RIS - Whisky/Sherry/Coffee

We're up to shenanigans again...

This recipe is based on a clone I spotted for Alesmith Speedway Stout (Bourbon Barrel aged) with a few personal tweaks. Firstly, Paul isn't massively sold on coffee which meant removing the fresh coffee due at peak fermentation and adding coffee (cold and through a French press) at bottling.

Secondly, we don't have bourbon barrels so we're intending to split this batch 50/50 and flavour with Laphroaig-soaked oak chips in one FV and sherry-soaked oak chips in the other.

We have never brewed a stout so would welcome any pointers, suggestions or amendments to the following recipe:
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Brew Method: All Grain
Style Name: Russian Imperial Stout
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 17 liters (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 18.5 liters
Boil Gravity: 1.107
Efficiency: 65% (brew house)

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.116
Final Gravity: 1.027
ABV (standard): 11.73%
IBU (tinseth): 45.17
SRM (morey): 50

FERMENTABLES:
8 kg - United Kingdom - Maris Otter Pale (81.2%)
600 g - United Kingdom - Crystal 140L (6.1%)
450 g - United Kingdom - Chocolate (4.6%)
500 g - United Kingdom - Roasted Barley (5.1%)
200 g - German - Carapils (2%)
100 g - Torrified Wheat (1%)

HOPS:
30 g - Perle, Type: Pellet, AA: 8.2, Use: Boil for 60 min, IBU: 22.04
15 g - Pacific Gem, Type: Pellet, AA: 15.4, Use: Boil for 45 min, IBU: 19
15 g - Pacific Gem, Type: Pellet, AA: 15.4, Use: Boil for 5 min, IBU: 4.13

MASH GUIDELINES:
1) Sparge, Temp: 66 C, Time: 60 min, Amount: 23 L
Starting Mash Thickness: 3.1 L/kg

OTHER INGREDIENTS:
1 each - Protafloc, Time: 5 min, Type: Water Agt, Use: Boil
100 g - Laphroaig-soaked Oak Chips, Time: peak fermentation, Type: Spice, Use: Primary
100 g - sherry-soaked Oak Chips, Time: peak fermentation, Type: Spice, Use: Primary
0.25 L - Light Roast Coffee, Time: Bottling

YEAST:
Fermentis / Safale - English Ale Yeast S-04
Starter: No
Form: Dry
Attenuation (avg): 75%
Flocculation: High
Optimum Temp: 12.22 - 25 C
Fermentation Temp: 20 C

Your IBU's are pretty low at 0.3 IBU/OG ratio. My stout and porter book say you want between 0.5 and 1 for a RIS.

MyQul said:

Your IBU's are pretty low at 0.3 IBU/OG ratio. My stout and porter book say you want between 0.5 and 1 for a RIS.

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Good idea that - we're used to making super-hoppy IPAs ut wasn't sure what the profile for stout should be. Have altered the schedule (50g Perle @ 60min, 30g Pacific Gem @ 45min then 25g Pacific Gem @ 5min) to bring the IBUs up to 81.61.

I suspect that the sherry/whisky addition will make this a very sweet-tasting beer so the suggestion of upping the IBU is a sensible one!

After much debate it turns out this is our next brew so planning will have to begin shortly. The mash time of two hours should, i hope, work wonders for our efficiency.

Final recipe below:
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Brew Method: All Grain
Style Name: Russian Imperial Stout
Boil Time: 90 min
Batch Size: 17 liters (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 19 liters
Boil Gravity: 1.096
Efficiency: 65% (brew house)


STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.107
Final Gravity: 1.024
ABV (standard): 10.9%
IBU (tinseth): 87.13
SRM (morey): 50

FERMENTABLES:
7.5 kg - United Kingdom - Maris Otter Pale (82.4%)
600 g - United Kingdom - Crystal 140L (6.6%)
400 g - United Kingdom - Chocolate (4.4%)
500 g - United Kingdom - Roasted Barley (5.5%)
100 g - Torrified Wheat (1.1%)

HOPS:
35 g - Pacific Gem, Type: Pellet, AA: 15.4, Use: Boil for 60 min, IBU: 53.18
20 g - Pacific Gem, Type: Pellet, AA: 15.4, Use: Boil for 45 min, IBU: 27.9
20 g - Pacific Gem, Type: Pellet, AA: 15.4, Use: Boil for 5 min, IBU: 6.06
25 g - Pacific Gem, Type: Pellet, AA: 15.4, Use: Boil for 0 min

MASH GUIDELINES:
1) Sparge, Temp: 65 C, Time: 120 min, Amount: 26 L
Starting Mash Thickness: 3.8 L/kg

OTHER INGREDIENTS:
1 each - Protafloc, Time: 5 min, Type: Water Agt, Use: Boil
100 g - Laphroaig-soaked Oak Chips, Time: 1440 min, Type: Spice, Use: Primary
0.25 L - Light Roast Coffee, Time: 30240 min, Type: Flavor, Use: Bottling

YEAST:
Fermentis / Safale - English Ale Yeast S-04
Starter: No
Form: Dry
Attenuation (avg): 75%
Flocculation: High
Optimum Temp: 12.22 - 25 C
Fermentation Temp: 20 C

How come the final gravity is so high?

machin05 said:

How come the final gravity is so high?

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Probably because the OG is huge 1.116. I just did the calcs and the attenuation is still 77%

machin05 said:

How come the final gravity is so high?

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Stouts, especially Imperial Stouts, do have a high final gravity, anywhere from 1.018 to 1.030 is not unusual for a RIS.

Just to add (in general) the higher the OG the higher the FG and conversely the lower the OG the lower the FG

@MyQul, the talk of overnight mashing got me thinking on this one. I really really want to nail the efficiency to the mast with this. What do you think of mashing it overnight?

Notlaw said:

Stouts, especially Imperial Stouts, do have a high final gravity, anywhere from 1.018 to 1.030 is not unusual for a RIS.

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Ah ok. I suppose that helps retain a sweetness that balances the flavour. Is there not a danger of bottle bombs then, or would you have to be adding more yeast to chew up those remaining sugars?

machin05 said:

Ah ok. I suppose that helps retain a sweetness that balances the flavour. Is there not a danger of bottle bombs then, or would you have to be adding more yeast to chew up those remaining sugars?

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If fermentation is finished then you'll not get bombs regardless of how high your FG is. Bombs only happen when the yeast hasn't finished its job yet.

Not sure about adding yeast again to get it further down... I couldn't comment on that one.

ezraburke said:

@MyQul, the talk of overnight mashing got me thinking on this one. I really really want to nail the efficiency to the mast with this. What do you think of mashing it overnight?

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The 5-6 times I did an overnight mash I generally got better efficiency (a couple of times I didn't and just got my normall efficiency but this seemed to be with my smaller beers)so you could give it a go.

Are you a BIABer btw as squeezing the bag really ups the efficiency of your squeeze it like it owes you money

A bit of both now - we use a mash tun but when we lauter and sparge we use the old BIAB bag to collect stray grains then squeeze it until it's dry.

I'm considering the overnight mash. Did you end up with any souring of the beer?

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ezraburke said:

A bit of both now - we use a mash tun but when we lauter and sparge we use the old BIAB bag to collect stray grains then squeeze it until it's dry.

I'm considering the overnight mash. Did you end up with any souring of the beer?

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No because my mash started at 69C and ended at about 58C so above the 50C mark where I read you need to keep it so bacteria doesn't sour the wort. Tbh, I kept reading different figures you need to keep it above but tried to keep it about 50C as I was being cautious.
Having said that Forumite Garethhuwwilliams made some wort, didn't bother to keep it warm (iirc he just let it cool natrually till the following day. He wasn't attempting an overnight mash hough), then just boiled it the next day. He said the beer came out fine. But everything I've read said you need to keep the mash above a certain temp else it sours

Final question, I promise! How did you insulate to keep it at temp?

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:lol: I dont mind the Q's

I simply used/use towels really. Now bear in mind my pot is only 19L, I wrapped one of those space blankets around the pot then wrapped four towels around it. I then folded another towl and placed it on top (I've found this towl quite important in keeping the heat in when doing both my normal hour mash and overnight mash, heat rising and all that) I then put another space blanket over everthing then finally put a big normal blanket over that.

I'm not sure wether the space blankets actually do any thing or not but there only a quid of ebay so I thought I'd try em out

Overnight mash is definitely in the mix (the tun holds its temp for 90 mins without dropping) but would require some sort of testing before hand e.g. putting hot water in the empty mashtun overnight to see how it holds its temp.

There is also the talk of mashing one evening and then freezing the resultant wort for a brewday another day. I have a spare chest freezer that could accommodate said wort so it's a possibility too.

On another note, we took some guidance from other sources about the recipe and have duly dropped all the late hop additions for bittering only (upped that lot) and replaced 5% of the malt with simple sugars (treacle!) to help produce a tremendously fermentable wort. Mash temp has changed to 62c as well. Finally, we've decided to have at this one a packet of S04 and S05 at the same time.

Good idea about the late additions. I never put late additions in stout ither, only porter.

Doing a lower mash temp and adding some simple sugars works well too. My last beer was a bitter that I used MJ Dark Ale yeast which only has a medium attenuation so I mashed as 65C instead of my usual 66C and added 500g or so of golden syrup.

I took a gravity sample yesterday and of course drank the sample. I got 68%AA attenuation. Tbh, I was expecting higher than that but the GS has dried the beer out somewhat, so although it hasn't got a very high attenuation, curiously, it tastes like it has

1% Torrified Wheat seems a bit low. Not sure if will make any difference. Anyone else know?