21 Sept 2008 - Effin Imperial Russian Stout

[Aleman]

That's a nice looking setup there Aleman, do you have a picture of it in it's entirety?

Not really this is one of the most up to date

this is probably the most up to date.

Some B*stards Hacked My Site Though . . . So I'm going to be busy

 

[Vossy1]

Love the casual nature of the half corny underback :twisted:

A corny....cut in half...god forbid :lol: :thumb:

 

[J_P]

Wow cheers!

And I get grumpy having to drag my beloved buckets out of the shed on a brewday, how long does all that take to put together?

 

[steve_flack]

Love the casual nature of the half corny underback :twisted:

A corny....cut in half...god forbid :lol: :thumb:

That was probably back in the era when you could pick them up for a tenner if you asked nicely.

 

[Aleman]

A corny....cut in half...god forbid

Well I got a load of cornii (21 or 22 I forget the exact number now) for around £7.50 each, and after cleaning, and derusting I had a couple that I'd robbed dip tubes, Posts and what have you from to make good kegs from bad. These have been sat lying around just in case, and when I was looking of an underback I hit me that a corny would be ideal So out with the trusty angle grinder and there you have it a nice underback . . . the top half got used as a former for my original CFC . . . which I also think is in the pic. . . . I've also chopped the top off another and use that as an 18L fermenter . . . but there is no more corny abuse going on here, not at those prices

I get grumpy having to drag my beloved buckets out of the shed on a brewday, how long does all that take to put together?

It takes about 45 minutes to haul out of the shed, and put together, and about the same time to put away. Its one of the things I envy about guys with a Garage/Brew Shed, and being able to leave everything in place. One of the plans in hopefully the not too distant future will be to have a wooden shed at the bottom of the garden to house all the non essential junk from the shed, and then I get the brick shed as a dedicated brewing space

 

[Aleman]

I'm having a crafty sample of this now . . . I racked it into a secondary fermenter last weekend . . . I knew it was a mistake to put a tap on a FV it just makes it too easy to have a quick tester

On the aroma side, there is treacle, with rich plummy raisin notes, and a definite hint of peppery spiciness.

Initial taste notes are bitter chocolate . . . incredibly bitter . . . .peppery spice, big mouth feel . . . not so much sweetness as expected, but a definite presence on the front of the tongue . . . long finish

I think its got promise :thumb:

 

[Vossy1]

That brews sounding really tasty A :drink:

 

[Aleman]

Ok, I am planning on bottling this sometime soon, it has had just over 12 months in a corny, and tonight I connected it up to a tap and had a cheeky QC sample. There is a significant raisin aroma, and it smells alcoholic . . . .Well it should its almost 10% . . . Taste wise it is still pretty raw, a massive hit of liquorice, couverture, A fruity sweetness, and a big peppery spiceness . . . certainly warming on the way down . . . chewy toffee like, masses of body . . .really going to enjoy this one christmas time . . . . next year

 

[Wez]

Sounds good A :thumb: I'm admiring your patience

 

[Vossy1]

Getting there A
I fancy having a pop at an Imperial at some point. Did you digress from your original recipe out of necessity, and how was the original recipe IYO ?
I just need to find somewhere to cellar at fixed temps before I can mature it for so long

 

[Aleman]

I fancy having a pop at an Imperial at some point. Did you digress from your original recipe out of necessity, and how was the original recipe IYO ?

Well if you had attended the Huddersfield meet of NCBA one of the last two remaining bottles was opened and sampled . . . . Still nice . . . . However, Would you believe that I have just pulled the original brew log from the 5th December 1997 The figures in brackets following the ingredient list are what should have gone in . . . the ones at the beginning were what I really used, I guess that I just didn't have all the malt in that I thought I had.

  2325g Pale Malt          ( 1995g ) 43%
   142g Crystal Malt       (  154g )  3%
   227g Chocolate Malt     (   51g )  1%
    57g Black Malt         (  155g )  3%
        Amber Malt         (  284g )  6%

  1000g Dried Malt Extract (  952g ) 28%
   227g Brown Cane Sugar   (  251g )  9%
        Maltose Syrup      (  240g )  7%

    57g Goldings 6% AA (41g)
    21g Fuggles 5% AA  (20g)

Note that this was for 10L :shock: I sparged to collect 20L at a gravity of 1.036 and boiled this down over 3 hours to end up with the 10L in the FV . . . which was fermented on at wyeast 1084 yeast cake from an Old Peculier clone. OG was something like 1.103 and FG around 1.025 for 10.2% abv and 89IBU.

The new recipe was simply a scaling up of the original to 25L, with an attempt to remove all the additional syrup adjuncts . . . plus I decided to stick with what I should have used rather than what I had actually had left in stock when I did it the first time . . . The flaked barley was added instead of some of the maltose syrup and to add some head retention . . . Plus I really like the chocolate malt in a stout, rather than roast barley or black malt, so kept that quite high

I just need to find somewhere to cellar at fixed temps before I can mature it for so long

I actually didn't bother, my corny has been standing in a dark corner of the shed covered in a couple of plastic bags (gaffer tapped tight) to keep the bugs out, so has been exposed to the extremes of temperature over the 12 months . . . It doesn't appear to have come to harm . . . . That said I would love to age one of these at 12C to see what difference there was . . . if any.

 

[Vossy1]

Well if you had attended the Huddersfield meet of NCBA one of the last two remaining bottles was opened and sampled

You bugger, rub it in why don't ya :P
Very thorough reply, thank you :thumb:

 

[damfoose]

I still have 5 bottles of this after the brew day , tasted 3 over the year and it is getting better, I am hoping to have 4 left for next christmas to see how good it is. Best bit is I have the bottles at the bottom of the garage where it is pretty much impossable to get to them so I have no real option but to leave them where they are for a long time yet.

 

[leondz]

Note that this was for 10L :shock: I sparged to collect 20L at a gravity of 1.036 and boiled this down over 3 hours to end up with the 10L in the FV . . . which was fermented on at wyeast 1084 yeast cake from an Old Peculier clone. OG was something like 1.103 and FG around 1.025 for 10.2% abv and 89IBU.

This is a Serious Stout!

 

[Aleman]

Well I racked the Stout into two baby cornii today so that I can bottle half of it, which I did today . .. as a lot of yeast is likely to have fallen out of suspension over the 14 months it's been sat in the corny . . . I decided to add 0.1g of w34/70 yeast along with the 15g of priming sugar. . . . I don't like fizzy big beers so this should just give a hint of sparkle.

and here are all my little soldiers all standing to attention

.

And my beer of the night . . . will be my BTB Ushers 1885 Stout . . . just over a week since bottling time to see if it has carbonated. :pray:

 

[Wez]

Great to see them find homes Aleman :thumb:

 

[micmacmoc]

This looks like a fantastic brew, I would love to do it but my mash tun would'nt do the mash required for 23Lt.....so 19Lt may be worth a go. I can see why you'd put it in the loft....temptation avoided!
I have no amber malt, is it THAT important to the taste? I tend to think towards ordering some anyhow and therefore not worrying that my brew is somehow inferior.
That really does look like a king of stouts.

 

[Aleman]

As you can see from The Original 1997 Recipe I didn't use any amber malt the first time, and the stout was fine, in no way inferior. Amber is of course traditional in a stout anyway hence the reason for its inclusion. . . In a beer of this gravity and style Amber will give a hint of grainyness, but not a huge amount

There is also the possibility of 'cheating' :lol: and making up the gravity with malt extract, which is what I did last time . . . Use light malt extract, you don't want to mask the flavours from the grain, and the roast malts will give you all the colour you need.