5 gal Imperial stout divided 5 ways

Discussion in 'Homebrewing' started by jaredmull, Jan 9, 2016.

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  1. jaredmull

    jaredmull Aspirant (263) Dec 26, 2013 Washington

    So I brewed an imperial stout on Dec 5. 1.105 OG. Fermented down to 1.028 FG using US-O5. 10.2% abv. Then on Dec 28th I racked it into 5 separate bathes

    Then I soaked 2 oz american oak cubes (American heavy char) in like 4-6 oz Woodinville whiskey bourbon for a month.
    Soaked 4 oz crushed cocoa nibs in vodka for a week.
    Soaked 5 cut and scraped vanilla beans in vodka for a week.
    Made 1/2 lb of lactose concoction

    Here are the 5 different variations

    [​IMG]

    From left to right -

    1. 1.5 Gallons of base imperial stout - already bottled in 12 oz bottles.

    2. Bourbon Variant - 1 Gal base beer + 1 oz oak cubes, 2 oz bourbon.

    3. Chocolate Covered Cherry Variant - 1 Gal base beer + 1 lb sweet dark cherries + 2 oz lactose + 2.5 oz cocoa nibs + 1 vanilla bean + 1/2 oz oak cubes + 1 oz bourbon

    4. Coconut Cream Variant - 1 Gal base beer + 4 oz lactose + 6 oz flaked natural coconut roasted in oven + 2 vanilla beans

    5. Mocha Variant - 1 Gal base beer + 1/2 oz oak + 1 oz bourbon + 2 oz cold pressed coffee (strong) + 1.5 oz cocoa nibs + 1 oz cocoa nibs + 2 vanilla beans + 1 oz whole coffee beans.

    This is my first time racking onto secondary using ingredients like this. Do you guys think all of these are ready to bottle? They have been in secondary containers for 10 days now? Should any of them sit longer based on the ingredients.

    Can't wait to taste them ... now the hard part is waiting for them to carbonate in the bottle (I've kegged everything since my first batch many moons ago).
     
    GetMeAnIPA and InVinoVeritas like this.
  2. suavo

    suavo Initiate (0) Oct 29, 2014

    Did you run out of fingers?
     
    GetMeAnIPA and inchrisin like this.
  3. InVinoVeritas

    InVinoVeritas Initiate (0) Apr 16, 2012 Wisconsin

    @jaredmull I dig what you're doing, keep it up!
     
  4. inchrisin

    inchrisin Pooh-Bah (2,013) Sep 25, 2008 Indiana
    Pooh-Bah

    You'll like the first one you try the most. The rest are just drain pours. :slight_smile:
     
  5. GormBrewhouse

    GormBrewhouse Pooh-Bah (2,111) Jun 24, 2015 Vermont
    Pooh-Bah

    10 days would be plenty for me. Bottle an try to wait. All sound excellent!
     
    PapaGoose03 likes this.
  6. jaredmull

    jaredmull Aspirant (263) Dec 26, 2013 Washington

    Glad to know 10 days is enough. Tim to bottle and put them away for awhile. Thx!
     
  7. Smokebox_79

    Smokebox_79 Initiate (0) Jan 11, 2013 Pennsylvania

    Go by taste. If it tastes good, bottle it. If you're not getting enough of the flavor you want. Wait. I did this with an IPA. Did 6 one gallon dry hop experiments. That's when I discovered my love of Mosaic hop. They all sound delish
     
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  8. jaredmull

    jaredmull Aspirant (263) Dec 26, 2013 Washington

    I'm using 1 mangrove Jack carbonating drop in each 12 oz bottle. Anyone know the approximate time it takes to carbonate a 10% abv beer at a pretty stable 70 degrees? Any tricks to make it carbonate faster?
     
  9. GormBrewhouse

    GormBrewhouse Pooh-Bah (2,111) Jun 24, 2015 Vermont
    Pooh-Bah

    I would t attempt to quickly bottle condition any beer. Usually, a 10 % beer needs time to mellow.
     
    MrOH likes this.
  10. Scope4Beer

    Scope4Beer Zealot (677) Sep 28, 2009 Pennsylvania
    Trader

    Sounds really good! I'm doing something similar with a barleywine. I do have to ask about the vanilla beans though. What kind are you using and how did you prepare them? I see in two of your versions you used two beans in 1 gal. That seems like a lot of vanilla. I used two Madagascar beans in 5 gal of a porter and the vanilla is quite obvious and at the forefront.
     
    Eriktheipaman likes this.
  11. jaredmull

    jaredmull Aspirant (263) Dec 26, 2013 Washington

    I bought vanilla beans at Costco. Rodelle is the brand. 10 vanilla beans in 2 seperate containers. 5 each per container. So I basically opened 1 container, 5 beans, and split them with a knif and scraped the black stuff out, then cut the bean itself into little pieces and put it into a small 8 oz canning jar and dumped a couple oz of vodka on top.

    If the vanilla comes out too hot, then so be it ... I'm kind of intentionally going for "over the top" on these variants.
     
  12. JrGtr

    JrGtr Pooh-Bah (1,775) Apr 13, 2006 Massachusetts
    Pooh-Bah

    What he said. I would suggest taking a small taste of each one, and seeing if it's ready to bottle. Be prepared that they may not (probably will not) be ready for bottling at the same time. Some flavors take more time to infuse into the beer than others. Go by your taste, and if questioning, I would suggest leaving it longer rather than shorter - those additional flavors will fade in time, so better to be a bit stringer to start than not.
     
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