Imperial Porter/Stout/Brown Ale

Tonight, I am planning to brew a 2.5 gallon batch of a dark beer. I have no idea what category it would fit into because it basically is sitting in no man's land somewhere in-between a stout, porter and brown ale. I guess I will have to wait until I am able to drink it to determine once and for all what category of beer it would fall into (it is designed to be a Foreign Export Stout based on BJCP style guidelines, but I don't use roasted barley).

5.00 lbs. Marris Otter 2-Row
0.50 lbs. Flaked Barley
0.50 lbs. Carafa II
0.50 lbs. Caramel 40

.6 oz of US Northern Brewer hops @ 60 minutes

Expected OG: 1.069
Expected FG: 1.018
Expected ABV: 6.7%
IBU's: ~38
SRM: 34

Hybrid Session Stout

To brew the Imperial Stout with Evan, we needed a huge amount of yeast cells (or buy 5 yeast packets or build a 9 liter starter, which are both huge wastes of money). I brewed a 2.5 gallon low gravity session stout to build up the yeast cells so that we could pitch the new beer on top of the yeast cake. I was aiming for something with notes of caramel and chocolate with a viscous mouthfeel and low alcohol content.

The recipe:

3.25 lbs Canadian 2-Row

6.0 oz Caramel 60

4.0 oz Roasted Barley

4.0 oz Chocolate Malt

4.0 oz Flaked Oats

2.0 oz Caramel 120

0.50 oz Goldings @ 60 minutes

Mash Temperature: 156 degree F for 45 minutes

Yeast: Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale

Specs:

OG: 1.045

FG: 1.015

ABV: 3.9%

IBU: ~22.2

I bottled it 3 weeks after brewing. I put one gallon into my cubitainer and added enough table sugar to carbonate it to ~1 volume of CO2. I bottled the rest and carbed them to approximately 2.2 volumes of CO2. Review to follow shortly.

Collaboration Imperial Stout with Evan

A few weeks ago, my best friend Evan visited me for a few days. He has been in Peru for months now and he's been itching to brew. We decided to brew a huge Imperial Stout so that we can enjoy it for years to come.

The recipe:

20 lbs. Marris Otter

2.5 lbs. Chocolate Malt

2.5 lbs. Roasted Barley

2.0 lbs. Wheat

0.85 lbs. Caramel 120

2.8 oz Northern Brewer @ 60 minutes

2.0 oz Goldings @ 30 minutes

2.0 oz Goldings @ 15 minutes

2.0 oz Goldings Dry hop

Yeast: Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale

5/29/10 Update: Gravity is at 1.034. I transferred the beer into a 5 gallon Better Bottle and had enough remaining to transfer into another 1/2 gallon growler. The 1/2 gallon portion will sit on a bed of cacao nibs (.8 ounces) and coffee (.2 ounces). That is the equivalent of a half pound of cacao nibs and 2 ounces of coffee for a 5 gallon batch.

Session Stout Test Batch

Most of my homebrews have this odd plastic aroma and taste to them that some people (especially me) can detect. I have narrowed it down to either being Chloramines in my water or to the malt extract that I was using. I decided to try a one gallon test batch using a Campden tablet to treat the water and a different brand of dried malt extract. Campden is potassium metabisulphate that binds to Chlorine and Chloramines.

I decided to brew a stout because I have never brewed one before. I wanted it to have notes of dark chocolate, coffee and some dark fruits thrown in for good measure.

The recipe:
1 lb. 0 oz. Munton's Light Dry Extract
1.6 oz Roasted Barley
0.8 oz Chocolate Malt
0.8 oz Caramunich 60
0.8 oz Caramel 120
1/4 tsp Gypsum
0.1 oz Warrior hops @ 60 minutes

OG: 1.045
Projected FG: 1.011
Projected ABV: 4.4%
Targeted IBU: 30.5