Russian Imperial Stout

[Thzxykraq]

Hi,
I'm going to be giving this recipe a go fairly soon, just waiting on the yeast to arrive. I plan on bottling it though into a bunch of spare 335ml to 375ml leftovers. The original coopers basic recipe for the RIS says use 1 carbo drop per bottle, would that work with this recipe?

Also how important is the Candi-180, I'm pretty good at melting sugars for cooking, so was going to try my own based on Homemade Candi Syrup | The Mad Fermentationist - Homebrewing Blog

Thanks for your help!

 

[Cloud Surfer]

One carbonation drop will be fine in a small bottle. I’ve found using the CBC-1 yeast at bottling is one of the key steps in making this a solid beer, and I wouldn’t skip that part.

The Candi syrup isn’t needed at all, I just add it for more complexity. I’m doing all grain RIS now and still experimenting with various D180 and D240 additions. I would never encourage using your own home made syrup in something like a Belgian Dark Strong Ale where that ingredient is so important. But in a RIS with all the big flavours, you should be ok with home made.

Let us know how you go with your big beer journey.

 

[Grmblz]

From ^ "I would never encourage using your own home made syrup in something like a Belgian Dark Strong Ale where that ingredient is so important"
I couldn't agree more.
Spend a month with homemade recipes, then when you think you have it covered buy and compare with the real thing.
I know the real stuff looks expensive, but when you look at your base cost, it's really not that much, and if you can actually come up with a process that duplicates the real thing please let me know.

 

[mynameisrodney]

One carbonation drop will be fine in a small bottle. I’ve found using the CBC-1 yeast at bottling is one of the key steps in making this a solid beer, and I wouldn’t skip that part.

I need to get some of this yeast to fix my belgian strong dark ale which is dead flat after 6 months. In your experience how long does CBC-1 take to carb up for a ~11% beer? Or not sure as you don't check when young?

Sorry for off topic.

 

[Thzxykraq]

Thanks Cloud Surfer, ill let you know!
Just on the CBC-1 though, I only have access to the basic coopers fermeter tub at the moment, but I'm giving it a go, I'm a little confused, do I add the CBC-1 to the bottle when I bottle, or just before?

 

[Grmblz]

I'll assume you are going to use a bottling wand, so 15min before bottling sprinkle the yeast onto the beer and just before bottling give it a gentle stir, more of a swirl just to distribute the yeast, you could also add the priming sugar at the same time, saves priming every bottle, google "bulk priming"

 

[Cloud Surfer]

I need to get some of this yeast to fix my belgian strong dark ale which is dead flat after 6 months. In your experience how long does CBC-1 take to carb up for a ~11% beer? Or not sure as you don't check when young?

Sorry for off topic.

The CBC-1 carbs up my big beers real fast. I’ve cracked a few 12% to 14% beers just 7 days after bottling and they are always fully carbonated. Because I mostly do bigger beers and they get bulk conditioned for long periods before bottling, I couldn’t do what I do without the CBC-1. I’ve got a fridge full of CBC-1 sachets. You could say I’m a bit of a fan of this yeast.

 

[Cloud Surfer]

Thanks Cloud Surfer, ill let you know!
Just on the CBC-1 though, I only have access to the basic coopers fermeter tub at the moment, but I'm giving it a go, I'm a little confused, do I add the CBC-1 to the bottle when I bottle, or just before?

This is the way I do it. I put my priming sugar and 4g of rehydrated CBC-1 into a keg. I draw the air out of the keg with my vacuum pump and pressure fill it with CO2. Then I pressure transfer my beer from its bulk conditioning keg into the bottling keg and mix the sugar and yeast with the beer. Then I hook the bottling keg up to my bottling station to bottle.

But basically, you want to mix the yeast with your beer just before you bottle, and do it in a way that minimises oxidation.

 

[Cloud Surfer]

This is the bottling station I made with vacuum pump and CO2 tank to try eliminate oxygen in my bottling process.

 

[Grmblz]

Very neat and tidy, nice ^.
The vacuum pump is a new one for me, I fill my kegs with sanitiser, then use the co2 from a sealed ferment to blow out the water, end up with a sanitised O2 free co2 filled keg. I wonder how much O2 is left after a vacuum session? Do you do multiple cycles or just the one?

 

[Cloud Surfer]

Very neat and tidy, nice ^.
The vacuum pump is a new one for me, I fill my kegs with sanitiser, then use the co2 from a sealed ferment to blow out the water, end up with a sanitised O2 free co2 filled keg. I wonder how much O2 is left after a vacuum session? Do you do multiple cycles or just the one?

When I purge my kegs I only do one cycle. First draw all the air out with the vacuum pump, then pressure fill it with CO2.

 

[clickeral]

When I purge my kegs I only do one cycle. First draw all the air out with the vacuum pump, then pressure fill it with CO2.

To what pressure of vaccum do you pull to? and got any more details on the vacuum pump?

 

[Cloud Surfer]

To what pressure of vaccum do you pull to? and got any more details on the vacuum pump?

I decided not to get that sophisticated with the pump by adding a gauge. When I’m bottling I give the pump a 5 second run, by which time I find it hard to pull the bottle off the counter flow filler, so there’s quite a vacuum in the bottle. With the keg I run the pump until the lid looks like it’s about to suck inside the keg, and it’s groaning under the vacuum. So nothing too scientific.

I got my pump off eBay. I think I got the smallest capacity, but it still generates a huge vacuum, and overkill for what I’m using it for.

 

[Grmblz]

My only thought was "what could possibly go wrong!" Although in this case an implosion isn't going to be as catastrophic as an explosion, I think the spring loaded lid might act as a reverse PRV but it might be a close run thing with cheap Chinesium kegs.

 

[Thzxykraq]

Hey All,

Well,. had my brew day yesterday to try this one and even with "improvising" with the equipment I have.

Had a bit of difficulty keeping around 71degrees on the induction top, especially with a electric thermometer stuck on Fahrenheit for some reason, and had to sit it overnight to cool as I had it too warm (27C) to pitch the yeast in, but measured it this morning at bang on 18C and pitched in the four packs of M42. Read the OG which looks like 1.10 (is that right?). So at the moment fairly happy as this is only my second attempt at brewing. I guess now I will let it sit for 4 weeks in the coopers fermenter I have?

Hey thanks for the tips on priming, so I'm thinking 10g/L of dextrose and a packet of CBC-1 like you said should be fine at bottling time?

Also the only modification I was planning to make with this RIS was adding bourbon soaked out staves. I've steamed the staves and had them soaking in bourbon for about 2 weeks now, I'm wondering how/when I should add them. That is should I wait till the final gravity is stable and put them in for a week, or do I need to think about getting the wort into a second fermenter and then adding them, and then how long should I leave them in. Also should I pour in the 100-200ml of bourbon I've soaked them in.

Seems a LOT of different ways/options on this but was reading a bit off of the brooklyn black ops clone here Russian Imperial Stout Clones & Brewing Tips - Brew Your Own but my

The original plan was wait for a stable FG, add them and let sit for a week ( I guess on the yeast cake) and then add the CBC-1 and dextrose and bottle.

 

[Cloud Surfer]

Good work on the brew.

To me, it looks like your OG is more like 1.095. But I could be seeing your photo wrong.

10g/L of dextrose will get you over 3.0 volumes of CO2 which is a bit high for the style. I aim for around 2.2 CO2, which is 6g/L dextrose. In my 19L bottling batches I use 4g of the CBC-1, which is over pitching it a bit. So depending how much you are bottling, I wouldn’t use the entire pack. BTW, don’t add the dextrose and yeast to your fermentor if that’s what you alluded to in your post. Add it to a fresh bottling bucket, transfer the RIS on top of it and then bottle.

Wood staves take a lot longer to add flavour than chips. I’m just starting out experimenting with staves and will have them sit for the full 3 months I bulk condition my RIS. If you have no way to bulk condition without oxidising your beer, I would throw them into your primary as soon as you’re close to FG to give them the maximum time on the beer before you bottle.

You could throw in the Bourbon, there’s no rules and it’s your beer to experiment with. It might be a nice addition. I try all sorts of stuff, and if it doesn’t work I don’t do it again. But you’ll never know if you don’t try.

 

[Thzxykraq]

Thanks mate!

Glad you mentioned that about transferring to a bottling bucket, as I thought it was on top in the fermenter. Guess I better go by a siphon pump and bucket now!

I'm wondering now if its a better idea to buy a carboy, transfer the beer to that and pop in the staves and bottle it up for 5 months, and then rack to a bucket with sugar and yeast and bottle. I guess I would have to release any CO2 a couple of times in that 5 months though.

And your right I was reading my hydrometer wrong, it was 1.095 which I guess is still good.

 

[Cloud Surfer]

One of the main reasons I think secondary fermentation/conditioning has gone out of style is because people worked out that the oxidation it causes to your beer if not handled properly does more harm to your beer than the benefits of the secondary process.

I have my process now with pressure transfers, vacuum pump and CO2 that I can transfer and age in kegs completely free of oxygen. You’ll probably have to come up with a system to minimise oxygen as much as possible if you want to add a carboy/conditioning phase. Having said that, if there’s one beer that doesn’t mind a tiny bit of oxidation to mature it’s a RIS.

 

[Thzxykraq]

Yeah I looked at your setup, and tried to understand how it worked

Sounds like I'm going to be better off siphoning to bucketed onto the CBC-1 and the dextrose then immediately bottle it. Ill just toss the staves in the fermenter this time

 

[Thzxykraq]

Seems to be going well so far, dumped the dextrose 5days in, 2 weeks now and did a FG test and it's sitting 1.024. will give it 1 more week and drop in the bourbon, tastes good even now, just a little bitter, but expect 6 months in the bottles will mellow that