serious eats imp stout article and recipe

What OG are you looking for? The recipe and process doesn't seem bad, though I would use Mr. Malty or YeastCalc instead of a random 2-3 L starter suggestion.

 

Just glancing at that recipe, I don't think you'd get anywhere near those attenuations (78%-82%). I'd suggest entering the recipe into software or one of the online calculators, to get a better idea of your OG, then apply a reasonable attenuation factor. (I think most software and online calculators will probably somewhat overestimate the 'default' attenuation you'll be able to get with this grain bill...lots of unfermentables.)

 

Whatever you do, make sure you have a good deal of golden/light DME on hand in case you're mash/lauter efficiency is well below anticipated... The first big All-grain RIS (Third All-grain beer) I did ended up having a stunningly awesome efficiency of 56%. Your first big beer or two may need some extract to pump it up to the desired OG until you figure out your system, or decide to just take the efficiency hit.

 

Dodgy history in that article:

"The original Russian Imperial Stout was crafted by English brewers around the year 1700. Their goal was to create a porter-like beer that could be shipped from England to the Imperial courts of Russia without spoiling during the long trip. Their solution was to increase the alcohol content and the hop additions, which act as natural preservatives."

The first Russian Stout was brewed at the other end of the 18th century. It wasn't Porter-like, it was a strong Porter. They didn't up the alcohol content to survive the journey. It's only a short hop across the Baltic, yet they were able to ship standard-strength Porter much further distances, for example North America and India. It was strong becauase it was a top of the range beer made for a bunch of rich pissheads at the Russian court.

 

what are you like the history police?!

to the OP, for the recipe I'd probably drop the mash temp a notch to like 150-152F for better attenuation, that said 154 will provide a bit more body which it sounds like you're after anyway. otherwise seems like a pretty solid recipe...

 

The problem is that most of what's written about beer is assumption, folklore and hearsay rather than based on facts or evidence.The past is the key to the present; without understanding the background it's very difficult to put the present into context.You see threads all over this site which wouldn't be started if writers took the trouble to be properly informed.

 

actually always enjoy patto1ro input into the historical aspects of beer...and yes definitely there is a lot of misinformation that is thrown around, I have probably been guilty of it at times myself. It was funny to me because it looks like the author of that article was quoting a line from the India Pale Ale page instead of the Imperial Stout page.

 

Sort of.

 

I spent 5 batches working on a solid, quickly maturing, very approachable RIS (I've also done some very aggressively hopped, big, thick, tar-y, heavily roasted RIS as well), and then saw this thread after batch #5... my fifth generation recipe was nearly identical to this, so I figured I was on a good track....

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/official-kate-great-russian-imperial-stout-clone-217674/

May also want to check Brewing Classic Styles for Mike Riddle's RIS recipe; he's won a lot of medals for it, and I like his philosophy on brewing RIS (e.g. balance of hops, tar, sweetness, roast, etc.).