First Attempt at an Imperial Stout

Discussion in 'Homebrewing' started by Benighted88, Jul 1, 2018.

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  1. Benighted88

    Benighted88 Devotee (330) Jan 10, 2016 North Carolina
    Trader

    Hey guys, I just brewed my first imperial stout and things went a little different then I expected them to go. First off, I over shot my OG which was supposed to be 1.150 and instead hit 1.300 somehow.... I tasted the wort and it is sweet up front but has an acrid bitterness on the finish. Hopefully this bitterness mellows out a bit.

    It was one hell of a brew day. The trash bag I used to toss my mash grain tore and left the floors sticky and wet, put a couple scorch marks on my hardwood floors, had a boil over as soon as I turned my back to go to the bathroom, overshot the gravity, struggled to get my wort to pitching temp for 2 hours, AC went out so I am sweating balls. Times like this make me feel like I am not cut out for this hobby....
     
    #1 Benighted88, Jul 1, 2018
  2. pweis909

    pweis909 Grand Pooh-Bah (3,250) Aug 13, 2005 Wisconsin
    Pooh-Bah

    OG: Any chance that your batch was a partial boil and not well mixed when you sampled for gravity? Or that you misread your hydrometer? It's hard to imagine overshooting this much, 2x as much sugar as you expected.

    The scorch marks suck. Sorry about that.
     
    #2 pweis909, Jul 1, 2018
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  3. Benighted88

    Benighted88 Devotee (330) Jan 10, 2016 North Carolina
    Trader

    1.115 and 1.130 were the gravity, my mistake.
     
    #3 Benighted88, Jul 1, 2018
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  4. VikeMan

    VikeMan Grand Pooh-Bah (3,067) Jul 12, 2009 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah

    Most of that sweetness and some of the bitterness will go away. Trying to judge what a beer will taste like based on what the wort tastes like is usually an exercise in futility, particularly when evaluating sweetness and bitterness.
     
    #4 VikeMan, Jul 1, 2018
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  5. pweis909

    pweis909 Grand Pooh-Bah (3,250) Aug 13, 2005 Wisconsin
    Pooh-Bah

    Right, it's probably a rare hydrometer that even goes to 1.3, come to think of it.
     
    #5 pweis909, Jul 1, 2018
  6. NorCalKid

    NorCalKid Initiate (0) Jan 10, 2018 California

    Ya man way to early to pass judgement on your brew. Haven’t even left the starting gate. A million things can go wrong on brew day but you only need a few to go right. Hopefully you have your process down. With my limited experience on super high gravity beers like that, time will pay dividends.
     
    #6 NorCalKid, Jul 2, 2018
  7. EvenMoreJesus

    EvenMoreJesus Initiate (0) Jun 8, 2017 Pennsylvania

    A recipe and technique would help in our evaluation of your beer.

    As Sherlock Holmes famously said, "Data, data, data! I cannot make bricks without clay"
     
    #7 EvenMoreJesus, Jul 3, 2018
    NorCalKid likes this.
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