Nottingham in a RIS

[Tubbsy9876]

Howdy all,

Call this a learning experience for others.

Last weekend I spent the day making my big Russian Imperial Stout - to cellar for a couple of years.

Big grain bill was a struggle on my little 50L system, but I eventually got my gravity to 1.095 with the help of a little DME late in the boil. I has heard things about English yeast in big beers, and my last couple have struggled to attenuate, taking way longer than usual

As such, I Pitched 3 dry packets into my RIS, hydrated first then a little wort added to reduce osmotic shock.

This thing has exploded. In 2 days it's down into the 30s, my blowoff tube hastily assembled was barely able to keep up. And the end is in a bucket of sanitiser, going like a spa bath!

Yeast struggle in high strength wort..... so they say. I had planned for a long ferment, but it looks like this will be done super fast - with a lot of it in my fridge and blowoff bucket

 

[Sidney Harbour-Bridge]

Noto is an excellent yeast for high gravity beers and ferments real quick, it's also a great attenuator, 80%+, you probably could have got away with only one packet too.

You will need all that patience keeping it for 2 years

 

[MHB]

Well, I think you would get better beer with a bigger (than1pk) pitch. The LALLEMAND BREWING Calculator says 27g which is around the 2½ mark, assuming 23L in the fermenter.

Good choice of yeast for the style, with a good big pitch no reason it can’t get to FG in 5 days, a few more days to make sure would be a good idea.
Would expect it to pull up around 10%ABV, maybe just a touch under.
Mark

 

[yankinoz]

Howdy all,

What was the temperature?

 

[MashBasher]

I had a similar experience to you. So impressive, I recorded it in a video over here:

https://aussiehomebrewer.com/threads/first-use-of-nottingham.101712/post-1557977
Notty is now my preferred choice for the Irish Dry Stout I put down annually.

I’ve been making the same recipe for 25 years. This years (NOT the one in the video) is very, very good.

My experience tells me it’s best to always pitch plenty, keep it cool @18C, and give it a about a week post terminal gravity to clean itself up before packaging.

No ground breaking insights there, but Notty is a ripper. Enjoy your RIS.

 

[Cloud Surfer]

I can’t keep my hands off my RIS, so the only way I’ve found to build up stock for aging is to keep brewing it faster than I drink it.

Another good RIS yeast is Mangrove Jack M42. All my RIS is between 12.5% and 14.5% using M42. I do pitch 4 packets, but it powers through fermentation and always gets into the 1.026-1.028 FG range, which I think is the perfect FG for a big RIS.

 

[Tubbsy9876]

So to update this one - I ended up leaving it in the primary for 3 weeks due to other stuff to do, but it got down to 1.024 from 1.095 in about 5 days - i left it a while to clear up and then cold crashed it before bottling. Looking at the recipe, my mash efficiency was god awful - i cut some corners and should have had a decent mash out step.

Had a taste, and the roasty astringency is there on the end which will mellow out with time, but its a gorgeous beer. I decided to get a bit funky with it and chucked 200 mL of Woodford Reserve in it, which I'd soaked a vanilla bean in for a few hours. Bottled up about 20L, and its sitting in my laundry cupboard to carb up and mellow out for 6 months or so. Figure I'll crack one in March or so - but my first kid is coming along soon so I won't have the time for any serious drinking.

So its my first really big beer and I'm pretty happy. I'd probably brew a much smaller volume next time - but perhaps I'll just look at a biggermash tun

 

[Markbeer]

The higher the gravity you are obtaining the lower your brew house efficiency will be.

If you sparged extra, this would just serve to lower your SG, this requiring a longer boil.

The brew house efficiency would be higher however.

There is a trade off between grain and power usage. Id much rather throw in extra grain than have a long drawn out brew day.

You could do a parti gyle or reiterated brew too. Or even just throw in some DME. But it is an uphill battle chasing efficiency in high gravity brews.

I've made so much RIS over the years. They age well, however, my best ones were always best fresh weirdly but for different various reasons.

So to update this one - I ended up leaving it in the primary for 3 weeks due to other stuff to do, but it got down to 1.024 from 1.095 in about 5 days - i left it a while to clear up and then cold crashed it before bottling. Looking at the recipe, my mash efficiency was god awful - i cut some corners and should have had a decent mash out step.

Had a taste, and the roasty astringency is there on the end which will mellow out with time, but its a gorgeous beer. I decided to get a bit funky with it and chucked 200 mL of Woodford Reserve in it, which I'd soaked a vanilla bean in for a few hours. Bottled up about 20L, and its sitting in my laundry cupboard to carb up and mellow out for 6 months or so. Figure I'll crack one in March or so - but my first kid is coming along soon so I won't have the time for any serious drinking.

So its my first really big beer and I'm pretty happy. I'd probably brew a much smaller volume next time - but perhaps I'll just look at a biggermash tun

 

[razz]

I’ve knocked out an RIS (with Nottingham yeast) today. It the strongest ale I’ve made at 1.093. Airlock was poppin after a couple of hours.

 

[Tubbsy9876]

Be careful... its a brilliant yeast but super fast!

 

[razz]

Be careful... its a brilliant yeast but super fast!

70 points in 48 hours and it’s done! Super fast.

 

[Good Truble]

I used Nottingham and M42 in two recent big stouts, and both turned out excellent. I read theories that they are actually the same yeast, but I think they are subtly different (M42 is a bit nuttier and handles slightly warmer temps better).

A black prinz smoked cherry stout that went from 1.090 to 1.020 with M42. Very heavy fermentation for the first 3 days (second pic below), but then I just left it alone for 2 weeks to finish up.

Then a vanilla milk stout that went from 1.105 to 1.024 with Nottingham. I fermented it at 10-11C, so it was a bit tamer and took about 5 days start calming down (first pic).

 

[mynameisrodney]

Wow I've never used it that cold. Good to hear it still knocks it over relatively quick, I'll have to give it a go.