Why Boris? It's a Russian Imperial Stout. With an Oatmeal punch. From The Wire:
Sergei 'Serge' Malatov: [sighs] "Boris... why always Boris?"
The B is to emphasise the "Brick Sh*thouse" (Yorks phrase) of body this brew should pack.
Bricksh*tter Oatmeal RIS (B.O.R.I.S)
Batch Size 18L
Grist Bill
8561g Maris Otter Pale Malt (79%)
542g 60L Crystal Malt (5%)
624g Roasted Barley (5.76%)
650g Malted Oats (6%)
325g Torrefied Wheat (3%)
134g Dark Chocolate Malt (1.24%)
Thanks pdtnc, I whizzed the oats in my blender on the 'grind' setting, hopefully means the mash can have a stab at them.
Hops
Challenger 6.5% Leaf, 122g @ 60m (70.42IBU)
Challenger 7.0% Leaf, 90g @ 60m (55.95IBU)
Worcester Goldings 6% Pellet, 30g @ 15m (5.5IBU)
Mash
90m @ 65ºC
Boil
60m
Yeast
3 x Sachet US05. Rehydrate in boiled cooled water. Ferment @ 20ºC
Bottling
2 vols CO2 (batch prime 86.9g sugar)
Mature for 3-6 months
Stats
Total IBU 131.9
BU:GU Ratio 1.01
Target OG 1.130
Target FG 1.033
ABV 12.77%
Colour 53.3SRM
Grain bill weighed out ready for the morning.
You can't even see the 8.5KG of Maris Otter underneath the rockstar grist. But bear in mind that's a 25L bucket and I'm only aiming for 18L at the end...
Grain bill by The Grice is Right, on Flickr
Yep, that's at /least/ 20L - I'm crossing my fingers for my poor mash tun
Not as impressive mixed by The Grice is Right, on Flickr
That's it for tonight. HLT is on a timer, will be ready with its 31L of mash water when I wake up.......
Updated after it's safely in the FV. Oh what a mission this was.
Probably where it all went wrong, the mash:
A monster mash by The Grice is Right, on Flickr
Theres something wrong with my HLT, I keep tripping the thermostat. But this brewday was jinxed anyway.
Doughed in (took a while) and set the mash going at 65ºC:
65°C by The Grice is Right, on Flickr
The first runnings were ludicrously inky. Thanks to my phone camera for focusing on the kettle element way out of shot:
First runnings by The Grice is Right, on Flickr
This is where my general happiness with the brewday ended. A corrected 1.080 on the first batch. Out by about 40 points! I suspect the oats were the culprit.
Missed the boat by The Grice is Right, on Flickr
Dreading what was to come, I started filling the kettle... it was very black, much more so than the robust porter I did 3 brews previously.
Kettling time by The Grice is Right, on Flickr
I thought my porter was black, but this... by The Grice is Right, on Flickr
At this point it turned from a brewday into something I can only describe as 'an extended labour birthing the antichrist'. The second batch came out at 1.060... Because I was soooo far out, I had to boil the wort down to get closer to my intended OG. I had a 4L pan (the biggest I had) boiling down a further batch sparge to match the kettle as it reduced (2 pans worth), and then when I thought I was getting somewhere the element cut out on the boiler. Disaster!
I decided I could bypass the thermostat on my HLT, after all it actually had a better element, a 3KW immersion jobbie. While I was doing that, the boiler came back on. Hmm. Left it 5 mins and it cut out again. Something wasn't right!
Drained the contents (after taking so long to avoid hot side aeration, I might as well have gone swimming in it now), to find the element looking like this:
Rubber ducked by The Grice is Right, on Flickr
It took some serious elbow grease but I was determined to get it back up and running again. So, boiling wort sat steaming in a corner, I set to it. Eventually we were back up and running:
Take 2 by The Grice is Right, on Flickr
Boiled for another hour or so and we weren't /too/ far off the pre-boil OG so in went the (large quantity of) bittering hops. In this case, over 200g of Challenger:
Hoptastic by The Grice is Right, on Flickr
At this point I'd been going at it 10 hours or so, so I treat myself to a pint of AG#02, a robust porter:
Tightrope Walker by The Grice is Right, on Flickr
Boil done (with 30g of Worcester Goldings thrown in at 15m), chilled, and we had a bit over 16 litres in the kettle.
Post chill volume by The Grice is Right, on Flickr
Took a hydrometer reading and that was a lot more like it - getting towards 1.125, so only 5 points off target. Never seen a hydrometer float so high before so I took two pictures!
1.123+ OG by The Grice is Right, on Flickr
High gravity by The Grice is Right, on Flickr
I'd prepared my army of beasties ready to chomp through that mountain of sugar, 3 sachets of US05:
3 Sachets of US05 by The Grice is Right, on Flickr
Transferred to the FV via aeration, and this stuff really was treacle, it was great!
Sticky mess by The Grice is Right, on Flickr
The only problem was all the trub, those hops certainly soaked up a pile of wort
Still, safely in the FV now, about 13-14 hours after I started (good job I had other stuff to do at the same time), fitted a blowoff tube and let the yeast do its work @ 20ºC:
10+L away by The Grice is Right, on Flickr
Down to 10/11L, ah well, it will be worth it (and fit in a crate I can hide somewhere for a year.......)
