Cerberus Imperial Stout

Smileyr8 · Sep 18, 2014

Coopers Australian Stout 1.7kg Â£10.50
John Bull IPA 1.8kg Â£9.00
Dried Dark Malt 500g Â£3.30
Dark Muscavado Sugar 590g Â£1.60
Dark Muscavado Sugar 120g (for batch priming) Â£0.32
Kit Yeast x 2
5g Columbus Hop Pellet boiled with Spray Malt for 30 mins Â£0.23
5g Cascade Hop Pellet boiled with Spray Malt for 30 mins Â£0.23
5g Columbus Hop Pellet boiled with Spray Malt for 12 mins Â£0.23
5g Cascade Hop Pellet boiled with Spray Malt for 12 mins Â£0.23
5g Columbus Hop Pellet boiled with Spray Malt for 7 mins Â£0.23
5g Cascade Hop Pellet boiled with Spray Malt for 7 mins Â£0.23
Dry Hopping (None)
Orig Grav = 1075
Final Grav = 101?
ABV Aim = 7%+ Result = % + 0.2% Prime = %
Bottled ?/2014
Cost to Brew Â£26.10
21 Litres / 36.5 Pints
Â£0.72 Pint

Slid · Sep 19, 2014

Well beyond what I was advising. So sorry for weak advice. The 2x yeast seems a good move and I would not hurry the bottling.

I think the best move is to brew this sort of thing cool-ish and slightly raise the temp later on. Possibly adding some of the sugar later, also.

Keep smiling! Hope it turns out well and a rather Merry Christmas to all. :hat:

Slid · Sep 19, 2014

Cereberus was called "Fluffy" in the Harry Potter #1.

Smileyr8 · Sep 20, 2014

Slid said:
I think the best move is to brew this sort of thing cool-ish and slightly raise the temp later on. Possibly adding some of the sugar later, also.

Its cooling down in the house now, getting very close to the lower limits of the yeast, I have the fv sat in builders trug filled with water and a aquarium heater regulating the trug water to 20c, (Kit Yeasts state 21c-27c and 18c-24c respectively), I guess its just a case of being patient.

Smileyr8 · Sep 28, 2014

Day 11 hydrometer is reading 1020, that gives me 7.3%abv + 0.2 for the prime 7.5%abv exactly what I was looking for, this should be perfect for xmas, unless Dr Who can pull off some of his magic.

Slid · Sep 29, 2014

That sounds good to me. What size bottles are you going to use? Not 2L PET bottles, I'm guessing.

Smileyr8 · Sep 30, 2014

Slid said:
That sounds good to me. What size bottles are you going to use? Not 2L PET bottles, I'm guessing.

The plan is to put this in 500ml glass and then hide it away, have to be honest I am already wanting to give this a try but have a few others brews that should quell my temptation.

Smileyr8 · Dec 12, 2014

Tried a few of the previously mentioned and its proper good.

After this last high %abv escapade, I have decided to go a little bigger and see how far I can take it.

Coopers Stout 1.7kg + Wilko Golden Ale 3kg + 400gr of Dark Muscavado Sugar brewed short to 20ltrs this should give me 8.4% in the bottle.

Its been brewing for 4 days, full stout volcano to start with, its made a real mess of the brew bucket and bayn marie, judging by what I see, I am wanting to clean this up a little and rack to secondary.

Any thoughts?

baggybill · Apr 2, 2015

How's 'fluffy' tasting after 6 months in the bottle? Or did it not last that long? Thinking about putting one of these on and storing it for next Xmas... :grin:

Smileyr8 · Apr 3, 2015

baggybill said:
How's 'fluffy' tasting after 6 months in the bottle? Or did it not last that long? Thinking about putting one of these on and storing it for next Xmas... :grin:

This is a good brew, basically it was brilliant after a month in the bottle and young, then it went away for while, I had a couple the the other day & its is changed again but an improvement on when it was young and good.

I only have 6 of these left, I plan on leaving them and trying all the way up to 12 months old, I think its one of those that goes away and comes back taste wise.

The other high ABV% has been good every bottle I have had, better than the original and really smooth to drink only had a few but I expect they will be good for upto 2 years (don't know whether they will last that long mind).

Mork · Apr 9, 2015

The name of this brew caught my attention.
There is a commercial brewery near to me that brews a beer that goes by the same name. It's a dark brown ale with an abv of 6.5%. It's very good, but it's hard to come by because it's only sold at local farmers' markets, which don't happen very often.

Smileyr8 · Apr 9, 2015

Mork said:
The name of this brew caught my attention.
There is a commercial brewery near to me that brews a beer that goes by the same name. It's a dark brown ale with an abv of 6.5%. It's very good, but it's hard to come by because it's only sold at local farmers' markets, which don't happen very often.

I have just looked this up as I had never heard of it until you quoted it.

baggybill · May 24, 2015

The brew is on :party:

Will be putting this one away for Xmas 2015 when done, so taking it slow... giving it plenty time to finish etc.

Followed the recipe exactly. Re-hydrated my yeasts packs to give them a fighting chance against this big brew. Made to 21L.

SG came in at 1.069 @ 26' so a good bit under your reading. I thought it would be identical as stuck to the ingredients 100%. Must be a slight difference in the DME/sugar somewhere :wha:

Anyway, they say a picture paints a thousand words... well, here's a couple of thousand pictures at high speed:

My brew day today (time lapse):

https://youtu.be/gzUEi8hN8ek

clibit · May 25, 2015

Great video! Thanks for posting. I wish I could brew that quickly. :-)

Smileyr8 · May 26, 2015

baggybill said:
SG came in at 1.069 @ 26' so a good bit under your reading. I thought it would be identical as stuck to the ingredients 100%. Must be a slight difference in the DME/sugar somewhere.

First off well done fantastic video, I just checked back on my notes regarding SG & so on as I did have a few hydrometer issues around the time (one with a pin hole and one rolling off the side and getting smashed) I did this brew, but the issues where before the brew so nothing astray there. With that said the brew did finish quite high 1020 a bit of luck & the discrepancy will work its way out at the other end i.e. it will finish lower.

Also just used the Hydrometer Temperature Correction Calculator and that gives you another couple of points.

Either way good luck, I still have half a dozen of these squirrelled away for special occasions.

Keep us posted.

Smileyr8 · Jun 11, 2015

baggybill said:
The brew is on :partyhttps://youtu.be/gzUEi8hN8ek

How is this going Bill, where did it finish?

baggybill · Jun 27, 2015

Bottled it today : cheers:

Went off like a rocket the first few days, as expected, made a helluva mess of the fv with krausen. Used a Coopers fv, so no issues with blow out's etc. (no bubble lock). Heater was set for 20' degrees but yeast just went bananas activity wise and temp was touching 24' degrees for a couple of days. Used the two stock yeasts are per recipe so this was still fine.

Racked it after 14 days into a clean fv with a bubble lock to monitor and it was still active so left it a while @ 20' temperature wise.

Had planned on measuring/bottling it last weekend but things came up. No worries, it was still sealed, undisturbed and so should have CO2 blanket still protecting it.

End result was x2 weeks in primary fv, x3 weeks in secondary fv.

So... where did it finish up?

I make FG as 1.015 (@ 20'), OG was 1.070 (temp adjusted) giving me an ABV of 7.22% I'm guessing I'll get the same 0.2% for the prime (per recipe) giving me a final bottled ABV of 7.44% That'll be a nice winter warmer :party:

To be honest, it's actually drinkable right now, tastes real nice too and I'd have no problems sticking this straight into a corny and force carbing it. Hopefully 6 months bottle time will make it something extra special for Xmas. I plan on trying it at regular intervals, say monthly.

Thanks for the detailed recipe and all the feedback on your brew :-D

Smileyr8 · Jun 28, 2015

baggybill said:
I make FG as 1.015 (@ 20'), OG was 1.070 (temp adjusted) giving me an ABV of 7.22% I'm guessing I'll get the same 0.2% for the prime (per recipe) giving me a final bottled ABV of 7.44% That'll be a nice winter warmer :party:

To be honest, it's actually drinkable right now, tastes real nice too and I'd have no problems sticking this straight into a corny and force carbing it. Hopefully 6 months bottle time will make it something extra special for Xmas. I plan on trying it at regular intervals, say monthly.

Thanks for the detailed recipe and all the feedback on your brew :-D

:clap: Congratulations and glad this turned out well for you as it did for me, I still have half a dozen bottles of this one I am waiting for some cooler weather to enjoy them.

Had a bottle of the Golden Imperial Stout last night it was nice but has hints of liquorice, I am hoping that mellows a little before the cold weather comes. if any one is interested I have detailed instructions as per Cerberus.

MyQul · Jun 28, 2015

Nice one bill! What are the bottles? They look very victorian apothecary

baggybill · Jun 28, 2015

MyQul said:
Nice one bill! What are the bottles? They look very victorian apothecary

St. Peters Brewery bottles, originally filled with Ruby Red & Golden Ale. There's a story behind the bottles on their website.

http://www.stpetersbrewery.co.uk/brewery/

In case you fancy collecting a set, they're absolute hell to get the labels & gum off them, unlike my other set of bottles (McEwan's Champion) which just floated off by themselves after a couple of hours in hot water/oxi.

Despite soaking them for weeks, still took me ages with a razor blade to clean them off. Decided then that I would only use them for something special i.e. no session beer.

Edit: Add website link.

Cerberus Imperial Stout

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