First imperial stout

Looking for recipe suggestions and general tips for my first imperial stout Homebrew.

I know I’d like to age it on some cocoa nibs similar to Upland’s Teddy Bear Kisses. I’m also a fan of Bells Kalamazoo and Thirsty Dog’s Siberian Night. I’m assuming these are all American styles of Imperial Stouts?

I plan on making a starter, but am not sure what size it needs to be.

Thanks for any help.

Some general thoughts are definitely use the Mr Malty yeast calculator to ensure you have enough yeast to pitch, and don’t be afraid of boosting your OG with some extract. You can mash all your specialty malt along with all the base malt that you can fit in your tun, and then just add extract to get to your desired OG. Pitch plenty of yeast, oxygenate heavily, and keep your fermentation temperature on the cool side for the yeast strain you are using. Make sure you add enough hops to keep the beer in balance as it ages to some extent.

When making a starter, is the measurement of yeast calculated by how much there is after you decant, or the whole starter?

And for a beer like an imperial stout, how many times would it take to decant and add new starter wort to build a sufficient pitch?

I would honestly recommend making a smaller beer and using the yeastcake for the Imperial Stout. Make a sessionable brown or porter then repitch on to the cake.

Originally posted by Cliff
I would honestly recommend making a smaller beer and using the yeastcake for the Imperial Stout. Make a sessionable brown or porter then repitch on to the cake.

Or just pitch a packet of US05 or S04.

Originally posted by sharpe1987

Looking for recipe suggestions and general tips for my first imperial stout Homebrew.

Try something like this:



1 lbs Roast Barley

1 lbs American Caramel 120°L

1 lbs Weyermann Carafa® III

1 lbs 2-Row Chocolate Malt

9 lbs Dry Extra Light Extract

1 oz Magnum (Whole, 14.50 %AA) boiled 60 min.

Yeast : Fermentis US-05 Safale US-05



Original Gravity 1.097

Terminal Gravity 1.023

Color 46.29 °SRM

Bitterness 55.9 IBU

Alcohol (%volume) 9.8 %

87 % overall

Originally posted by HornyDevil

Originally posted by sharpe1987

Looking for recipe suggestions and general tips for my first imperial stout Homebrew.

Try something like this:



1 lbs Roast Barley

1 lbs American Caramel 120°L

1 lbs Weyermann Carafa® III

1 lbs 2-Row Chocolate Malt

9 lbs Dry Extra Light Extract

1 oz Magnum (Whole, 14.50 %AA) boiled 60 min.

Yeast : Fermentis US-05 Safale US-05



Original Gravity 1.097

Terminal Gravity 1.023

Color 46.29 °SRM

Bitterness 55.9 IBU

Alcohol (%volume) 9.8 %

87 % overall

If I wanted to replace the US-05 with a white labs liquid yeast, what could I use?

And what would be an all grain equivalent to the 9lbs DME?

Originally posted by sharpe1987

Originally posted by HornyDevil

Originally posted by sharpe1987

Looking for recipe suggestions and general tips for my first imperial stout Homebrew.

Try something like this:



1 lbs Roast Barley

1 lbs American Caramel 120°L

1 lbs Weyermann Carafa® III

1 lbs 2-Row Chocolate Malt

9 lbs Dry Extra Light Extract

1 oz Magnum (Whole, 14.50 %AA) boiled 60 min.

Yeast : Fermentis US-05 Safale US-05



Original Gravity 1.097

Terminal Gravity 1.023

Color 46.29 °SRM

Bitterness 55.9 IBU

Alcohol (%volume) 9.8 %

87 % overall

If I wanted to replace the US-05 with a white labs liquid yeast, what could I use?

And what would be an all grain equivalent to the 9lbs DME?

WLP004 Irish ale yeast would work, as would WLP099 Super high gravity yeast

Consider Briess 2-row as a sub for the DME but not sure how much you’d need. You’d have to run calculators

wlp001 is the liquid equivalent to US-05. Mrmalty.com has a pitching rate calculator that will guide to to the appropriate starter size based on your batch size, original gravity, and starter methods.

The starter sizes are based on the total volume of starter wort.