Hello, Friends and I are planning a huge RIS, dark lord inspired, heres what we have so far, 15lb Marris Otter 2lb Chocolate Malt 1.5lb Roast Barley WYeast English Ale, with starter Not entirely sure of the hop schedule yet. I am getting around 70-80 SRM on color calc, do people think this is too dark? We are going so high on our Chocolate and roast b/c we all like coffee and chocolate flavours.
That's all? P-shaw Blackwine - typo in that recipe transcription though - it's 2.5 lbs Roasted barley - not 25.
Yeah, I was being a bit of a jerk - that's former BA Jonny Lieberman's "Huge+ RIS" recipe. It's the closest thing I've had to a Dark Lord, but if nothing else, you're fine on your ingredients.
After you get to around 40 on the SRM scale, it's already black. And black is black any point after that.
How big of a batch are you thinking? It looks like this would be around 1.080 for a 5.5 gallon batch which is not a huge RIS.
It does seem a little low on the grain bill for a "huge" stout. My next up stout is a Stone IRS clone and I'm shooting for 10% abv, not exactly huge or extreme but still more than your's. 16.5 lbs 2 row 2 lbs amber malt 1.25 roasted barley 1.25 black malt Have fun with it.
Definitely need more grain...and I would caution that if you do bump it up to say, 1.1.., that you make sure to have an O2 injection system of some sort.
Slightly off topic, but how much better is an O2 injection system than the reliable old stir and shake method? I feel like for my needs I shouldn't bother, but it is something that I wonder about.
With beers above 1.100, so I've read, the yeast need more O2 than a shake and stir delivers. If I'm going to put the time, effort, and money into brewing a big beer, I like to have a little insurance. Here's some helpful info: http://byo.com/stories/item/1894-aerating-wort-techniques
The bigger the beer the more important O2 is to your fermentation, generally speaking you are fine shaking on lower gravity beers but for a "Huge RIS" you really need to add pure O2. There is some good information and actual measurements in the book Yeast by Jamil and chris White but I don't have it handy.
Thanks, been doing some research too, lots of divided opinions. I've never done something over 1.12 or so, but I've never used O2 either. I suppose if I ever tried something super super high it might be worth looking into again. It seems like its also much more of an issue for re-pitching.
Yeah, there are always going to be divided opinions in homebrewing...the process just isn't scientific enough for most of us to be able to explain why some things work for some, but not others. For me, it's just more trouble to go through the entire process of making a big beer for it to be hindered by one factor. So, I've not brewed anything over 1.09, until I get the O2 injection system. Which I will be getting this Christmas!
Amen, and if I ever have to toss a $50 imperial stout I'll probably run out and buy an O2 setup immediately and swear it was a terrible idea not to do so from the get go.
I've noticed improvements in all of my beers not just the big ones since using pure O2. It was worth the money just not to have to shake buckets after a long brew day.
