Russian Imperial Stout - Friday

[Frothy]

From CAMRA brew classic euro beers. I'm not familiar with this style so what do you think to this recipe? We were flicking through and my friend fancies the sound of it. Described as english bottle conditioned barley wine/ stout with fresh leather/ pepper hop on the nose,. Bitter black chocolate in the mouth with a deep tart bitter finish.

Courage, Russian Imperial Stout.
OG1.098 23L FG1.018
4kg Pale Malt
2.8kg Lager Malt
1.45kg Amber Malt
445g Black Malt
950g Sucrose

50IBU - Target 55g 90minutes

To me this doesn't look a very convincing recipe and I'm unsure whether to step the black malt up to 1kg. Conditioning is suggested for 18months.

Frothy

[Scooby]

Had a few bottles of this as a lad, (drank three bottles straight back once as a bet, and promptly got rid of it in the car park )

Dave line has a 10l recipe.

3kg pale malt
250g Crystal malt
125g Choc malt
125 Black malt
500g Soft dark brown sugar
100g Fuggles

OG 1.103

Hope that helps Frothy

[J_P]

I fancy bottling something similar up for Christmas although with an 18 month maturation period I'm not sure it'll be this one! I'll be following this thread.

[Alton_Bee]

I fancy bottling something similar up for Christmas although with an 18 month maturation period I'm not sure it'll be this one! I'll be following this thread.

You could really be ahead of the game and have it ready for Christmas 2008 !!!

[J_P]

I fancy bottling something similar up for Christmas although with an 18 month maturation period I'm not sure it'll be this one! I'll be following this thread.

You could really be ahead of the game and have it ready for Christmas 2008 !!!

Or I could bottle up something that would mature in six months as well!

[steve_flack]

Harveys do an authentic Imperial Stout in bottles and sell it in their pubs if you can get to one.

[steve_flack]

To me this doesn't look a very convincing recipe and I'm unsure whether to step the black malt up to 1kg

Why?

[oblivious]

1 kg of Black patent malt might be a little over kill, you could a 300 grams of chocolate malt if you want addition flavors?

[steve_flack]

Or use some brown malt. It'd be traditional and according to Durden Park was in the original Barclay Perkins (who became part of Courage) imperial stout.

[SteveD]

You could lose the lager malt - I don't know why it's there - substituting brown malt and pale malt half and half instead. Or, just brew the recipe...

At that gravity make sure you use plenty of yeast (4x11g packs is not excessive) or multiply it up in good starter, and aerate well before pitching.

[Frothy]

You could lose the lager malt - I don't know why it's there - substituting brown malt and pale malt half and half instead. Or, just brew the recipe...

That's what I mean. With the pilsner malt and the sugar in there it leaves me wondering is this the way it's meant to be or a bit of misplaced ingenuity? The recipe has no crystal malt and relatively little dark malts making me think it will be simply brown and very alcoholic with very little body. The Dave Line recipe looks much better Scoob - many thanks. Great idea on the yeast Steve I hadn't thought that far ahead. Whichever recipe I brew I'll be scaling it down to about 8% and adjust the IBU's to compensate. The idea is that we brew it now and it will be ready to drink for a celebration at the end of harvest. Obl' point taken on the black malt.

cheers
Frothy

[Frothy]

Final Recipe
Adjusted to 8% gravity so that it should be ready to drink in about 3 months for harvest. Not sure how close this will be to the original, I've adjusted the Dave Line recipe to suit what I'm after which is essentially a strong & relatively dry stout. I think I'll substitute 500g of the pale malt for flaked barley yet.

20L @1.080 (FG~1.020)
3.7kg Pale Malt
500g Crystal Malt
250g Chocolate Malt
250g Black Malt
500g Soft Dark Sugar

113g Fuggles (4.5%) IBU__

Gervin Ale yeast 22g x 1L starter & heavy wort aeration.

pic's to follow
Frothy

[oblivious]

Are you sure the recipe is right looks a little low to get a gravity of 1.080 with 20L?

[steve_flack]

That comes out around OG 1.055 by my calcs and a fifth of that is coming from sugar. You need about 2.3-2.4 kg of malt to get near 1.080.

[SteveD]

I make it about 64 at 80% extraction. Lose 10% on the way to the fermenter and we have about OG 57-58

You need to up the grain/sugar bill by over 40%. I'd leave the sugar as it is and add a bit more pale malt to compensate. Flaked Barley? You're getting a bit far from the recipe. You'll end up with a strong Guinness rather than an Imperial Russian which is an English brew.