Insanely Big Imperial Stout!

[dad_of_jon]

Most i have managed was a measly 10.8% . I think i could simplify the recipe though and make it a little stronger. With gluco i got to 11.5% but hardly worth it as it stripped all the body out. Carbing has been hit and miss so next time i have bottling yeast or i will keg it first.

I did a mini mash most of which ended up as unfermentables but the candi sugar etc, gave it the abv and it had plenty of body. 11.5% is a tidy result

 

[strange-steve]

Unfortunately it's without as i believe it's the Omega version, a few of us on here traded some strains, Voss, Espe and Saure are the farmhouse strains from Norway, should be getting Ebbegarden soon too.

No worries at all, I'm grateful for whatever you send me :hat:

 

[strange-steve]

Taking @Sadfield's suggestion of swapping some white sugar for muscovado a bit further, thoughts on subbing in some honey, golden syrup or even some dark candi syrup for a bit more complexity?

 

[Zephyr259]

Honey is an odd one, it's likely to get lost in such a strongly flavoured beer so probably not the best. Something I intend to try out is a bochet-stout braggot, caramelise the honey until it's dark and add it into a stout near the end of the boil. Would probably make a bochet mead first to see what the flavour is like, but it's meant to be like toasted marshmallow.

There's a lot going on in this brew so the choice of sugar probably won't have a huge impact, but candi syrups often have a more fruity flavour to me compared to the rummy/molasses/toffee of brown sugar. Likely to be tasty either way. :-)

 

[strange-steve]

Well I'm planning on getting this brewed sometime this week since I have a couple of days off. The coffee is cold steeping, the vanilla is infusing in rum and all the ingredients are ready. I had some leftover bits and pieces of specialty malts which I've decided to chuck in, just a little brown malt and café malt which probably won't do much in such small quantities but might add a little background something.

I'll post a brewday thread when I get started with the final recipe and method. Feeling a bit of pressure on this one...