so adding a new strain yeast scares me just a tad but hey, if it works then that's pretty awesome. Do you remember what you had for your target volumes of CO2? 2.5?

As I mentioned earlier, my OG was 1.100, and last time I checked my FG which was 3 weeks post pitch it had dropped to 1.024 and I deemed that close to a successful attention/fermentation.

I just wouldnt want this CBC-1 to suddenly ferment something additional to the priming sugar that I suspect some of the original WLP-007 yeast will consume too

 

[Steveg229]

I brewed a version of this 2 months ago and will be bottling this sometime next week. I am adding CBC-1 yeast to make sure that these carb up properly. Looking forward to trying these sometime mid to end of November. Can't wait. It tasted amazing when racking to secondary.

 

[armenianbrewer]

I brewed a version of this 2 months ago and will be bottling this sometime next week. I am adding CBC-1 yeast to make sure that these carb up properly. Looking forward to trying these sometime mid to end of November. Can't wait. It tasted amazing when racking to secondary.

What size was your batch? Do you plan on just rehydrating the entire packet of cbc-1 even though the entire packet probably can more than serve purposes for a 5 gallon batch?

http://www.danstaryeast.com/company/products/cbc-1-cask-bottle-conditioned-beer-yeast "Refermentation (100%) can be completed within 14 days at 15-25°C with an inoculation rate of 10g of yeast per hl of beer (1-2 million cells per ml)."

According to this it says 10g of yeast per hl (or almost the entire 11 g packet for 26ish gallons)
\

 

[TxBigHops]

Awesome! I'm happy to hear that..

I have a new question.. I brewed this July 3rd, and Transfered to secondary a month later around Aug 8. Now I'm wondering when I should go to bottle and if I need to worry about bottle conditioning/carbonation.

For my bulk aging schedule, I was thinking Halloween might be a good time to bottle which would give it about 3 months in secondary.

With the yeast inactive for this long, and especially since it's been off the cake, will I need to add yeast to the bottling bucket to ensure bottles get carbed when I add my priming sugar? Or should I leave it as is and hope whatever residual yeast floating around in the beer should be sufficient to carb my bottles? Would it just take longer than the typical 2 week wait?

I did a lot of research on this before I bottled mine last August. I think some of it is in this thread if you go back a year. Some said don't worry, there will be enough yeast. Others said go ahead and add more to be safe. I decided to add a 5g package of champagne yeast and carbed to 2.0 volumes. Still took forever, and still is just barely carbed now, over a year later.

The yeast will wake up and start eating the sugar you introduce at bottling time which will cause your bottles to carbonate. I'd say check a bottle after a couple weeks. If it's carbed good enough get those babies in the fridge so you don't get bottle bombs. if it's not, let it sit another week or two.

Based on my experience, I would be surprised if it carbs up in two weeks, or honestly even two months. My next batch I will carb to about 2.3 vols instead of 2.0, but still won't touch any for several months.

Great! My OG was 1.1 and had a FG of 1.024... but do you think if I kept the bottles cellared and only refrigerated when I was closer to drinking, I could end up with bottle bombs? I am not even anywhere close to being able to keg right now (no fridge nor keg nor knowhow and so on to keg so I just bottle everything I make).

As long as you don't add too much priming sugar, you shouldn't have to worry about bottle bombs. Champagne yeast and CBC-1 will only consume the dextrose you bottle with. They will not consume your residual sugars, even if you leave them for a year or more.

As long as you don't add way too much primary NF sugar, you shouldn't have to worry about bottle bombs. The yeast should have already eaten all the sugars it will eat in the beer, so all it will eat is the sugar you add.

And it might take a lot longer than a few weeks to card up with the high ABV, as the remaining yeast will likely be a bit sluggish to get going. The last high ABV RIS I made took a couple months to finally carb up to where it was supposed to, your results may vary though.

This. Agree completely.

Also, keep in mind that this beer should age VERY well. If you start opening them early, then after 6-8 months, you're going to really wish you had back the early ones. It REALLY gets that much better.

 

[10borderline11brew]

What should my FG be?

 

[TxBigHops]

What should my FG be?

YOUR FG will be entirely dependent on your recipe, fermentation temps, amount of healthy yeast that you pitch, and many other factors. The recipe in the OP states an expected FG of 1.028. Most beers with a high starting gravity and darker grains will have unfermentable sugars and finish high. Sometimes the yeast will peter out as alcohol levels climb. I've seen mention in this thread of some brewer's beers stopping in the 40s, while others ferment out to the high teens (rare). Something between 1.024 and 1.032 would probably be most common.

 

[rbach2]

Well...opened up my first bottle - gusher. Cracked a second - gusher. First time using CBC-1 and used less than half a package shooting for a target volume of 2.3. Pretty depressing for a 6-month project Get about 8 ounces of beer per 22 oz bottle. Anyone have any tips on fixing these? Left the second one slightly opened (slight hiss) for 5 mins and went to open it and beer volcano.

 

[armenianbrewer]

I did a lot of research on this before I bottled mine last August. I think some of it is in this thread if you go back a year. Some said don't worry, there will be enough yeast. Others said go ahead and add more to be safe. I decided to add a 5g package of champagne yeast and carbed to 2.0 volumes. Still took forever, and still is just barely carbed now, over a year later.







Based on my experience, I would be surprised if it carbs up in two weeks, or honestly even two months. My next batch I will carb to about 2.3 vols instead of 2.0, but still won't touch any for several months.







As long as you don't add too much priming sugar, you shouldn't have to worry about bottle bombs. Champagne yeast and CBC-1 will only consume the dextrose you bottle with. They will not consume your residual sugars, even if you leave them for a year or more.







This. Agree completely.



Also, keep in mind that this beer should age VERY well. If you start opening them early, then after 6-8 months, you're going to really wish you had back the early ones. It REALLY gets that much better.

Just wanted to acknowledge this reply and tell you it's much appreciated.. after some debate I think I will most certainly bottle with the fresh yeast and maybe I'll even go to bottle sooner than later too since it might take a while to achieve a decent carbonation. I generally like a higher carbonation too so I might aim for 2.6 just to give it a little bit more sugar to consume

Also, I wanted to share a video of primary fermentation on the first night or morning, of my batch... pretty insane amount of CO2 being blown off my blow off tube in addition to gunk, trub, yeast and whatever else that gets blown off during primary

https://youtu.be/Il1PR65bcA8

Enjoy the video... the pressure coming out almost make it seem like the blow off water is boiling it's so powerful!

 

[Steveg229]

What size was your batch? Do you plan on just rehydrating the entire packet of cbc-1 even though the entire packet probably can more than serve purposes for a 5 gallon batch?

http://www.danstaryeast.com/company/products/cbc-1-cask-bottle-conditioned-beer-yeast "Refermentation (100%) can be completed within 14 days at 15-25°C with an inoculation rate of 10g of yeast per hl of beer (1-2 million cells per ml)."

According to this it says 10g of yeast per hl (or almost the entire 11 g packet for 26ish gallons)
\

I bottled this last night and just rehydrated the entire package. Extra yeast will not hurt anything or cause any issues as long as fermentation was complete. Better chance at carbonating faster and complete carbonation. There will just be extra yeast sediment at the bottom of each bottle which doesn't matter in a Stout. It tasted phenomenal last night. I cant wait to taste one of these in a month or so.

 

[Steveg229]

Well...opened up my first bottle - gusher. Cracked a second - gusher. First time using CBC-1 and used less than half a package shooting for a target volume of 2.3. Pretty depressing for a 6-month project Get about 8 ounces of beer per 22 oz bottle. Anyone have any tips on fixing these? Left the second one slightly opened (slight hiss) for 5 mins and went to open it and beer volcano.

There are several reasons for gushers.

What temp was the beer at when you opened them and how did it taste?

Could be from incomplete fermentation/under attenuation.
What yeast did you use and what temp did you ferment at?

What did you use for priming sugar, and how much?

Could also be infected bottles? How did you clean/sanitize them prior to bottling?

 

[TorMag]

Saw this thread pop up the other day with Steveg229 reply and thought to myself, "Self, I've always wanted to try an RIS." So I stopped by my LHBS on the way home Tuesday night and got everything. This will be my first big brew, wish me luck. Starter has been going since Tuesday night.

 

[edp12568]

Brewing this tomorrow. First big beer for us too. Can't wait...

 

[TorMag]

Brewing this tomorrow. First big beer for us too. Can't wait...

Let me know how it goes. I am brewing it on Sunday.

 

[JBone120]

Well...opened up my first bottle - gusher. Cracked a second - gusher. First time using CBC-1 and used less than half a package shooting for a target volume of 2.3. Pretty depressing for a 6-month project Get about 8 ounces of beer per 22 oz bottle. Anyone have any tips on fixing these? Left the second one slightly opened (slight hiss) for 5 mins and went to open it and beer volcano.

I had this same thing happen to me with a heffe I brewed for Thanksgiving once. My whole family was getting together and I was worried I botched the entire batch I brewed just for this.

How long have your bottles been carbing? I found that time is on your side here, especially if it hasn't been that long. As mentioned many times, this beer can't be rushed at any stage, but that's to your advantage as it will get better. So my first guess is it need more time, and at the right temp (72 degrees seems to be what I find works best for me, less and the process is even slower).

Also, I have found that enough time to chill also helps a lot. Give the sediment in the beer a chance to settle and there will be less stuff floating around around to help make a gusher. Maybe give the beer at least 24 hours in the fridge undisturbed before you open, more if you can. I have definitely found that throwing a beer in the fridge and drinking it as soon as it hit the temp I want is not as good as giving them a couple days.

Hope this also helps.

 

[TorMag]

Let me know how it goes. I am brewing it on Sunday.

Quoting myself.... Anyway, my daughter surprised us with a visit this weekend from college so I put brewing this off till later this week. The yeast starter is finished and just chilling in the fridge.

I did discuss this recipe with the guy at my LHBS and he suggested that I let this naturally carb in a keg as I store this for 6 months. Told me to drop 3/4 cups priming sugar in the keg and let it do its thing for 6 months. He said that's what he does with his RIS.

 

[VT_jlee]

I was wondering if anyone has had oxidation issues aging this beer for so long, or if anyone has tips for aging high gravity beers during conditioning/bottle storage? I recently upgraded my system and have capacity to brew high gravity beers and want to take a shot at this, but I've only aged brett beers before and brett is an oxygen scavenger so I haven't really worried about it.

 

[JBone120]

I have brewed a couple of RISs so far. I bottled one as normal and let it sit in my basement, I have one bottle left and it was brewed Feb. 2015. I have not had any oxidation problems. And I suspect you wouldn't either if your bottling procedure is solid.

I'm currently bulk aging a batch in a glass carbon that was brewed in January of this year. I kept the airlock full and fresh and have not had any oxygenation problems with that either.

I would just not store these in a real warm place once carbed. My basement is usually right about 68, and they've been great so far.

Hope this helps.