Russian Imperial Stout - Have you brewed one?

[Rod]

I have brewed a RIS , recipe from this site , K&K by Dan Raynor

dan rayners RIS

Dan's recipe is below (Best beer of Show 2007?). K+K & steeped grains:
500g cracked roast barley
500g cracked light crystal
1.7kg can Draught
1.7kg can Porter
1.7kg can Stout (no brand names are listed)
1kg brewing sugar
1kg dried brew booster

60g styrian goldings @ 60
40g EKG @ 15
20g saaz @ 0

He steeped the grains in 6L water, and boiled that for 60 mins, with the styrian added at start boil, the EKG added 15 mins from flameout, and the saaz at flamout.

Then he just added the 3 cans into his fermenter, put the boiling wort on top of that, stirred to dissolve, and added cold water up to 20L mark.
It says he aerated by pouring from one fermenter into another several times,
pitched 40g of yeast,
and it seems like he used 2 fermenters to ferment in, probably at 10L each, cause the krauesen that comes of a good RIS will creep out of the fermenter and strangle you in your sleep if you dont give it bollock loads of head space.

Also says to use champagne yeast to finish it off, expect a OG of 1115, and an FG of 1028.


i did this recipe ages ago and used windsor yeast. worked a treat

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//index.php?showtopic=44166&st=0&#entry626383

this no longer works

I still have some bottles from the batch I made in 2010

tastes like liqueur muscat

Had a bottle last night

still tastes good

not many left

 

[fraser_john]

I swear the barrel version will get some age though.. I swears it...

Swears on the precious eh Yob?.....

 

[Yob]

Well I kinda swears that I won't take any more out after THIS keg..?

 

[Grott]

Mmm, not very convincing there Yob.

 

[Yob]

TBH I can't. I've run out of top up RIS cubes

 

[MastersBrewery]

RIS was the last brew I did before we moved. Having just started moving into the new place, I'm well out of anything pale, so over Xmas was forced to sample a few. There should be a few left for comp season though

 

[Dozer71]

Looking at doing my first RIS and have come up with this to date with a couple of questions.

Use BIAB so have reduced it to a total of 16L to the FV and allow for 1kg of LDM or dextrose to reduce overall grain bill and keep efficiency up (hopefully). Grain bill as follows




67.2% Gladfield Ale Malt 6.00kg
1.3% Black Patent Malt 0.12kg
6.2% CaraMunich 1 0.55kg
1.6% Barley Roasted 0.14kg
1.3% Chocolate Malt 1200 0.12kg
11.2% Munich 1 1.00kg

11.2% Dry Malt Extract Light 1.00kg


60 min of Northern Brewer/Goldings to 70IBU
US05 or Nottingham - probably US05
ABV to be around 10% which is based on reducing my normal efficiency (72-74%) to 65%. Based on this the ABV minus adjunct is around 8% which is my starting point for the yeast.

1st question - is LDM or dextrose better? Was thinking either mash at 68 (more body) and add dextrose which thins it a little or 66 and add LDM.

I plan on adding the dex/LDM starting on day 3 (bit each day) after yeast has taken off as I don't have oxygen and don't want to overload it. I no chill and will pour through a sieve into FV to aerate and stir vigorously/shake to get initial oxygen in - not perfect, but best I can manage.

2nd question - I have a 5L port barrel so will transfer some into this for experimentation. Is it correct that with smaller barrels the aging time is less - haven't found a lot of info as most use 5 Gallon barrels - and if so an approximate time frame (obviously will vary with taste) like 1 to 2 weeks or 1 to 2 months or longer.


Thanks

 

[Markbeer]

I would use the extract if you wanted a fuller body and the dextrose for thinner. I would personally mash a little lower and use the ldme.

The port barrel idea sounds fine. You will need to taste periodically to see how it is going.

Your real problem imho is that you need more roasted grains in your recipe.

 

[Dozer71]

Thanks for that Markbeer.

Did this yesterday and cubed it. Mashed at 66 and will add LDME.

In regards to the roasted grains, it calc'ed out at 92EBC so I thought it would be enough. Will see how it goes and look at upping them next time for a comparison.

 

[hoppinmad]

4.2% roasted grains doesn't seem like enough for a stout to me. I think the general rule is about 10-12% for most types of stout. For imperial stouts quite a few recipes I've seen are using up to 18%. It's not too late to add more of course, as you can always do some steeping with specialty malts in water and add that to your wort before you pitch the yeast.

 

[Bribie G]

With BIAB, high gravity beer is one occasion when a sparge is beneficial.
My RIS was full sized but of course needed around a 2 and a half hour boil to bring it back down to volume.
I'd also recommend steeping more roasted and dark grains then boil down to a syrup.
That's how they make Guinness.

 

[Dozer71]

Thanks for the feedback. Will steep some more dark grains to get up around the 10-12% when I add to the FV. Cube is full at the moment. I did get an efficiency of 68% (my normal is 72-74%). Will look at sparge with increased boil next time.

One issue I did have (use a crown urn with concealed element that is 8 months old so has increased cut off temp) was a build up over the element area and was cutting in and out over the last 10 mins and just maintaining a boil/simmer (boil time 75 min to hit volume). Was set at maximum of 110. May have to look at scrubbing the base somehow during the boil. This is the only time it has happened and it does get cleaned between each brew.

 

[Rod]

I made my batch on 03/06/2010

I have about 6 bottles left , less 1 last night

stored in green Grolsh bottles in a dark garage

tastes great , still has a 2 cm head , and good effervescence

came out a 8.7 % alcohol , by calculation , after I added 3 litres more water to finish @ 26 litres

 

[Schikitar]

One issue I did have (use a crown urn with concealed element that is 8 months old so has increased cut off temp) was a build up over the element area and was cutting in and out over the last 10 mins

I have this problem quite regularly with my Crown Urn, it's like it needs to be seasoned or something to stop the fine particles from sticking to it. It's gets worse with bigger grain bills or a reiterated mash and I find that scraping with the spoon (need a better paddle!) seems to get things going just enough..

67.2% Gladfield Ale Malt 6.00kg

Brewer from 10 Toes Brewing made an interesting comment to me, he said they had noticed increased astringency when using some of Gladfields malts, I felt I noticed the same thing with some of my brews so I've flicked back to maris otter and that's just got a nicer, rounded flavour..

 

[Rod]

Had a bottle last night

still tastes good

not many left

 

[Rod]

Had another last night


bottled in 2010

 

[Nullnvoid]

Had another last night


bottled in 2010

Why are you drinking it so soon? Have to let the flavours mellow? hahaha

Bet it was amazing. I have to get one of mine out to try. It's only a baby at 3 years.