# Head Banging Russian Imperial Stout Recipe.



## Dave70 (9/8/10)

I found this in the Homebrewer section of issue 13 of Beer & Brewer magazine. 
Keep in mind, this is for *twenty* liters.

1.7kg Coopers Stout.
1.7kg Coopers dark.
1.7kg Coopers Larger.
1kg Coopers Dextrose.

3 x 7g yeast.

Fermentation is described as 'volcanic' and they recomend using a 40 or 60 liter vessel - sage advice I reckon.
I haven't done a kit in years since I made the jump to AG, but this one has got me interested, that's one *big* beer.
If anyone's had a crack at this beasty, I'd love to hear how it came out, did you age it or go in early? (they recomend three months minimum), was it to bitter?, to sweet?, did you spend three hours vomiting black cos that first pint went down so smooth you decided to chase it down with another five?


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## WarmBeer (9/8/10)

Have done something similar, following the BribieG school o headbangin stout:

2 cans Coopers Stout
1kg dex
1kg LDME

Nottingham Ale yeast 18 degrees for at least 2 weeks


I used mine as a bit of a cupboard cleaner brew, so used up some grains I had hanging around:

2 cans Coopers Stout
500g dex
500g LDME
100g Choc
100g Crystal
50g Black malt
20g Styrian Goldings @ 10 mins
18lt
Nottingham yeast @ 18 degrees for 4 weeks

It's big, it's black, and it's definitely not smooth. But give it another 6 months and it's going to be a good winter warmer (yeah, yeah, I know, in 6 months we'll all be wanting summer quencher's, not winter warmers). I'm planning on putting the rest under the house, and pulling them out next winter.


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## Bribie G (9/8/10)

Go for it, sounds glorious. 
Last year I entered the following in the Nationals: (Warmbeer beat me to it )

2 cans Coopers Stout
1kg dex
1kg LDME

a handful of aroma hops for dry hopping.


It came in the upper half of the scores for a RIS  

I would suggest using 11g of Nottingham yeast and ferment at about 17 degrees to avoid creating fusel oils etc and also to tame the fermentation. Also some aroma hops added halfway through the fermentation adds a bit of delicacy to the othewise headbanger experience. :drinks:


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## Pennywise (9/8/10)

Bribie, have you used any other yeast with this recipe? Would be interested to know how some of the liquids hold up


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## Bribie G (9/8/10)

Wyeast Irish should be ok and ferments out quite quickly. I have used Wyeast Ringwood in stouts and also US-05 and they seem to take forever in normal gravity stouts so I wouldn't personally entertain them in high gravity headbangers. Notto is the rottweiler of yeasts and I guess it's also the best one to get a drier stout, as a *threecan* :wacko: :blink:  could end up a bit sickly sweet if you don't get the final gravity as low as possible.


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## Pennywise (9/8/10)

1084 was exactly the yeast I was thinking about, pitch the slurry from a big starter, and ferment cool. Might give it a crack when my bottles are freed up. Store em' for next winter


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## petesbrew (9/8/10)

I know it's completely different, but I just did this 3 can using some of those out of date Brewferm kits being sold on this site
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//ind...amp;recipe=1131

Just had one at 1 month and it was fanastic... obviously it's going to improve with age. Sticky/bittersweet.
Pretty much what you'd expect from 3 bittered cans, but with such a strong alc content, it's one for sipping, not skulling.


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## Dazza_devil (9/8/10)

Homebrewer79 said:


> 1084 was exactly the yeast I was thinking about, pitch the slurry from a big starter, and ferment cool. Might give it a crack when my bottles are freed up. Store em' for next winter




I've got what you might call a RIS fermenting at the moment with 1084. I pitched a 4 litre starter at high krausen into a 22 degree wort and have it fermenting @ 22 degrees C. It was away and had a krausen forming in around 4 hours, it's now at day 6 of fermentation and finishing off. I think it was Bribie that suggested they ferment 1084 at around 22 degrees C in Ireland so I thought I'de give it a crack. Smells delicious, to be sure.


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## Pennywise (9/8/10)

Mmm interesting, I've been having issues with diacetyl when fermenting 1084 over 18 (and even some cases at 17). Sorry for :icon_offtopic: Anyone know which beers are fermented with 1084 at this temp?


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## Dazza_devil (9/8/10)

According to BribieG that's the temp they do Guiness at. I'm not sure if they start it off at that temp, perhaps they kick it up throughout fermentation. I brewed a delicious Irish Red with 1084 @ 19 degrees C, no signs of diacetyl and was selected as my best brew to date by my champion taster.


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## Bribie G (9/8/10)

Yup I've lost the reference as it was on my old computer that died, but according to a 1970s book I read on Google Books, Guinness at Dublin and at the Park Royal Brewery in London (closed) would start the fermentation at below 20 then let it drift up to around 24 degrees, and it would finish primary in something ridiculous like two days. I didn't deliberately emulate this, at the time

<boring story>
I was using a dead fridge fed with 2L frozen PETs . It was in the summer. Someone on the forum suggested that a better way to use PETs was to fill them with brine and they would freeze to a lower temp and last far longer in the dead fridge as coolers. So I got bags of cooking salt and made up brine PETs. They didn't freeze solid, just to mush which is no good as a cooling bottle (latent heat of freezing etc etc) and I already had the Irish Red in the dead fridge. The fermentation took off at 20 degrees and despite the slushy bottles it was 23 by the next day and went up to 25. I had tipped out all the brine and just refroze some PETs with water overnight but by that time the damage had been done and it took me a day and a half to wrestle the beer back down to 21, by which time (3 days) the yeast was done and dropping. 
It turned out a magnificent drop and I've used Irish yeast at 20-22 ever since. 

</boring story>


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## felten (9/8/10)

The massive pressures the yeast are put under in those giant commercial fermenters represses the yeasts ability to make esters, and their ability to clean up diacetyl; so they can ferment hotter and turn their beers out faster.

I'm not saying it doesn't work, bribie's success attests for it, just that you will get more yeast character on a homebrew scale. I've used 1084 at 18c and it comes out quite clean to me.


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## Dazza_devil (10/8/10)

Hmmmmm, so if you have pitched and fermented 1084 @ 22 degrees it might pay to bump it up to 24 degrees C for a couple of days after fermentation has subsided? This will be the hottest fermentation temp that I've brewed at so far, unknown territory. It's a little off topic but it is fermenting a RIS.


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## .DJ. (16/5/11)

my version is down to 1.020...

2 Cans Stout
1kg LDME
1kg Coopers Brewing sugar..
on a cake of 1272...

should it go down any further?


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## Flash_DG (28/11/11)

Dave70 said:


> I found this in the Homebrewer section of issue 13 of Beer & Brewer magazine.
> Keep in mind, this is for *twenty* liters.
> 
> 1.7kg Coopers Stout.
> ...



Just did a search for a good RIS all grain recipe and stumbled on this thread.

My brother-in-law saw this article and wanted me to make it for him, so he goes out and buys all the ingredients for it and yeah it was very 'Volcanic'. 
Well after 3months it tasted :icon_vomit:, like vegemite and alcohol. 6 Months still the same. 
Put a bottle in the fridge to try tonight but I think it will still be horrible and it's been over 12months now.


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