Russian Imperial Stout - Have you brewed one?

[Ciderman]

I'm super keen to put one of these down over the Christmas break with plans to drink over winter 2015.

I'm An AG brewer.

I've done a lot of reading and I'm getting a lot of different opinions. Love to hear about any recipes you have tried and have some below questions;

- Do you add sugar or just up the grain bill?
- Maris Otter seems to be the preferred option, what percentage should I have in the grain bill?
- Some people say not to use chocolate malt, why?
- Wyeast 1028 seems popular.
- What is the purpose of rice hulls?
- What hops should be used?
- Ideal ABV and IBU?

 

[Bribie G]

As with most stouts, it's a mistake to use pale malts then rely on roast barley to "stoutify" the brew, it should have a lot of middle-malts as well (Amber, Crystals, flaked barley, choc yes choc, etc) to round out the flavour and body.

For base malt I'd certainly use a UK pale malt, MO or Golden Promise etc.

My RIS came in first in the strong stouts in the NSW comp this year but I've lost the recipe, made it in 2011 :unsure:

However I remember Base malt, Amber, some Victory, flaked barley, choc, roast barley of course..

What I would do if I was making a RIS again for personal consumption would be to formulate a decent Foreign Extra Stout of around 6.5% ABV using above ingredients to obtain a 20L batch then (flame suit on) add a can of Coopers Stout.

For hops, just a simple bittering hop such as Magnum to around 60 IBU then if you want a bit of aroma, something fragrant like Centennial as a dry hop for a few days in a bag.

My preferred yeast would be Wyeast Irish Ale and ferment it at around 22 degrees to get a bit of fruity overtones.

 

[jeddog]

funny you ask. I've been sitting here at the goggle machine thinking about a oak aged imperial stout. 10 Sunday beers later you speak of Russian Imperial Stout..


(You dont spell funny with 2 u's)

 

[Mardoo]

My next brew! Actually I will be fermenting a lighter stout with WY1469 as the starter for this one. I'm working from the 1909 Courage Imperial Stout from Shut Up about Barclay Perkins. There are two versions on their pages, one correct, one not. The link below is the correct one.

It's a two-hour boil and elsewhere in his blog he says to take 10% of the black malt and add it whole to the boil.

So as I say, I haven't done it yet, but if Ron Pattinson of SUABP says its the best IS he's ever had I'm going to brew it.

Here's the link for his correct recipe.

http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/lets-brew-wednesday-1914-courage.html?m=1

IGNORE THE IMAGES BELOW HERE. They were for a more highly hopped version I added accidentally and then couldn' delete. Follow his recipe in the link.

 

[MartinOC]

- Wyeast 1028 seems popular.
- What is the purpose of rice hulls?

Most of your questions have already been covered above, but I'll add a few extras for fun....

1028 is indeed a popular choice & a very good one. As Bribie said, Irish Ale Yeast is excellent & a voracious fermenter (which you're going to need for this beer).

Make sure you use a LOT of fresh yeast. As Mardoo alluded-to, it's probably a good idea to brew & ferment a "standard" stout, then dump the IRS onto the yeast cake & aerate well. Also consider a second aeration about 18-24 hours after it starts-up. I know this sounds like counter-intuitive with introducing oxygen, but it's a recommended practice for big beers.

Depending on how well your initial fermentation goes, consider racking to a secondary under airlock with another addition of wine/champagne yeast (like EC1118) to get it good & dry, then leave it for several months to finish completely. This is a beer that requires a lot of patience.

Rice hulls are used to "bulk-out" the mash & help with lautering. Since this is such a big beer, you could get a stuck sparge. They don't add any fermentables or flavour, but do make life easier if making big beers or anything involving wheat/oats. A quick rinse to get rid of excess dirt & chuck them in your main mash.

Good luck with it. I'm definitely going to do one once I get my brewery back in commission.

 

[Ciderman]

Most of your questions have already been covered above, but I'll add a few extras for fun....

1028 is indeed a popular choice & a very good one. As Bribie said, Irish Ale Yeast is excellent & a voracious fermenter (which you're going to need for this beer).

Make sure you use a LOT of fresh yeast. As Mardoo alluded-to, it's probably a good idea to brew & ferment a "standard" stout, then dump the IRS onto the yeast cake & aerate well. Also consider a second aeration about 18-24 hours after it starts-up. I know this sounds like counter-intuitive with introducing oxygen, but it's a recommended practice for big beers.

Depending on how well your initial fermentation goes, consider racking to a secondary under airlock with another addition of wine/champagne yeast (like EC1118) to get it good & dry, then leave it for several months to finish completely. This is a beer that requires a lot of patience.

Rice hulls are used to "bulk-out" the mash & help with lautering. Since this is such a big beer, you could get a stuck sparge. They don't add any fermentables or flavour, but do make life easier if making big beers or anything involving wheat/oats. A quick rinse to get rid of excess dirt & chuck them in your main mash.

Good luck with it. I'm definitely going to do one once I get my brewery back in commission.

Thanks for your Imput. When you mean good and dry, what FG should I be aiming for? I see many high gravity beers don't go all the way back to your typical 1.010-1.015 territory. Also leaving it for several months, you mean the fermenter?

 

[Danwood]

Further to Bribie's suggestions, my current RIS is a double batch (two full cubes, ~45L) brewed to make use of 2 coopers stout tins which were given to me by someone on here.
Without looking at my notes, it also has ~8kg base and spec malts, plus toasted rolled oats.

For yeast, I went with a 4:1 blend of Wyeast 007 and 099. The high gravity yeast was an insurance plan of sorts, plus I should be able to bottle condition.

And here's a kilo of cherries which are now swimming in the keg...lucky cherries. The liquid is vodka used to kill any nasties on the cherries. Plus, I now have a bit of cherry vodka !

 

[metro embalming brewery]

I dont think anyone on here's brewed a RIS. I suppose you could have a search and see what infos available I guess.

 

[MartinOC]

Yep, DRY!

At competitions, I've sampled a lot of IRS that are just too sweet & cloying because the brewer hasn't been able to achieve a decent attenuation, which is why I suggested the EC1118. It makes a HUGE difference if you're looking for something that's going to stand-out from the crowd.

Generally, EC1118 will strip the guts out of a normal beer, but with IRS, it's got plenty in reserve. If you can get to the 1010-1020 territory, you're doing well.

Yes, I mean several months, having been racked to a secondary. Ideally in glass (if you can do it) under airlock & keep monitoring the level of fluid in the airlock to make sure it doesn't evaporate. This is one to put away in a corner somewhere & GIVE IT TIME.

When you're ready, you can then rack it off & add fresh yeast & priming sugars. Then leave it in that same corner for 12-18 months. Like I said initially, this is a beer that requires patience.

Whatever you do, keep good notes so when you come to do it again, you can improve it.

As an aside, I used to make a high-gravity porter each year & then pull them out for a comparison of 4-yrs/3-yrs/2-yrs old. Interesting experiment. You're a brewer, right??

Edit: I found it took about 8 years in the bottle before they started to drop-off noticeably in quality.

 

[manticle]

I dont think anyone on here's brewed a RIS. I suppose you could have a search and see what infos available I guess.

No-one on the forum has brewed an RIS?

Ever? What would be the point of the search then?

 

[StalkingWilbur]

I didn't understand the post and I was too tired to query it. Sarcasm?

 

[Bribie G]

Is that you Citymorgue?

 

[manticle]

I get it now.

 

[technobabble66]

Yep. Sarcasm followed by a standard DASFFS. Too old skool.
Not helpful, really.

 

[Ciderman]

Thoughts on this?

 

[Dave70]

I didn't understand the post and I was too tired to query it. Sarcasm?

I think the point may be it was actually English stout brewed for export to Russia.

So by that logic, nobody here has ever actually brewed an India Pale Ale either.

 

[Blind Dog]

Thoughts on this? image.jpg

I suspect it'll be nowhere near as good as you want it to be. Remember when you were a kid merrily mixing colours and they all quickly ended up as poo brown after adding yet another colour? Same principle generally applies to malts in beer. It can work if you're looking to add a little more complexity to an existing, brewed, tasted and critiqued recipe. But un

 

[Blind Dog]

Bloody phone

Anyway, I'd keep it reasonably simple at first then tweak if necessary

 

[Ciderman]

Gave this a crack today. Bumped up my grain bill by a kilo to account for poor effeciency that is expected in big beers. Ended up with 1.097 which will put me in the 9.5% territory. Pitched onto yeast cake.

 

[Moad]

I added some bourbon that was sitting on woodchips for a few months. This was to get the flavours of a barrel aged stout in there. Have to say I'm glad I did it and if I can't get an actual barrel I'll do it again next winter.