New Years Day Imperial Stout Brewday????

[Lugsy]

So here's my provisional recipe for the new years day Imperial Stout brew-off:

Super-Massive Black Hole

Fermentable Colour lb: oz Grams Ratio
Pale Malt 5 EBC 11 lbs. 0.4 oz 5000 grams 52.4%
Munich Malt 20 EBC 2 lbs. 3.3 oz 1000 grams 10.5%
Crystal Malt, Pale 60 EBC 2 lbs. 3.3 oz 1000 grams 10.5%
Sugar, Household White 0 EBC 2 lbs. 3.3 oz 1000 grams 10.5%
Amber Malt 60 EBC 1 lbs. 1.6 oz 500 grams 5.2%
Roasted Barley 1350 EBC 0 lbs. 14.0 oz 400 grams 4.2%
Chocolate Malt, Pale 525 EBC 0 lbs. 10.5 oz 300 grams 3.1%
Black Malt 1300 EBC 0 lbs. 7.0 oz 200 grams 2.1%
Chocolate Malt 1050 EBC 0 lbs. 5.3 oz 150 grams 1.6%

Hop Variety Type Alpha Time lb: oz grams Ratio
Apollo Whole 19 % 90 mins 0 lbs. 1.8 oz 50 grams 25%
Amarillo Whole 8.9 % 90 mins 0 lbs. 1.8 oz 50 grams 25%
Apollo Whole 19 % 30 mins 0 lbs. 1.8 oz 50 grams 25%
Amarillo Whole 8.9 % 15 mins 0 lbs. 1.8 oz 50 grams 25%

Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.101
Final Gravity: 1.024
Alcohol Content: 10.3% ABV
Total Liquor: 34.9 Litres
Mash Liquor: 21.4 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 79 %
Bitterness: 117 EBU
Colour: 429 EBC

For the yeast I'll probably go for S-04 and make up a starter a few days before to get the numbers up to deal with the OG. I'll pitch pretty cool to try and avoid the runaway temperature rise I got last time I pitched a lot of yeast into a strong wort.

I'm going to try and find some nice sugars next time I get to the Asian supermarkets in Leeds to use instead of at least some of the household white to add a bit of flavour. Both the grain bill and hop additions are subject to my indecisiveness over the next two weeks. I'm planning on getting the mash on late on new years eve so I can have a bit more relaxed hangover time the following morning before getting stuck into the boil and hopefully finish off the brew at a reasonable time

[WishboneBrewery]

I think an overnight mash wouldn't do any harm at all, good idea... I've got another few levels of indecisiveness myself after seeing yours and leedsbrews recipes.
One thing I'd say about yours is to keep the Pale malt 70% or above, you'll also have lots of body some 10% Crystal malt is probably 5-8% too much

[Lugsy]

I see what you mean about the crystal, there's going to be plenty of body without it really. Currently re-working the recipe!

I'd thought about trying to get the OG to be 1.112 to mark the date but how the hell would I ferment it out with ale yeast without the poor little buggers going belly-up at about 10%? Probably best sticking with something below 1.100 given my limited equipment and experience I reckon

[leedsbrew]

Bit of tinkering going on here too, as I'm gonna use what I've got rather than order anything in. Gonna sub out the chocolate wheat for some special B and amber.

Lugsy, have you used Apollo before? I've been toying with the idea of getting some. Heard good things about it from across the pond!

[Befuddler]

Oh gawd. You might just tempt me to get involved with this. I have a bone to pick with RIS after my last.. er.. thing.

When is the bottle swap, new year 2013?

[Lugsy]

Leedsbrew - Mine might yet get a bit of rye in it, I've just ordered some crystal and roasted from Rob. We've still got a couple of weeks to play around with the recipe though eh?
I've used Apollo a couple of times now, the first time was purely as a bittering hop (it worked well), the second is in this and I think it's got a lovely taste to it (this one's only three or so weeks old and is nowhere near fit for human consumption but looks promising!) - grapefruit, I think, like Centennial on steroids but a bit different - it's hard to tell at the moment with all the Galaxy and Amarillo. I'm planning on a single hop Apollo soon to find out what it's really like but I'd recommend you get some as it's more available than the popular Americans at the moment

Befuddler - Yeah, join the party! I know what you mean, I ploughed hours into the last one and I'm not sure it'll ever be nice (it's only a few months old at the moment but it's not looking good). I reckon a bottle swap at the end of next year is in order, maybe we could all meet up as we're in the same neck of the woods?

[WishboneBrewery]

I'll be saving my Apollo for a paler beer, tempted to do an all Cascade hop.
Also tempted to Toast some Flaked Oats in the oven but that is probably better for an easy drinking stout.

[WishboneBrewery]

I might actually go with something a bit more like this... slightly lower ABV and keeping things simple, keeping 'Abyss' in the name seems popular so thats staying and i liked my hopping from the other 'Abyss' named recipe (though I am wimping-out on the more exotic malt bill I had in that).

Code: Select all

Black Abyss Imperial Stout

Fermentable	Colour	lb: oz	Grams	Ratio
Lager Malt	2.5 EBC	17 lbs. 1.6 oz	7760 grams	78.5%
Roasted Barley	1220 EBC	2 lbs. 0.2 oz	910 grams	9.2%
Sugar, Date Molasses	800 EBC	0 lbs. 15.8 oz	450 grams	4.6%
Cara Aroma (Weyermann)	400 EBC	0 lbs. 14.5 oz	410 grams	4.2%
Sugar, Molasses (Blackstr	1125 EBC	0 lbs. 12.3 oz	350 grams	3.5%

Hop Variety	Type	Alpha	Time	lb: oz	grams	Ratio
Northern Brewer	Whole	9.2 %	60 mins	0 lbs. 2.5 oz	70 grams	23.7%
Centennial	Whole	11.5 %	60 mins	0 lbs. 1.1 oz	30 grams	10.2%
Northern Brewer	Whole	9.2 %	30 mins	0 lbs. 1.1 oz	30 grams	10.2%
Columbus (Tomahawk)	Whole	16 %	5 mins	0 lbs. 2.3 oz	65 grams	22%
Crystal	Whole	4.9 %	5 mins	0 lbs. 1.8 oz	50 grams	16.9%
Centennial	Whole	11.5 %	5 mins	0 lbs. 1.8 oz	50 grams	16.9%

Final Volume:	23	Litres
Original Gravity:	1.089	
Final Gravity:	1.020	
Alcohol Content:	9.1%	ABV
Total Liquor:	37.4	Litres
Mash Liquor:	21.8	Litres
Mash Efficiency:	65	%
Bitterness:	155	EBU
Colour:	694	EBC

[Befuddler]

Some serious amounts of roasted barley being chucked around in this thread.. I think I'll go in a bit lower with mine.

[leedsbrew]

And there's me thinking I need to up mine. Mainly becouse I have 4kg of the stuff to use up! Also 5kg of flaked barley and a load of amber malt! Did a bit of a stock take yesterday while the mash was on on my Galaxy ale. I think I'll be adjusting my recipe accordingly!

[leedsbrew]

Ok so I think I'll be going with the following:

Titan Imperial Stout

UK Pale ale malt 70%
UK Roasted barley 7%
UK Amber malt 6%
UK Wheat 4%
UK Flaked Barley 4%
UK Chocolate malt 4%
Toasted Oats 2%
Special B 2%
Black malt 1%

US Summit 18.0 % 30 g 40.2 Loose Whole Hops First Wort Hopped
US Chinook 10.5 % 10 g 7.8 Loose Whole Hops First Wort Hopped
US Centennial 8.5 % 25 g 7.9 Loose Whole Hops 15 Min From End
US Centennial 8.5 % 25 g 3.2 Loose Whole Hops 5 Min From End

[Lugsy]

I'm having a serious dilemma at the moment about the size of this brew. I've been limited to BIAB with a 20l pan until now but Santa's bringing me a nice new 70l pan in a few days - unfortunately there's no mash tun to go with it so I'm considering a BIAB split mash and sparge in two pans (20l and 16l) and then transferring to the boiler. This complicates my nice comfortable set-up/procedure and might not be the best way to tackle a probably hungover brewday of this magnitude so I might end up going with a brewlength of more like 15 litres which I can do with my old kit. I'll have to wait and see how I feel closer to the time I guess.

Anyway, modified grain bill as it stands for now:

Pale Malt 5 EBC 6500 grams 70.2%
Munich Malt 20 EBC 300 grams 3.3%
Crystal Malt, Pale 60 EBC 200 grams 2.2%
Sugar, Household White 0 EBC 1000 grams 10.8%
Amber Malt 60 EBC 300 grams 3.3%
Roasted Barley 1350 EBC 300 grams 3.3%
Chocolate Malt, Pale 525 EBC 300 grams 3.3%
Black Malt 1300 EBC 200 grams 2.2%
Chocolate Malt 1050 EBC 150 grams 1.6%

The hops are still the same until I change my mind.

[leedsbrew]

I did 15L the other year at *% ABV and managed to fit it into a standard thermos mash tun.

[WishboneBrewery]

This thread was a bad idea...!
I'll never settle on a recipe with all these other ideas!

[Lugsy]

This thread was a bad idea...!
I'll never settle on a recipe with all these other ideas!

Yeah, there's far too much time between now and brewday to get settled - you should have posted on December 30th at the earliest! And I've just had some roasted and crystal rye turn up from Rob to throw some more indecision into my recipe

I did 15L the other year at *% ABV and managed to fit it into a standard thermos mash tun.

I managed almost 15 litres at 1.099 with my last RIS using my current set-up without a sugar addition but it was a really thick mash with four sparges, took me bloody hours to get it done and the memory is still too fresh to go through that again just yet! I'm considering getting a really big piece of voile and mashing in the big boiler, running off to the 20l pan, sparging and running off to the 16l pan and then ditching the grains and returning both sets of liquor to the boiler to finish off. The problem with that is the heat losses I'll get with the excessive headroom in the 70l pan so I'll need to be adding hot water to it almost constantly to maintain a decent mash temperature.