Style Of The Week 7/3/07 - Russian Imperial Stout

[Stuster]

So, with the weather turning a bit cooler (here in Sydney at least), I thought it was time to look at some beers for the winter. In fact, it might be too late for this one, but anyway, this week it's a huge beer, Russian Imperial Stout.

This English style was brewed for export to (surprise, surprise) Russia, as well as the Baltic states. Some info on the style at the links below.

Brewing Network show on RIS
Article on brewing big beers
All about beer article on RIS

So what are your experiences with this style? Grains? Hops? Which yeast to use? Tips for fermenting such a big beer? How long to mature? Can this style be done by partial mashers? Kit based brewers? Any commercial RISs available here?

Tell us all you know about this style. :chug:

BJCP style 13F

13F. Russian Imperial Stout

Aroma: Rich and complex, with variable amounts of roasted grains, maltiness, fruity esters, hops, and alcohol. The roasted malt character can take on coffee, dark chocolate, or slightly burnt tones and can be light to moderately strong. The malt aroma can be subtle to rich and barleywine-like, depending on the gravity and grain bill. May optionally show a slight specialty malt character (e.g., caramel), but this should only add complexity and not dominate. Fruity esters may be low to moderately strong, and may take on a complex, dark fruit (e.g., plums, prunes, raisins) character. Hop aroma can be very low to quite aggressive, and may contain any hop variety. An alcohol character may be present, but shouldn't be sharp, hot or solventy. Aged versions may have a slight vinous or port-like quality, but shouldn't be sour. No diacetyl. The balance can vary with any of the aroma elements taking center stage. Not all possible aromas described need be present; many interpretations are possible. Aging affects the intensity, balance and smoothness of aromatics.

Appearance: Color may range from very dark reddish-brown to jet black. Opaque. Deep tan to dark brown head. Generally has a well-formed head, although head retention may be low to moderate. High alcohol and viscosity may be visible in "legs" when beer is swirled in a glass.

Flavor: Rich, deep, complex and frequently quite intense, with variable amounts of roasted malt/grains, maltiness, fruity esters, hop bitterness and flavor, and alcohol. Medium to aggressively high bitterness. Medium-low to high hop flavor (any variety). Moderate to aggressively high roasted malt/grain flavors can suggest bittersweet or unsweetened chocolate, cocoa, and/or strong coffee. A slightly burnt grain, burnt currant or tarry character may be evident. Fruity esters may be low to intense, and can take on a dark fruit character (raisins, plums, or prunes). Malt backbone can be balanced and supportive to rich and barleywine-like, and may optionally show some supporting caramel, bready or toasty flavors. Alcohol strength should be evident, but not hot, sharp, or solventy. No diacetyl. The palate and finish can vary from relatively dry to moderately sweet, usually with some lingering roastiness, hop bitterness and warming character. The balance and intensity of flavors can be affected by aging, with some flavors becoming more subdued over time and some aged, vinous or port-like qualities developing.

Mouthfeel: Full to very full-bodied and chewy, with a velvety, luscious texture (although the body may decline with long conditioning). Gentle smooth warmth from alcohol should be present and noticeable. Should not be syrupy and under-attenuated. Carbonation may be low to moderate, depending on age and conditioning.

Overall Impression: An intensely flavored, big, dark ale. Roasty, fruity, and bittersweet, with a noticeable alcohol presence. Dark fruit flavors meld with roasty, burnt, or almost tar-like sensations. Like a black barleywine with every dimension of flavor coming into play.

History: Brewed to high gravity and hopping level in England for export to the Baltic States and Russia. Said to be popular with the Russian Imperial Court. Today is even more popular with American craft brewers, who have extended the style with unique American characteristics.

Comments: Variations exist, with English and American interpretations (predictably, the American versions have more bitterness, roasted character, and finishing hops, while the English varieties reflect a more complex specialty malt character and a more forward ester profile). The wide range of allowable characteristics allow for maximum brewer creativity.

Ingredients: Well-modified pale malt, with generous quantities of roasted malts and/or grain. May have a complex grain bill using virtually any variety of malt. Any type of hops may be used. Alkaline water balances the abundance of acidic roasted grain in the grist. American or English ale yeast.
Vital Statistics:
OG FG IBUs SRM ABV
1.075 - 1.095+ 1.018 - 1.030+ 50 - 90+ 30 - 40+ 8 - 12+%

Commercial Examples: Samuel Smith Imperial Stout, Courage Imperial Stout, Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout, Rogue Imperial Stout, North Coast Old Rasputin Imperial Stout, Victory Storm King, Bell's Expedition Stout, Dogfish Head World Wide Stout, Thirsty Dog Siberian Night, Stone Imperial Stout, Avery The Czar, Founders Imperial Stout, Newport Beach John Wayne Imperial Stout, Great Lakes Blackout Stout

 

[WildebeestAttack]

Here's my one experience of brewing a RIS, and it a sad tale.

It started out a monster - OG 1.110. (boiled down to 25L from 35L).

From there thing went wrong. The yeast (Wyeast 1084) decided to drop out 1.050. I had 4L of starter, all very lively but it still happened. The brew was temp controlled at 20C, and never had any sudden temp spikes.

Tried everything to get it going again, tried added some 1028. Nothing. Some US-56. Still nothing. Even tried adding some Czech Pils yeast I had started and nothing again. When I was really desperate I grabbed some yeast from a can of goo and chucked that in. (I know none of those yeast are suitable for big beers, they are just what I had lying around - so maybe that was a problem).

You couldn't drink it, tasted so sweet it made you feel sick. I ended up blending it with 40L of a dry mild ale I had, but it is still a bit too sweet. A dessert beer was probably the best description. Still others liked it. Certainly had a lot of body for a dark ale.

Next time I'm looking to use Wyeast's distillers yeast.

 

[Kai]

I brewed a partial RIS with 1318 London ale III around a year and a half ago. I don't have a hope of remembering the grist right now but it was probably around 1.5kg LME, 300g DME, a little sugar and 5kg of grain. Starting gravity was around 1.090 and it came down to the mid-high teens readily enough. I have one stubby left :drink:

I don't really think you need a specialised yeast for these big beers. Last big beer I brewed was a barleywine (OG 1.100) that fermented right out with nothing less than the coopers bottle yeast.

 

[Malnourished]

This is probably one of the few styles I've brewed enough to have something of value to say, so here are my thoughts:

Malt:
- I am of the opinion that crystal malt (particularly) and Munich-type malts have no place in an imperial stout. With a gravity near 1.1 you're going to get plenty of malt flavour and sweetness anyway. These guys just make it even sweeter and flabbier.
- Specialty malts that give a 'drying' effect are great. Amber and brown malts particularly, at levels you would otherwise never even consider.
- Load up on roasted barley. I reckon you need a higher % of RB in an imperial than a dry stout, so that's usually >1kg in a batch. Add significantly smaller amounts of choc and/or roast malt for "malt complexity."
- Base malt isn't a huge concern, but obviously Maris Otter is very good. Mash real low because all the roasted malts/grains usually give a higher FG (they do for me, at least.) I usually aim for about 1.100 as an OG.

Hops:
- My preference is to avoid US varieties because I don't really like the pine/coffee clash of flavours, but other than that anything goes. I quite like PoR actually. I will never brew another imperial with less than 100 calculated IBUs either.
- I don't bother with hop flavour or aroma any more. I think it tends to clash with the dark malt/grain flavours, plus I like to age them for years anyway by which time most of the hop character is gone anyway.

Yeast:
- I've had good results with Wyeast 1056 and 1084, and S-04 and US-56.
- The only yeast I wouldn't recommend for this style is Wyeast 1028. It's always thrown lots of higher alcohols and weird artificial cherry esters in imperial stouts for me.

Water:
- Make sure you know what you're doing with your water. The huge amounts of roasted barley required will have quite a significant lowering effect on mash pH if you've got soft water.

Age:
- I usually give them a month in primary and three to six in secondary, then bottle with fresh yeast (just a pack of US-56 or dry champagne yeast usually.)
- These beers last for years. I always make sure to bottle in mostly small bottles and stash lots away for a few years down the track. One of the best HBs I've made was an imperial stout made with a kit, steeped grains and extra hops (as a 5L batch) - it was undrinkable for several years, but after about 4 years it was amazing. This style is absolutely the best style of beer to age. They can go for decades.

 

[Stuster]

That's great info, Mal. :super:

Makes brewing one sound very tempting indeed. :beerbang:

 

[0M39A]

I've been wanting to try an imperial stout for a long time now, but i've had to go back to only doing kit and kilos again, as i've moved back to a college for uni and have no access to a kitchen. Some mates who live close by are pretty interested in brewing though, especially after tasting some of my latest extract brews... might have to start brewing down there.

 

[brendanos]

Kits can actually work very well for this style, and more often than most of us would like to believe, a RIS brewed with 3 cans of stout will take out champion beer in the category at a competition, or at least score very highly.

I used wyeast m-strain (distillers) for a RIS i brewed late last year, and ended up with possibly too much attenuation, leaving the beer a little less chewy than might be desirable.

Thanks for all that Mal, between your post and the Jamil BN show, you've probably convinced me to bump a second shot up the queue a little.

 

[crozdog]

I used wyeast m-strain (distillers) for a RIS i brewed late last year,

Where did you buy this yeast? Does anyone in Sydney have a culture of this that they would be willing to share?

Can you provide any other info about your RIS eg the grain bill?

beers

Crozdog

 

[DJR]

Where did you buy this yeast? Does anyone in Sydney have a culture of this that they would be willing to share?

Can you provide any other info about your RIS eg the grain bill?

beers

Crozdog

Wyeast 4366 M-Strain was a VSS a while back

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=13247

I think that Fermentis makes a dried version of it as well - i remember MHB saying he had some?

 

[brendanos]

Where did you buy this yeast? Does anyone in Sydney have a culture of this that they would be willing to share?

Can you provide any other info about your RIS eg the grain bill?

beers

Crozdog

I made a thread about it here: http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...c=13247&hl=

The yeast I found at G&G (site sponsor) in Victoria. As DJR said it was a VSS, though quite cheap as it was 6 months old (it seems noone was as enthusiastic as I was when I found it!) Grain bill is on there, though I'd be more inclined to go by Malnourished or Jamil's recommendations. Also, I found some good recipes in previous years Vicbrew results.

 

[Stuster]

So I'm just planning on doing an RIS and was hoping for some feedback on this recipe. It'll probably end up being a parti-gyle recipe, so getting to this sort of gravity should be fine. I'm wanting to get a big, thick stout out of this, something to keep for a year or two. Something that resembles engine oil, but that should taste a touch different.

Is there enough/too much/just right dark malts in there? Balance ok?
I know Malnourished said no crystal, but the esteemed Jamil said crystal so I've compromised by putting a little in there. Is it a mistake?
Should I put a little hop flavour or hop aroma in there?
Will the German Ale yeast give enough attenuation? Would something with more ester production be better?

Thanks in advance.

BeerSmith Recipe Printout - www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Russian Imperial Stout

Batch Size: 30.00 L
Boil Size: 40.29 L
Estimated OG: 1.100 SG
Estimated Color: 122.3 EBC
Estimated IBU: 87.7 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.0 %
Boil Time: 75 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
11.00 kg Pale Malt, Traditional Ale (Joe White) (5.Grain 85.3 %
0.75 kg Roasted Barley (Joe White) (1398.7 EBC) Grain 5.8 %
0.35 kg Chocolate Wheat (Weyermann) (817.6 EBC) Grain 2.7 %
0.25 kg Brown Malt (200.0 EBC) Grain 1.9 %
0.20 kg Caraaroma (Weyermann) (350.7 EBC) Grain 1.6 %
0.20 kg Crystal malt (145.0 EBC) Grain 1.6 %
0.15 kg Pale Chocolate (500.0 EBC) Grain 1.2 %
130.00 gm Target [11.00%] (60 min) Hops 87.7 IBU
1 Pkgs German Ale (Wyeast Labs #1007) Yeast-Ale

 

[neonmeate]

i reckon that will be good but how does that yeast go with gravities like that?

after brewing stout 19th century style recently i would say 250g of brown malt won't make a lot of difference. try 2.5 kg!

the next impstout i'm brewing is going to be the 1856 barclay perkins stout recipe that mal-no-shed recently won an international brewing comp with (against a stellar field):
http://www.europeanbeerguide.net/beerale.htm#barclaygrist
1107 OG, 64% pale, 11% amber malt 22% brown 3% RB and something silly like 400g of EKG for bittering...
now that was a beer. but could be even better with some brett anomalus.!

 

[Ross]

i reckon that will be good but how does that yeast go with gravities like that?

after brewing stout 19th century style recently i would say 250g of brown malt won't make a lot of difference. try 2.5 kg!

the next impstout i'm brewing is going to be the 1856 barclay perkins stout recipe that mal-no-shed recently won an international brewing comp with (against a stellar field):
http://www.europeanbeerguide.net/beerale.htm#barclaygrist
1107 OG, 64% pale, 11% amber malt 22% brown 3% RB and something silly like 400g of EKG for bittering...
now that was a beer. but could be even better with some brett anomalus.!

Great link there neonmate - fascinating read.

cheers Ross

 

[neonmeate]

yes malnourished and i actually brewed up two each of these beers and entered them in this guy's competition - all very tasty beers, three of them were 100+ IBUs (even the 1063 OG porter!). that 1856 stout was bloody enormous. it's funny, ive only ever had extremely hoppy beers with high AA hops before (Stone beers and other American OTT stuff) - 100+ IBUs of low-AA hops is much tastier than 100+IBUs of high alpha hops. quite different - extremely bitter but not that sort of metallic, boot-on-the-throat-while-being-stabbed-with-a-bayonet sort of bitterness.

 

[Stuster]

Great info there, monkeyman. I've looked at that before, but never really thought of making one of those for some stupid reason. I'll have to rethink using that much brown malt. It's certainly tempting. Amber as well is a grain I've been enjoying in my beers, but those percentages are a bit scary. Food for thought for sure. :super:

Congratulations to malnourished on the win. :beerbang: Now which beers did you choose. :unsure:

 

[Darren]

Bit of crystal in there stuster isn't going to make a rats arse in differnce. Not sure about the 2.5kg of brown malt though.

Good two hour boil will increase the "maltiness" though so long as you dont burn it.

cheers

darren

 

[Tony]

I have a heap of brown malt on hand. I bought it a while back to brew an authentic 1800's style porter. 60% pale malt, 20% brown, 20% amber and a bit of black malt.

Im still thinking of doing it but in a smaller volume than the usual 50 liters i do.

I guess a RIS with a heap of brown malt could be interesting.

maybe a big mash and no sparge, check gravity and calculate boil off and hops for a 10 to 15 liter batch to see what its like.

cheers

 

[bugwan]

I love reading some of these grain/hop bills. 130g of 11%AA Target!

I wouldn't fit some of these bills in my 36Ltr esky for starters, I'd have to do at least 4 batch sparges to get 30 litres in the kettle too.

This style really interests me, and is a great beer to have in the vault. Certainly a special occasion drop. When I finally settle in one place (looking for our fourth rental in 5 years now), I'll start putting down these beasts. Until then, I'll enjoy reading about it.

 

[warrenlw63]

Hey Bugwan

Not necessarily true. Some of the better Imperials I've tasted were the ones that weren't OTT. An OG of around 1.080-1.085 is a good way to get aquainted. Some of the bigger ones I've tried have suffered from inherent yeast/fermentation problems and the "vegemite" bite. :blink:

I reckon with a 36 litre mash-tun you'd have no worries. If you wish to go bigger just augment with some malt extract.

Yum Target... Me fave bittering hop. :beerbang:

Warren -

 

[Malnourished]

(against a stellar field)

LOL, for the record, the two of us were the only entrants. So neonmeate came dead last. But at least I'm an international award-winning brewer now!

As for the recipe, brew it as is and see what you reckon. For my tastes I think it would be a little too sweet - especially after the roast and bitterness fades with aging.

I agree that 250g brown malt will go unnoticed. Something in the vicinity of 5-10% would be a good start. Use 2.5kg and you'd want to start thinking about reducing the RB (but it'll taste fantastic!)

It's not a huge amount of crystal, so it shouldn't make it too flabby. I think you could seriously consider increasing all of your roast malts though. You're at less than 10% - I think with a beer at the top end of the gravity range you could easily go to 15% or quite a bit more. I'd probably chuck in ~300g of black malt.

But my experience seems contrary to just about every (non-historical) imperial stout recipe I've seen, so take this with a grain of salt. For instance I think bottled Durham Temptation is a perfect example of a disgustingly sweet IS, but others seem to really like it.

And Warren, I'm sure there's a recipe in one of the Vicbrew booklets where the judges' comments include something along the lines of "lacks vegemite flavour".