Success in Imperial Stout

Reads 2724 • Replies 29 • Started Monday, February 17, 2014 5:11:44 PM CT

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Message HornyDevil 06:58 Thu 2/20/2014 Originally posted by bgburdman9 Seems like everyones ideas are all over the place. Some are saying mash high, some mash low, some simple malt bill, and some complex. Here is one I brewed last night for a competition in our homebrew club. April Rockit Cup: Imperial Stout Calculated for 5 gallons @ 70% efficiency; if your mash tun cannot hold 20 lbs. of grain, then cut the recipe in half and brew 2.5 gallons. OG: 1.100 FG: ~1.020 IBU: 87.5 Color: 91.5 ABV: 10.5% 10 lbs. British Pale Malt 4 lbs. White Wheat 2 lbs. British Chocolate Malt (Fawcett or Simpsons) 2 lbs. British Roasted Barley (Fawcett or Simpsons) 1 lb. Crisp Crystal 77L 1 lb. Dingemanns Special B (or Simpsons Extra Dark Crystal) Mash @ 150˚ F for 75 minutes. Add half of the Chocolate Malt and Roasted Barley at the beginning of the mash as normal. Add the other half with 2 minutes left in the mash, prior to sparge. 60 minute boil 1.8 oz. Northern Brewer @ 60 minutes 1 oz. Northern Brewer @ 30 minutes 1 oz. EKG @ 15 minutes 1 oz. Northern Brewer @ 5 minutes 1 oz. EKG @ 0 minutes 1.2 oz. Northern Brewer dry hop WLP007 Dry English Ale Ferment @ 66° F; do not let this beer ever get above 68° F; start at 60-62° F and keep the temperature controlled until after high krausen Carbonate to 2.3 volumes Now if only this thread was called, "Post your Imperial Stout Recipes"
Message HaStuMiteZen99 beers 1111 º places 27 º 07:08 Thu 2/20/2014 Originally posted by GarethYoung 1. About 20% oats 2. Dehusked carafa 3. Simple malt bill, mash low, boil long 4. No aroma hops, maximum 50 IBU As burdman pointed out, the advice is a little all over the place, so I’ll explain my choices, apart from the oats, the reasons for which should be fairly obvious. 2. Dehusked carafa I have a slight preference for this, since I get the roasty flavour and colour I want with very little to no astringency. I say slight preference, since I’ve made beers and tasted beers with standard roasted malts and they’ve been delicious. I also haven’t done any kind of controlled, blind tasting on my own beers, so it’s possible my preference is affected by my being told by Weyermann that you get the flavour without the astringency. 3. Simple malt bill, mash low, boil long. This is my preference with almost all strong beers, especially barley wines. I use 100% maris otter and boil for 5-6 hours, which gets a really deep maltiness. It also decreases fermentability. With a beer this strong, boiled for that long, it’s going to finish sweet whatever you do; if you mash high as well, it’s going to be far too sweet for my tastes (I hate overly sweet, syrupy stouts). With the combination of roasted malts and the maris-otter-maltiness enhanced with a long boil, I think complicating the malt bill is unnecessary and messy. 4. No aroma hops, maximum 50 IBU This is related to 3. The beer will be sweet, but not overly so, so there’s no need for massive amounts of hops to balance it. Also, imperial stouts are intense beers as it is; I just don’t think adding excessive bitterness adds much. As for aroma hops, I really hate them in imperial stouts. It’s more fruity, American or NZ hops I hate in this kind of beer, actually, they just completely clash with the malty, roasted character that makes imperial stouts taste good. I dislike most Black IPAs for similar reasons; it’s probably the only beer style I can think of where there’s not a single example I can think of that I really enjoy. A small amount of British or Noble hops might be okay, but again just not needed. +1 to everyone who said use lots of yeast. Most crappy imperial stouts (apart from the overly sweet ones) are crappy because they’re badly fermented. Bourbon stouts are okay, and I enjoy them sometimes, but mostly in the same way I enjoy a chocolate milkshake. They’re normally big, creamy, sweet, vanilla-ish things, which are okay if you’re in the mood, or an alcoholic 5-year-old, but they’re not exactly the most thought-provoking thing to drink. Not like Harvey’s Imperial Stout, which is the best ever made.
Message Homer321 P beers 5369 º places 54 º 07:15 Thu 2/20/2014 Originally posted by GarethYoung 3. Simple malt bill, mash low, boil long. This is my preference with almost all strong beers, especially barley wines. I use 100% maris otter and boil for 5-6 hours, which gets a really deep maltiness. It also decreases fermentability. With a beer this strong, boiled for that long, it’s going to finish sweet whatever you do; if you mash high as well, it’s going to be far too sweet for my tastes (I hate overly sweet, syrupy stouts). With the combination of roasted malts and the maris-otter-maltiness enhanced with a long boil, I think complicating the malt bill is unnecessary and messy. I guess I have found that a good ("complex") malt bill, high mash, 60-90 minute boil has worked just as well and as a low mash, long boil. But would be interested to try the two methods side by side with the same style beer. I feel like the longer boil tends to add a caramelization quality, almost like a scotch ale, that I prefer in English Barleywines and not imperial stouts.

Message HaStuMiteZen99 beers 1111 º places 27 º 07:22 Thu 2/20/2014 Originally posted by Homer321 Originally posted by GarethYoung 3. Simple malt bill, mash low, boil long. This is my preference with almost all strong beers, especially barley wines. I use 100% maris otter and boil for 5-6 hours, which gets a really deep maltiness. It also decreases fermentability. With a beer this strong, boiled for that long, it’s going to finish sweet whatever you do; if you mash high as well, it’s going to be far too sweet for my tastes (I hate overly sweet, syrupy stouts). With the combination of roasted malts and the maris-otter-maltiness enhanced with a long boil, I think complicating the malt bill is unnecessary and messy. I guess I have found that a good ("complex") malt bill, high mash, 60-90 minute boil has worked just as well and as a low mash, long boil. But would be interested to try the two methods side by side with the same style beer. I feel like the longer boil tends to add a caramelization quality, almost like a scotch ale, that I prefer in English Barleywines and not imperial stouts. Yeah, that’s the other way to go about it; I just prefer the way I described. Bear in mind, though, that the difference between standard pale malt and all those speciality malts you’re using is caramelisation (or Maillard reactions, I suppose would be the right term).
Message SamGamgee P beers 2452 º places 182 º 12:24 Thu 2/20/2014 Lots of ways to get to a good stout, which is why there are so many highly rated examples. I would also add that partial mash with extract to hit a high gravity can be a good approach. With all the specialty malt flavor in this beer, using extract will have no negative impact like it can on lighter styles where base malt flavors are more prominent.
Message bgburdman9 beers 861 º places 25 º 06:51 Fri 2/21/2014 Originally posted by HornyDevil Originally posted by bgburdman9 Seems like everyones ideas are all over the place. Some are saying mash high, some mash low, some simple malt bill, and some complex. Here is one I brewed last night for a competition in our homebrew club. Now if only this thread was called, "Post your Imperial Stout Recipes" I posted the recipe because I literally just brewed the recipe. I thought some people might want to see what one of us is brewing now. I do not brew a lot of imperial stouts so I dont really have an opinion on what I like best in one. This recipe is a little different than most with the large % of wheat, multiple hop additions, and adding chocolate/roasted at the end of the mash and I thought someone may like to see it.
Message HornyDevil 07:54 Fri 2/21/2014 Originally posted by bgburdman9 Originally posted by HornyDevil Originally posted by bgburdman9 Seems like everyones ideas are all over the place. Some are saying mash high, some mash low, some simple malt bill, and some complex. Here is one I brewed last night for a competition in our homebrew club. Now if only this thread was called, "Post your Imperial Stout Recipes" I posted the recipe because I literally just brewed the recipe. I thought some people might want to see what one of us is brewing now. I do not brew a lot of imperial stouts so I dont really have an opinion on what I like best in one. This recipe is a little different than most with the large % of wheat, multiple hop additions, and adding chocolate/roasted at the end of the mash and I thought someone may like to see it. Understood, but that’s not how this game is played.

Message pellegjr beers 396 º places 16 º 20:15 Mon 3/10/2014 I think this one is sufficiently closed down, thanks for all the replies! As previously-noted, this one ended up being a bit all over the place, so I’ll try to summarize the consistencies: 1. A generous pitch of healthy yeast 2. Assertive noble hop bittering addition 3. Up to 20% oats
Message bitbucket beers 2166 º places 63 º 21:12 Wed 3/12/2014 Originally posted by GarethYoung 1. About 20% oats 2. Dehusked carafa 3. Simple malt bill, mash low, boil long 4. No aroma hops, maximum 50 IBU I think we can thank (or curse) Bert Grant for idea that RIS should have an IBU as high as 90. Possibly Charlie Finkel as well.

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