Russian Imperial Stout

[corn]

getting ready to brew a batch. it is a brewers best extract kit. anyone brewed this yet or have any thoughts.

 

[mrbunn]

This was my first kit ever. Turned out very nice.

 

[Tinman13]

have it in secondary right now
Added a oak spiral that was soaked in Dark Rum

 

[corn]

have it in secondary right now
Added a oak spiral that was soaked in Dark Rum

if you dont mind, how long did you soak in the rum?

 

[corn]

did either of you use a yeast starter? I rehydrate before pitching, was'nt sure if a starter would be needed for this type of beer.

 

[Iqbal624]

I would assume that if you were doing an imperial, you'd want to do a starter.

 

[Jebu1788]

I would assume that if you were doing an imperial, you'd want to do a starter.

If it's dry yeast you don't need a starter. But you probably will want two packs. I don't know what yeast they have in the kit, but you may want to get some extra yeast.

 

[lemmiwinks]

If it's dry yeast you don't need a starter. But you probably will want two packs. I don't know what yeast they have in the kit, but you may want to get some extra yeast.

+1

I just brewed the Kate the Great clone last night and pitched 2 packets of re-hydrated US-05. OG was 1.102

 

[corn]

If it's dry yeast you don't need a starter. But you probably will want two packs. I don't know what yeast they have in the kit, but you may want to get some extra yeast.

thanks all. it is dry yeast : safale s-04. have not used this strain before. do you think I need two of these. also this is the biggest beer I will have brewed, is an air lock sufficient or do i need a blow off tube. thanks

 

[Jebu1788]

thanks all. it is dry yeast : safale s-04. have not used this strain before. do you think I need two of these. also this is the biggest beer I will have brewed, is an air lock sufficient or do i need a blow off tube. thanks

Yes, I would suggest two packs.

If your primary is on the smaller side, go with a blow-off tube. Or if you're just concerned, a blow off tube certainly won't hurt.

 

[corn]

ok, thanks. I will grab an additional pack. my primary is a 6.5 gallon and the batch will be 5 gallons.

 

[Wreck99]

A friend of mine wants me to brew an Imperial Stout too. Is it best to use a carboy or bucket for primary, or does it matter for this beer?

 

[corn]

not sure which would be best. I brewed mine today and will be using a bucket, as soon as the wort cold enough to pitch the yeast.

 

[joshb_]

I have done 3 brewers best kits, they all have turned out better than expected. Great kits to learn on for sure.

 

[Tinman13]

if you dont mind, how long did you soak in the rum?

14 Days...

 

[tnsen]

greetings hop heads..just wondring why you are suggesting 2 packs of yeast with this kit?...as a friend from work just brewed this and so far he was not too pleased...

 

[corn]

mine is in the fermenter now, bubbling away. I only ended up using the one packet of yeast. I reiterated it and pitched at 70deg. after only 5 hours the airlock is bubbling. I will take that as a good sign.

 

[replacement]

Got this kit as a gift, will be my first homebrew. Finally have everything together and ready to go for this weekend. I picked up an extra pack of yeast after reading into it, but I've seen others post who have brewed exactly per the kit with no problems. Was planning on rehydrating and only pitching one, but having a backup if it doesn't take off after a couple days... bad idea?

 

[replacement]

greetings hop heads..just wondring why you are suggesting 2 packs of yeast with this kit?...as a friend from work just brewed this and so far he was not too pleased...

Wondering what has he been not pleased about? Did the one pack get him from target OG to FG?

Or can anyone comment whether you can get full attenuation but something still being off in flavor due to a slow/low yeast count?

 

[gfullam]

I am doing this as my first 5 gallon batch.

It took to fermentation within hours and blew its top (literally) within 12 hours. I had an incredible amount of foam and CO2 production. I have some great video and photos that I can post here later for everyone's enjoyment.

I should have used a blow off tube from the start, but took my chances with the airlock, which resulted in a brew closet coated in wort foam. I spent 6 hours cleaning the inside of the closet (the explosion reached the ceiling) and had to clean and resanitize all of my equipment and empties which I store in there.

At any rate, I modified the recipe to make it an Oak Barrel Chipotle Stout. I added 2 1/2 tsp. of Chipotle powder during the boil, then 5 whole chipotle peppers and 2 ounces of American House Toast Oak Cubes in secondary.

It has been in secondary for two weeks now and has stopped fermenting at 1.034 SG (down from 1.080 OG). The target FG is 1.017-1.020 so I'm not sure what to do. I'm definitely going to post a separate thread asking for advice on curing a stuck fermentation.

I have done two tastings so far, once at racking to secondary and then tonight (2 weeks in). It is a pretty good beer. Opaque Black, strong malt flavor, smooth mouth feel, and prominently spicy from the smoky-sweet chipotle.

I am anxiously awaiting bottling day in 6-8 weeks.

Let us know how yours turns out.

 

[ChessRockwell]

This was my first kit ever (aside from a few Mr. Beer batches) and I thought it came out awesome. I only pitched the 1 packet of (I think it was) US-05 that came with it, and my FG was somewhere around 1.030, but I thought it tasted EXCELLENT. If you're like me and prefer your Russian Imperials a little on the sweeter side, I think under-pitching with one pack of dry yeast isn't a problem at all. If you're concerned with the numbers and want your FG lower and your beer a little dryer, you definitely need to pitch 2 packets of yeast.
Either way if you're already past pitching and are extremely worried about your FG being a little too high on a Russian Imperial stout, I say relax, don't worry about it. Give it another week or two to finish and bottle it. It'll be great.

 

[corn]

This was my first kit ever (aside from a few Mr. Beer batches) and I thought it came out awesome. I only pitched the 1 packet of (I think it was) US-05 that came with it, and my FG was somewhere around 1.030, but I thought it tasted EXCELLENT. If you're like me and prefer your Russian Imperials a little on the sweeter side, I think under-pitching with one pack of dry yeast isn't a problem at all. If you're concerned with the numbers and want your FG lower and your beer a little dryer, you definitely need to pitch 2 packets of yeast.
Either way if you're already past pitching and are extremely worried about your FG being a little too high on a Russian Imperial stout, I say relax, don't worry about it. Give it another week or two to finish and bottle it. It'll be great.

how long from brew day to bottling? the instructions are a little generic at this point. they say 1 week in primary, 2 weeks in secondary, then bottle. others are saying this type of stout can take months.

 

[BrewKnurd]

greetings hop heads..just wondring why you are suggesting 2 packs of yeast with this kit?...as a friend from work just brewed this and so far he was not too pleased...

People are suggesting two packs because proper pitching rate is a function of your beer's original gravity. For high enough gravity beers (don't know the OG of this particular RIS, but a typical RIS would fall into this category), you're not going to hit recommended pitching rates with 1 pack of yeast for 5 gallons of beer.

Consequences of underpitching range anywhere from minimal (i.e. possibly unperceptable) to off flavors to significant under-attenuation.

Before anyone chimes in with "i only pitched one packet and everything turned out fine".... that's great. I'm happy it worked for you. But pitching the proper amount of yeast is still a better idea.

mrmalty.com for everything you want to know about pitching rates.

 

[sfrisby]

Deleted. Wrong forum.

 

[corn]

Ok I am seeing that there are two sizes of yeast packets. 5oz and 11.5oz. Are we all talking about the same size? Along with that, are there any drawbacks to over pitching? I pitched one 11.5 oz packet of safale s-04, that I rehydrated. Mr. Malty.com said to pitch 1.4 packets. So better to do 1 or 2?

 

[ChessRockwell]

how long from brew day to bottling? the instructions are a little generic at this point. they say 1 week in primary, 2 weeks in secondary, then bottle. others are saying this type of stout can take months.

There's plenty of debate on this and you could get more than a few different answers, I'd just do a month in primary and no secondary personally, making sure the gravity had stabilized before bottling. Then you can taste some of them earlier and let others age to find out where you think it's at it's peak.

 

[BrewKnurd]

Ok I am seeing that there are two sizes of yeast packets. 5oz and 11.5oz. Are we all talking about the same size? Along with that, are there any drawbacks to over pitching? I pitched one 11.5 oz packet of safale s-04, that I rehydrated. Mr. Malty.com said to pitch 1.4 packets. So better to do 1 or 2?

Why not just 1.4?

But to answer your question about overpitching, yes, there are potential downsides to overpitching, but you would probably need to overpitch more significantly than 2 packs vs 1.4 to tell any difference.

If you overpitch enough you can end up with:
1) elevated fermentation temps from more yeast activity
2) reduction in reproduction of yeast, and many of your yeast flavor compounds are produced during reduction. this is obviously less important for very neutral yeast where you're not looking for much flavor contribution anyways.

 

[Jeepninja]

I do a coffee RIS and I use a starter for my yeast. I've been using Rogue's Pacman yeast for all my ales and imperial ales with a lot of success. My current RIS is ready to move to the secondary this weekend. Here is the recipe I use:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Demon-Roast-Imperial-Stout-Coffee-Infused-Beer/

 

[flowermoundbrewer]

this is about a year old thread... but curious, did anyone experience vigorous fermentation during the initial 24 - 48?

I brewed a RIS from Brewers Best and had a crazy 24 hours of constantly swapping airlocks to keep from clogging.... complete mess. turned out great, but i heard it was common on this brew so thought I'd check since we used the same kit.

 

[RigorHillRyan]

this is about a year old thread... but curious, did anyone experience vigorous fermentation during the initial 24 - 48?

I brewed a RIS from Brewers Best and had a crazy 24 hours of constantly swapping airlocks to keep from clogging.... complete mess. turned out great, but i heard it was common on this brew so thought I'd check since we used the same kit.

Uhhh, yeah. This thing was an animal. It was going like crazy and kept clogging even though I had a blowoff. I had to check on it every twenty minutes and burp it to keep it from exploding. :rockin: