Imperial Stout

[StubbsPKS]

Looking to make a TINY (5L) bit of Imperial Stout coming up soon.

I've been reading about the Effin' Imperial and also looking at other recipes.

I then sat down with Beersmith2 and came up with the following:

Style: Imperial Stout
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0) 

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 20.07 l
Post Boil Volume: 10.07 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 6.50 l   
Bottling Volume: 5.10 l
Estimated OG: 1.116 SG
Estimated Color: 104.5 EBC
Estimated IBU: 74.9 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 90.9 %
Boil Time: 120 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
3.00 kg               Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC)         Grain         1        75.0 %        
0.20 kg               Barley, Flaked (3.3 EBC)                 Grain         3        5.0 %         
0.30 kg               Chocolate Malt (886.5 EBC)               Grain         2        7.5 %         
0.10 kg               Black (Patent) Malt (985.0 EBC)          Grain         6        2.5 %         
0.15 kg               Amber Malt (43.3 EBC)                    Grain         4        3.8 %         
0.15 kg               Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (118.2 EBC)   Grain         5        3.8 %         
0.10 kg               Brown Sugar, Dark (98.5 EBC)             Sugar         7        2.5 %         
30.00 g               Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 120.0 min        Hop           8        36.4 IBUs     
20.00 g               Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 120. Hop           9        27.0 IBUs     
15.00 g               Progress [6.25 %] - Boil 15.0 min        Hop           10       11.5 IBUs     
1.0 pkg               Scottish Ale (Wyeast Labs #1728) [124.21 Yeast         12       -             
0.50 tsp              Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins)              Fining        11       -

Does this look like it makes sense? I keep thinking that 100-150g of something won't make a difference, but then I remember that I'm aiming to bottle about 5L.

ALSO, does anyone know how I can tinker with the mash profile in BeerSmith to make it estimate a more realistic Mash Efficiency? It is very unlikely that I am going to pull a 90% mash efficiency on my equipment with my limited experience

 

[Muddydisco]

I couldn't say about tweaking BS2 as I've not upgraded yet. I will do Soon

The recipe looks about right and should be good in a years time when your drinking it. But why so small? It'll take all of 1/2hr to drink it after a years hard work!

 

[Aleman]

IBU is a bit low for the gravity, I'd want to be going for about 100 -120
, and you definitely want to bring the mash efficiency down . . . 65-70% is about right, I'd up the sugar and down the crystal (swap the quantities round) to help with the finishing gravity.

Pitch LOTS of yeast . . .yeah that whole 11g sachet in the 5L! . . . . And stand back it will make a bid for freedom . . .5L of head space is not enough!!!!!

 

[StubbsPKS]

We're making 5L bc the only glass DJs we have (not putting something in plastic for a year) are 5L and we don't want to tie up more than one as the gf uses them for WoW, Raspberryade and sometimes TC.

The bigger glass carboys are over £20 around here as well, so that's not really an option at the moment :hmm:

Aleman, I put my brewhouse efficiency at 60%, but I can't find where to adjust the actual mash efficiency. I'm not too worried about it to be honest. I just may need to make some adjustments as we brew it

I'll switch the crystal and sugar quantities as well.

I put Scottish Ale yeast (Wyeast #1728) as my yeast because I saw it in someone else's recipe, but are there any others that can handle high ABV that may be better suited to this style?

 

[jjanderton]

The recipe seems very good and I never tried it. I think I should try it but I'm scared if things go wrong. If anybody here tried this recipe please let me know and if you guys added anything extra let me know.

 

[Aleman]

We're making 5L bc the only glass DJs we have (not putting something in plastic for a year) are 5L

you have seen this picture of what happened when someone did similar with a gallon of my wort

I put Scottish Ale yeast (Wyeast #1728) as my yeast because I saw it in someone else's recipe, but are there any others that can handle high ABV that may be better suited to this style?

It's an ideal yeast and will work well, Irish Ale is another good one. I use Nottingham and / or Windsor as the yeast contribution isn't huge in these beers.

The recipe seems very good and I never tried it. I think I should try it but I'm scared if things go wrong. If anybody here tried this recipe please let me know and if you guys added anything extra let me know.

John, Click the Picture . . . Please bear in mind this is an all grain brew and cannot be done from a tin.

 

[StubbsPKS]

Aleman, I did see that. I'm planning to do my initial vigorous portion of a ferment in one of my normal plastic FVs and then xfer to glass to HOPEFULLY avoid a massive blow off.

The problem being, if I have 5 (maybe a bit more) litres of wort in a 25 litre FV, is that TOO much headspace? As in, if I purge the FV with CO2 before putting in the wort, will there be any issues?