My wife is the greatest. She gave me a five gallon rye bourbon cask for my birthday with the directive to fill it, signed SWMBO. My first fill of the barrel with be an English style Russian Imperial Stout. I want to emphasize malt over roast. I have been doing my research and I think I have a recipe that suits my needs. The most important part of brewing an imperial stout is the ingredients. I use only English Maris Otter for a base malt. We also layer our toasty and biscuity malts as well as our Cara malts. One is good but two, or three different malts in the same family are better — think complexity! - Eric Asebrook http://byo.com/stories/issue/item/1337-russian-imperial-stout-tips-from-the-pros And the Lord spake, saying, "First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it. - The Book of Armaments 13 lbs Maris Otter 2 lbs Munich 2 lbs flaked barley 1 lbs Chocolate .5 Roast .5 Light Roast 1 lbs Special B .5 English Dark Crystal .5 Cara Roma 2.5 oz Phoenix hops - 120 minutes 1 oz fuggles 5 minutes Wyeast Abbey II yeast ETA... 30 minute mash at 155 and a 90-120 minute boil. Thoughts? Dan
What kind of numbers are you shooting for? As a percentage of the overall grist, I think you may be a bit heavy on the Special B unless you're a huge fan of raisin and dark fruit in your stouts. In my experience, a little goes quite a long way.
If you are planning on aging the finished beer in your barrel then you might want to consider sealing the outer staves with beeswax or parafin wax to prevent oxidation of your hard-won beast of a RIS. I did this on a 50L (13.2gal) barrel and it saved my bacon on the barleywine aging in it for three months. The staves on those smaller barrels are often thinner and allow more oxygen permeation while the surface area of your beer is higher in relation to the volume of the barrel. I'm sure you've researched home barrel-aging, I just wanted to mention something that has worked very well for me. Also, if this is a 5gal batch and you have a 5gal barrel, how do you plan to account for beer losses to blow-off, yeast sediment, etc. that might reduce your final yield going into the barrel? Headspace in a small barrel is also a killer.
That's an awfully short mash especially given that your base malt isn't exactly a beastly converter. You may want to consider upping the MO%, lengthening the mash, and/or adding another base malt like 6 row or white wheat that has more converting power. Also, what is the thought behind the abbey yeast strain as opposed to a British strain if your goal is a British style RIS?
I would consider less Special B (especially with the dark crystal in there) and more roasted malt. How light is "light roast"? Why the Munich malt and the flaked barley? What is "cara roma"? Why the belgian yeast? So many questions
I would even suggest flipping those amounts around eg 0.5# special B, 1# dark crystal (simpsons) I like the flaked barley but agree about the munich I think he meant CaraAroma http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/weyermann-caraaroma.html Yah, Why???
I am shooting for a gravity of 1.100 at 75% efficiency, 1.090 if I hit 65%. I am happy with these numbers as I typically adjust with DME as needed. 1 lbs of malt is about 4% of the overall grist. I am thinking about either making the Special B and English Dark Crystal at .75lbs each or .5 and 1 lbs respecitvely. I appreciate the feedback! I am not too concerned about oxidation with this barrel as the beer will not be in it for very long. The rye bourbon is very strong as the distillery sent it out just after emptying it. The smaller barrel will also have a larger surface to volume ratio, so it will pick up the bourbon and wood very quickly, probably a couple of weeks. Iy is technically a 5.5 gallon barrel. They sell it as 5 gallon as that is how much liquid it is intended to hold. If there is any leftovers, I can put it in my 1 gallon jug or a carboy and stick and air lock on it. It can be blended back with with little detriment. I typically mash for 45 minutes and get a good conversion. RIS typically have a very thick, viscous body. One way to help accomplish this is to shorten the mash time to increase the amount of unfermentables in the beer. I typically formulate for 75% efficiency, but will expect between 65-70% given the high gravity and short mash. I can always add DME in the pot to meet my numbers. Yes, lots of fun stuff in here, eh? Light roast from Breiss is a fun product. It is not as intense as regular roast barley. http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/briess-light-roasted-barley.html Munich malt is in there to help bring out the malt flavors and aromas. Ray Daniels's Designing Great Beers lists Munich as common ingredient in this style. Flaked barley is in there to help head retention, which is difficult in a high gravity beer, as well as to increase body. Sorry for the typo. CaraAroma adds body and increases malt aromas in beer. The Abbey II yeast is recommended by Wyeast. It is good for high gravity beers and fits well within the style guidelines. I used this about 2 years ago an an imperial oatmeal stout with cocoa nibs and it turned out fantastic. http://www.wyeastlab.com/hb_yeaststrain_detail.cfm?ID=130 I also like to screw with people a bit and put in something they don't expect. Dan
I think I would go with @ryane's idea of more English dark crystal and less Special B It sounds like you have used the light roast before, but it is hard for me to tell from NortherBrewer's description what it brings to the party. I agree that Munich has a lot of malt flavor, but I thought that was why you were using Marris Otter. I suspect that Munich shows up in Designing Great Beers is because a lot of people use 2-row and Munich to mimic something like Marris Otter. Never used CaraAroma before. What fermentation temp are you thinking of with this yeast? Or what temp did you use last time?
Looks pretty cool, I did a split batch RIS 2 years ago that aged with english ale and belgian yeasts and went into two balcones barrels. They have had an out of phase cyclical relationship where one would be better than the other but they both have been pretty amazing either the whole time. Ironically enough, I just mailed one to my cousin as an RSVP gift to his wedding. I had a slightly simpler recipe with a pound of black patent in there, it seemed to compliment the chocolate and make it pop a bit. I also used 2 pounds of biscuit instead of special B and no Crystal but thats just me I dont care for crystal malt much.
My basement does a good job at keeping a 68 degree ambient temp. +2-3 degrees from the fermentation. This should be right in the middle of the temp range and bring out the esters.
