your secrets to making a killer imperial stout

Oxygen and high cell count.

 

Never forget 2% of the total grain bill of flaked oats to produce a creamy everlasting head foam.

 

Agree with both.
Make sure to have enough yeast!
I made a nice chocolaty RIS, but I feel the attenuation wasn't there, so it was a little sweet. My estimate on yeast was low. Can't wait to try again and start the yeast a week early!

 

Don't skimp on the IBUs.
Also, WLP013.

 

When you think that your grain bill has a high enough percentage of dark grains, add more.

 

D90 or D180 syrup

 

This was posted by HB42 a way back. Works.

RIS
17 lbs Two-row Pale
2 lbs Roasted Barley
1 lb Crystal 120L
1 lb Chocolate
1/2 lb Flaked Oats
1/2 lb Black Patent
1/2 lb Crystal 60L
2.0 oz Nugget 90 mins
2.0 os Goldings 10 mins
Wyeast Irish Ale (1084)
Original Gravity 1.121
Mash Efficiency 75%

 

English yeast. American strains don't add enough complexity. English strain on low/med temp to give some nice subtle esters. Also about 1/8-1/4 lb wheat flour to aid head retention. Big starter. At least 6 different makts with MO as base and also chocolate, black, roasted, honey malt, flaked barley, and a few different caramel malts.

 

WLP013 London Ale craps out right around 11.5-12% abv (based on newer/better abv calculation)

Co pitch some Chico or 099 if you want to go any higher

 

if you're bottling, pitch some fresh yeast with your priming sugar and give it time. my last 13% RIS took well over a month to fully carbonate in the bottles and the flavor keeps getting better the longer I let the bottles sit. Be patient.

for ingredients, one of my favorite things to add flavor to my stouts is this maple toasted coconut I buy at my local Mother Earth store. It's amazing in stouts. I buy about a third of a pound for 5 gallons, soak it in some whiskey to sanitize and I secondary on it

 

London and Irish both go 11%. I've made 10%, thats as high as I care to go. To me 9.5-11% is the sweet spot for imperial stouts.

 

Another helpful thread that was started not too long ago that's semi-related to the subject. My answer is in there

http://www.beeradvocate.com/communi...er-points-of-a-hoppy-ris.403968/#post-4666991

 

To get a fuller, chewy body, mash at 154F.
A really long boil will give a great caramelized flavor to the boil with all of the sugars front the grain, so I always start with a big pre-boil volume, and boil for like an extra hour to get to the final gravity to where I want it.
If you want to bottle condition higher than 13% ABV, pitch a pack of rehydrated champagne yeast at bottling. No yeast flavor contribution, and it carbs really fast.

 

I loved everybody else's comments; all I was going to say was I like a little chocolate rye in mine.

 

Mash at 160 to get ten fidy style viscosity.

 

I've had no issues getting WLP002/WY1968 up to 14% abv with proper pitch rates and oxygen. Co-pitched (75/25) with 001 I've been able to get it to ~18%.

 

1. Keep the recipe simple, its easy to get too overly complicated in a beer like this and muddle flavors
   1. Pick 1 Base malt
   2. Pick 1 crystal malt
   3. Pick 2 roasted grains
   4. Pick 1 adjunct/body modifier (flaked barley, oats, etc)
2. Add more bittering additions that you think wise (go above 100 calc'd IBUs)
3. Huge yeast starter (use a cake from a porter or a stout)
4. Consider boiling down the first runnings to a thickened syrup for depth/complexity
5. Proper Pitch temp (low 60's) and proper fermentation temp control (water bath really helps)
6. Skip adding.....oak, vanilla, cherries, whiskey, bourbon, raspberries, cocoa, chocolate, or any other random ingredient - let the beer be beer!!
7. moderate to low carbonation - if possible I highly suggest bottling, or kegging in the small 3-5L kegs and serving cask style

 

Oats are good, but prefer flaked barley