Aging and bottling a RIS

[weiht]

I've got a russian imperial stout that I plan to bottle and age 1 year at least before drinking, kinda building up a reserve stash of bottles for special occasions. Primary fermentation is gonna be done by this weekend (Currently 1030 from 1093) and will probably crash chill it to for a couple of days before racking. My question is should i rack it to a keg and bulk age it for a minimum of 6-8 months before bottling or there shouldnt be any difference if I bottle it immediately?

I'm a kegger so its been a LONG time since I've done any meaningful bottling. I'm thinking that bulk conditioning in a keg would be better for the beer, but its the trouble of having to reseed yeast and hope that it carbonates that is kinda making me have second thoughts.

Option 1, Immediately prime bottle cellar and forget about it for a year.
Option 2, Keg condition for 6-8 mths, reseed and bottle. Should I add dry yeast and some priming sugar or a small krausen would be better?

[Dave S]

Bottling immediately sure sounds less messy.

[Andy__]

I have a RIS ageing in two demi johns. So at Christmas I will bottle with a little wine yeast. I will then age another 6 months

I don't think there is a wrong answer as long as it ends up a good beer

[stitch]

I have a RIS ageing in two demi johns. So at Christmas I will bottle with a little wine yeast. I will then age another 6 months

This is my plan, but like the OP I've never done it before. Any idea how much wine yeast to use? One sachet between the two demijohns?

[weiht]

I've considered champagne yeast as well, but I'm afraid that it dries the beer out too much

[killer]

I made a "biggish" stout about 8 months ago - about 7.5 % alcohol. I had crystal, roast barley, malted oat, flaked oat, a bit of sugar as well as the base pale ale malt. I used Guinness yeast. I left it in secondary keg for about 2 weeks - not for any particular reason - I think I had a fair bit of trub in primary and wanted to get rid of it. I bottled it then after two weeks. It tasted not great after 3 weeks and ok after five - there was a little bit of an aftertaste , might have been the target hops as it was hopped to about 30 IBU. However after six months it is a whole new beer. The aftertaste is gone and the crystal sweetness has appeared - subtle - not too sweet - as well as all the roast barley flavours you would expect and a silkyness from the oats. It's a top beer now.

I would bottle it if i was you...

[Andy__]

I have a RIS ageing in two demi johns. So at Christmas I will bottle with a little wine yeast. I will then age another 6 months

This is my plan, but like the OP I've never done it before. Any idea how much wine yeast to use? One sachet between the two demijohns?

I brewed a barley wine about 20 months ago using this method. I aged in Demi Johns and then put most into bottles with just a few grains of wine yeast and sugar and the rest just got sugar. The ones with wine yeast carbonated in a few weeks. The others took many months to get to the same point. Now they taste the same and the carbonation is the same.

I think putting them in DJ's is worth doing for the bulk ageing and if you fill them up to the neck oxidation is very low. I like how easy it is to store & move in DJ's and the beer will be a little more resistant to temp changes in bulk.

Why not split your beer and try both methods see if there is any difference in the final beer. I for one would be interested in your results.

[weiht]

Its a very small batch 13L, and I wont wanna hold up a keg with just 6L of beer in it for 6 mths lol.

I've been advised to go with 2 gms of dry yeast and priming sugar for a 13L batch.

[booldawg]

I've tried both methods on 'big beers' (demijohns vs bottling straight away) and not really noticed the difference.

The biggest improvement (and hardest to acheive) is keeping my paws off them for the required time! 9 months minimum for a beer greater than 8%. Usually by that time I've only a few bottles left but have really enjoyed them.

Especially so with a darker ale.

[weiht]

I've tried both methods on 'big beers' (demijohns vs bottling straight away) and not really noticed the difference.

The biggest improvement (and hardest to acheive) is keeping my paws off them for the required time! 9 months minimum for a beer greater than 8%. Usually by that time I've only a few bottles left but have really enjoyed them.

Especially so with a darker ale.

How very true to give the beer its due time to peak.. I brewed a belgian dark strong ale in sept for this christmas and I doubt it will be ready after I tasted a sample last week.