Imperial stout recipe for a first timer

[PhilM]

Hi,
Have enjoyed reading a lot of post but nows the time for my first one.

Trying to learn as much about brewing as possible. Have a BIAB kit and making about 20l at a time. So far I’ve made a Pale Ale, a Belgian Blond, have now got an IPA on the go. Next one to try is an Imp Stout.

Looking for any suggestions for a good tried and tested recipe. Any ideas?

// Phil

 

[Dutto]

Welcome to The Forum! :thumb:

I suggest that you take a look at the Recipes section above.

As a guest you can use BrewersFriend to find out recipes for thousands of different brews.

There are two pages full of recipes for "Imperial Stout - BIAB - Metric".

Enjoy! :thumb:

 

[PhilM]

Cheers Dutto for the tip. I’ve been in there quite a lot researching my IPA but with an Imp Stout I found it lacking in and feedback from people who have followed the recipes.
Therefore my post. Just after a few suggestions of any tips of good recipes. Anything anyone has tried recently with good results.

// Phil

 

[Zephyr259]

Welcome, sounds like you're making a good start. Imperial stouts are quite adventurous after only 3 brews, but then my 2nd all grain brew was a small batch barleywine so I can't talk.

Here's a link to my brewday thread entry on my bourbon vanilla stout, it's not quite as big as an imperial stout but adding a bit extra pale malt should do it nicely. It's one the sweeter side as it's only got chocolate malt as the roasted grain and the low IBUs so they don't clash with the vanilla, but very tasty and maybe a decent starting point. It's from Greg Hughes book which also has and RIS recipe and pretty much every recipe in that book is good.

Good Luck.

 

[dad_of_jon]

theres no shame in adding 1-1.5kg of extra dark dried malt extract to a stout recipe :thumb:

 

[Dutto]

I'm not keen on Stout but last December I did an Oatmeal Stout and it's superb.

The recipe and method is as follows:

"OATMEAL STOUT - Brewed 14/12/17

INGREDIENTS
1.5kg of Maris Otter Malt
1.0kg of Caramel Malt
2.5kg of Crystal Malt
0.3kg of Chocolate Malt
1.0kg of Toasted Rolled Oats
75g EKG
Wilco Ale Yeast
Yeast nutrient

MASH & SPARGE
Strike Water = 16.5 litres at 80*C
Mash at 65*C to 70*C for one hour- DO NOTexceed 75 degrees.
Heat SPARGE water to 80*C.
After one hour circulate Mash using TWO vessels until wort runs CLEAR.
Sparge at one litre per minute. Stop sparge when boil kettle at 30 litres.

BOIL
Boil with 50g of EKG Bittering Hops in bag for 60 minutes.
Add Protafloc tablet and boil for 10 minutes.
Flameout.
Add 25g of EKG Aroma Hops in bag for 10 minutes.
Cool to 20 degrees and whirlpool.
Run off into FV and add 1tsp of Yeast Nutrient.
Pitch yeast and ferment at 20 degrees.
Before bottling/kegging add Hop Tea prepared from 15g of EKG Whole Leaf Hops.

OG = 1.060
FG = 1.011
ABV = 6.43%"

The fermentation took SIX WEEKS - but after nearly eight months I still have a couple of litres left and it's delicious!

Enjoy! :thumb:

BTW, not being keen on stouts I actually brewed this for a mate who was ill at the time.

He had been diagnosed with cancer of the spine and was undergoing treatment. However, the chemo and radiography treatment he has endured is definitely not "beer friendly" 'cos it's put him off ALL beer.

Poor sod! I felt sympathy for him with the original ailment but the treatment itself is a bugger as well!

 

[Zephyr259]

theres no shame in adding 1-1.5kg of extra dark dried malt extract to a stout recipe :thumb:

Indeed and along those lines, I noticed that Greg Hughes' recipes for his milk stout and RIS both have the same overall weight of crystal and roasted malts, just slight tweaks to the specific ones used and about double the pale malt. Makes sense I guess, the percentage of the roast malts will go down but you still have the same grams per litre in the brew which should keep the flavours at a similar level.

 

[GerritT]

This one looks doable: https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/647555/20c-imperial-stout
Problem with having a HUGE assortment of specialty malts is: they hardly get used. That's why this recipe looks nice: a lot of regular malt. Small hopbill too. Me like.

 

[Zephyr259]

There's also an oldschool one on this blog, with two versions, can easily skip using the brett like he does for part of his second brew. I'm tempted to try this one myself as I have an itch to brew a big RIS.

 

[dad_of_jon]

I have a recipe for king kong somewhere on the forum.... 12.86% - grain & extract brew.

 

[ACBEV]

oldschool

I like oldschool stuff... I've brewed an Imperial twice, with inspiration from here...
http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2012/02/lets-brew-wednesday-1914-courage.html

22L Batch...

OG: 1.092
FG: 1.024
ABV: 9%
IBU: 55
Colour: Black Hole... Black
Mash @ 67... 1 hour
Boil for 1 hour

Hops...
55g Bramling Cross @ 60 mins
70g Hersbrucker @ 20 mins
55g Fuggles @ 5 mins

Malt...
5900g Mild Ale Malt
1350g Brown Malt
800g Black Malt
400g Wheat Malt

Yeast...
1 pack of Wyeast London Ale III
1 pack of Wyeast Belgian Ardennes

Fermentation...
Pitch @ 18c
Ferment in primary for 3-4 weeks @ 20c
Decant into glass secondary, leave for 3-6 months @ 12c

Bottling...
Assuming you have 20-22 liters of beer...
Bring 2L of water to boiling and dissolve 135g of demarara sugar into the boiled water. Cover and allow to cool to 20c.
Add sugar solution and a packet of Nottingham dry yeast to bottling bucket, then syphon in the beer to the bottling bucket, stir gently with sanitised stirer. Then bottle.

Store bottles @ 18c for several weeks, then @ 12c thereafter...

 

[PhilM]

Fantastic input from you all. Haven’t decided which one to do yet but will keep you posted.
Going to get the Greg Hughs book, always to get more inspiration.

Trying to get as much experience of brewing as possible, have really got the bug. If you have any suggestions of other styles that you feel offer a good development curve feel free to suggest these.

// Phil

 

[foxbat]

Fantastic input from you all. Haven’t decided which one to do yet but will keep you posted.
Going to get the Greg Hughs book, always to get more inspiration.

Trying to get as much experience of brewing as possible, have really got the bug. If you have any suggestions of other styles that you feel offer a good development curve feel free to suggest these.

// Phil

If you post your proposed recipe and procedure before you do it we can tell you whether it's likely to work. Things like your efficiency expectation goes down, your sparge volume is likely to have to go up which might mean a longer boil time to hit your proposed numbers. I've only done one RIS and if I'd just followed my usual pale ale procedure I would have most likely come in 10 gravity points below target.

 

[PhilM]

I like oldschool stuff... I've brewed an Imperial twice, with inspiration from here...
http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2012/02/lets-brew-wednesday-1914-courage.html

22L Batch...

OG: 1.092
FG: 1.024
ABV: 9%
IBU: 55
Colour: Black Hole... Black
Mash @ 67... 1 hour
Boil for 1 hour

Hops...
55g Bramling Cross @ 60 mins
70g Hersbrucker @ 20 mins
55g Fuggles @ 5 mins

Malt...
5900g Mild Ale Malt
1350g Brown Malt
800g Black Malt
400g Wheat Malt

Yeast...
1 pack of Wyeast London Ale III
1 pack of Wyeast Belgian Ardennes

Fermentation...
Pitch @ 18c
Ferment in primary for 3-4 weeks @ 20c
Decant into glass secondary, leave for 3-6 months @ 12c

Bottling...
Assuming you have 20-22 liters of beer...
Bring 2L of water to boiling and dissolve 135g of demarara sugar into the boiled water. Cover and allow to cool to 20c.
Add sugar solution and a packet of Nottingham dry yeast to bottling bucket, then syphon in the beer to the bottling bucket, stir gently with sanitised stirer. Then bottle.

Store bottles @ 18c for several weeks, then @ 12c thereafter...

Is the decanting important or could it have a longer bottling time?
// Phil

 

[Zephyr259]

In theory ageing in bulk is better than in bottles, I'm not sure exactly why and I've only read anecdotal evidence. The is less oxygen exposure in bulk but once it's in bottles that is negated and the extra transfer means more risk of oxygen pick-up anyway. One noticeable benefit is the reduced sediment in the bottle, by the time the beer is being packaged it will have dropped bright and the amount of yeast added to aid carbonation (if any) won't cause much sediment at all.

I've bulk aged a 9% belgian dark strong for 5 months last year but didn't bottle any to compare. Also been bulk ageing an 8% barleywine since january, going to bottle it in a few weeks. and I can compare this one as I got 5 x 500 ml bottles from what wouldn't fit in the carboy. I've got other 7 - 8 % beers which I've just aged in bottle due to not wanting to keep a bunch of carboys about. It's definitely easier to forget about the ageing beer if it's in a carboy as opposed to carbonated in bottles. :-)

 

[ACBEV]

Is the decanting important or could it have a longer bottling time?

I agree with Zephyr and for me there are enough good reasons to transfer to a secondary "glass" vessel.

Beers like this are proper keeping beers, in the traditional sense and I don't think you would get the same outcome keeping in bottles. That said, you don't want to keep a beer sitting in primary for prolonged periods either.

I've made it twice... 3 months and 6 months before bottling, the 6 months was better, but both were good. Once bottled, no layer of mud either.

I think its worth investing in a secondary glass or stainless steel vessel, if your going to brew big beers occasionally. 40 odd bottles of 9% beers, lasts me a very long time.

 

[ACBEV]

Trying to get as much experience of brewing as possible, have really got the bug. If you have any suggestions of other styles that you feel offer a good development curve feel free to suggest these.

I would suggest Mild Ale next, not the most popular style around, but much under valued and can be a crackingly good long tasty beer... I brew a version of Lees Best Mild from 1952, unusually for the period Lees mild had plenty of roasted malts, instead of brewing sugars...
http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2010/07/lets-brew-wednesday-1952-lees-best-mild.html

My version looks like a typical home brewers throw everything in recipe, but it works nicely...

22L Batch...
OG: 1.035
FG: 1.008
ABV: 3.6%
IBU: 27
EBC: 80
Mash @ 66c... 1 hour
Boil for 1 hour

Hops...
25g Bramling Cross @ 60 mins
10g Fuggles @ 30 mins

Malt...
2200g Mild Ale Malt
50g Brown Malt
125g Chocolate Malt
50g Black Malt
75g Crystal 100
125g Crystal 200
125g Carafa III (de-husked)
150g Wheat Malt
160g Blackstrap Molasses (mixed with wort before boiling)

Yeast...
Wyeast London Ale III

Fermentation...
Pitch @ 16c
Ferment for 2 weeks @ 18c
Prime with 120g Demerara sugar with 2L boiled water
Bottle and keep @ 18c for 2 weeks, 12c thereafter...