The Mad Russian - Imperial Stout

[MyQul]

I've bottled a couple of stout/porters in the past without adding and priming. They carbed up on their own to a perfect English beer low carb level

 

[MyQul]

https://twitter.com/tinyrebelbrewco/status/1139133112095563778?s=21

I saw this tweet and thought you are in good company brewing a 16%+ monster of a beer!

16.4%! They should change their brewery name to Fookin' Massive Anarchist

 

[Ajhutch]

Nice. I wonder if they're having carbonation issues too

I bet they’d tell you if you asked

 

[Sadfield]

Nice. I wonder if they're having carbonation issues too

I don't know, but that description suggests somethings gone wrong with a Barley Wine, to me.

 

[strange-steve]

"Lads I'm sorry to tell you our new barley wine has developed a lacto infection."

"Bollocks. Well we can't sell it, what we gonna do?"

"..."

"I've got it, we pretend it's supposed to be sour and give it away for a competition prize as a special unreleased beer while getting a bunch of free publicity on twitter."

"Give that man a raise."

 

[Sadfield]

Yes. Given that most microbes have poor tolerance to such high alcohol, to design a beer like that and pull it off would be quite a skill. Would probably have to be mixed fermentation. Take planning and aging. So, I'd expect them to be pretty proud of it and at least have a name for it, know what style they were brewing and probably launch it properly.

 

[strange-steve]

To design a beer like that and pull it off would be quite a skill.

And not to mention expensive. It does seem a little unusual actually.

 

[BeerCat]

Not impressed by the f2 yeast. The beer tasted lovely when I bottled it but now it's a mess. A little yeasty, boozy, hardly any carbonation and it's totally stripped the coconut flavour. A mess that I doubt will be fixed by time. I should of used Voss and kegged half. 2nd flat batch in a row.
Does the beer continue to age and keep as well if not bottle carbed?

 

[foxbat]

I've a feeling that these big stouts would benefit from keg conditioning instead of bottles. Takes the risk out of it after you've put all the hard work in. I have a couple of 12l kegs I keep around for big Belgian beers etc.

 

[Clint]

If I wanted to do a reduced size batch,say 10 litres,of maybe 7/8% how is the sparge affected with a potentially large grain bill and reduced amount of sparge water? Are there issues regarding washing off all the sugars? What else would I need to consider?

 

[JonBrew]

Not impressed by the f2 yeast. The beer tasted lovely when I bottled it but now it's a mess. A little yeasty, boozy, hardly any carbonation and it's totally stripped the coconut flavour. A mess that I doubt will be fixed by time. I should of used Voss and kegged half. 2nd flat batch in a row.
Does the beer continue to age and keep as well if not bottle carbed?

This is very disappointing to hear. I've got a 12.2% impy I'm bottling this week and had bought the F2 yeast to use. How long since you bottled it?

 

[BeerCat]

This is very disappointing to hear. I've got a 12.2% impy I'm bottling this week and had bought the F2 yeast to use. How long since you bottled it?

Only about a week ago so it's possible it will carb eventually but I wish i had used some fresh kveik instead. What really surprised me is the lack of flavour. I put cocoa nibs amd vanilla pods in there as well as coconut. I won't be using this yeast again, it's really not worth the risk.

 

[Gulpitdarn]

I've also had poor results from caco nibs and vanilla, just could not taste any of it and I used a LOT.

 

[JonBrew]

Only about a week ago so it's possible it will carb eventually but I wish i had used some fresh kveik instead. What really surprised me is the lack of flavour. I put cocoa nibs amd vanilla pods in there as well as coconut. I won't be using this yeast again, it's really not worth the risk.

That's a shame. Sorry to hear. But a week is pretty early days. It's possible that the F2 is still in suspension cause it's still trying to work away. I would say try one again in a month and see if it's improved.

 

[BeerCat]

That's a shame. Sorry to hear. But a week is pretty early days. It's possible that the F2 is still in suspension cause it's still trying to work away. I would say try one again in a month and see if it's improved.

Yes I will try again in a month. Apparently it's only good to 10% and my beer was 12.5.

 

[Slid]

If I wanted to do a reduced size batch,say 10 litres,of maybe 7/8% how is the sparge affected with a potentially large grain bill and reduced amount of sparge water? Are there issues regarding washing off all the sugars? What else would I need to consider?

Hi Clint

On the subject of strong beers, I feel that the best approach is the "first & second running's" one. Here you make a big sort of grain bill beer and nick 10-12 litres of the first wort from the mash. You use this for the strong beer.

Then you can add some other grain that does not actually need mashing, say, crystal and darker malts, play with it a bit, add in some DME and sugar and you get one small-ish batch of high ABV and a sort of normal beer of fairly normal-type strength and of the typical 19L to 23L lengths that homebrewers do.

Long brew day, it is, Grasshopper!

Have also tried the "re-iterated mashing" or Doble-Doble technique where you use the wort from the first mash as the you would water in a second mash. This technique has been unlawful in the past, as it is "wasteful of both malt and men".

 

[Clint]

Interesting....thanks for the reply....

 

[strange-steve]

Well these have been in the bottle for 4 weeks now at 32°c and carbonation is still nonexistent. I really didn't want to use champagne yeast, but at this point I think it's the last chance to get this carbed.

 

[Zephyr259]

Would CBC-1 be an option? I think it's meant to go up to 18% and some folks have used it to push a mead about 20%, but when I used it to restart a mead it still stopped at 13% so unsure.

A champagne yeast should be ok for bottling as it's got simple sugars, I think the issues with it are when it's it's used to restart something stuck at 1.030+.

 

[strange-steve]

I don't know anything about CBC-1, but I've ordered a pack of EC-1118 already so I'll see how it works out.

On the plus side, the beer tastes great