Russian Imperial Stout

My friend Adam wanted to watch an all-grain batch of beer being brewed. I figured that since my first attempt at all-grain was an Imperial Stout collaboration with my friend Evan, I should initiate Adam in the same "learn to swim by jumping headfirst into the deepest part of the pool" manner.We brewed an imperial stout from a recipe that I have been tweaking around with for the better part of two years. I wanted to come up with a good ratio for dark grains. I decided upon a 3:2:1 ratio for roasted barley, chocolate, and black patent, respectively.


14.0 lbs Canadian 2-Row
3.0 lbs Munich Malt
1.5 lbs Roasted Barley
1.0 lbs Chocolate Malt
1.0 lbs Caramel 60
1.0 lbs Instant Oats
0.5 lbs Black Patent

0.50 oz Northern Brewer FWH (90 minutes)
1.00 oz Millenium @ 75 minutes
1.00 oz Goldings @ 10 minutes

Yeast: Wyeast 1028 London Ale

1.092 OG

65 IBU's

I used 100% distilled water treated with 4 grams of Gypsum and 5 grams of Calcium Chloride. This was my first attempt at water chemistry and, while I didn't completely fail, I still did not do it correctly. In hindsight, I should have double the amounts of both Gypsum and Calcium Chloride and added a hefty dose of chalk to keep the pH in an acceptable range with that much roasted grain going into the mash.

I was aiming for an original gravity of 1.100, but I only ended up with 1.092. Apparently, I should have added about 2 more pounds of base malt due to the fact that my system's efficiency drops from 72% for most beers to 63% for big beers. I was expecting a drop in efficiency, just not that big.

I plan on aging one gallon of it with the equivalent of 10 oz of Bourbon and 1 oz of medium toast oak cubes for five gallons (2 oz of Bourbon and .2 oz of oak cubes for 1 gallon). Another 1/2 gallon will get the equivalent of 12 oz of cacao nibs and 1 cinnamon stick for 5 gallons (1.2 oz of cacao nibs and 1/10th of a cinnamon stick for .5 gallons). I want it to be a Mexican chocolate flavor.

Beer Porn!

Some of my recent hauls from generous traders:

Lake Cochichewick Stout

A dream of mine is to brew the perfect stout. I want it to be full of flavor, yet sessionable. I have brewed beers using chocolate malt as the sole roasted grain before, so I know what that contributes to flavor. This brew, I want to use roasted barley as the lone grain. Eventually, I will get over my fear of black patent and use that exclusively in a dark beer.

Lake Cochichewick provides the water for the town of North Andover, MA. I will always have a special place in my heart for North Andover, as I spent the first 26 years of my life calling it home.

For 6.0 gallons:

10.0 lbs Marris Otter

1.5 lbs Flaked Oats

1.0 lbs Roasted Barley

0.5 lbs Caramel 120

2.0 oz Goldings (4.5% AA) first wort hop (60 minutes)

Nottingham Yeast

1.057 OG

Projected FG: 1.015

30 IBU's

Projected ~ 5.5% ABV

Summer Ale in December

My wife's favorite beer is Sam Summer. Unfortunately, you can only buy it from from April - August. I attempted to clone it with the following recipe:

5.00 gallons

4.75 Canadian 2-Row
4.50 White Wheat Malt
1.00 oz Tettnang @ 60 minutes
2 tbls. Fresh Lemon Zest @ 5 minutes
2 grams Grains of Paradise @ 5 minutes

Yeast: WLP008 White Labs East Coast Ale
Mash temp: 152 degrees F
OG: 1.054 (I was aiming for 1.050, but I got better than expected efficiency)


It was my first time performing a mash out. I was a little scared of the high quantity of wheat malt without using any rice hulls to prevent a stuck sparge, so I thought it would be helpful. The mash out worked great! It was the fastest draining mash and sparge I have ever had.

The smell coming from the carboy has a really strong lemon note. I am assuming that fermentation will scrub some of the lemon flavor away, because I thought that 2 tablespoons would give it a subtle flavor, instead of in-your-face Pledge aroma.

UPDATE: 1/14/11 ~ I bottled a few days ago. The lemon flavor has really subsided. I bottled 3 gallons plain. I moved 1 gallon into secondary and added some dregs of Wyeast 3763 Roeselare Ale Blend, where it will sit for the better part of a year to develop some funk thanks to Brettanomyces, Lactobacillus, and Pediococcus. The final gallon was "casked" into my Cubitainer at 1.0 volumes of CO2 with the equivalent of 1 ounce of Amarillo dry hops and .5 ounces of light toast oak chips.

UPDATE: 2/17/11 ~ The beer is really nice! It came out better than I had expected. It isn't a true clone because the yeast created some peach/apricot phenols, but it works nicely in the beer. There is a tropical feel to it.

Support Your Local Brewpub

I probably wouldn't homebrew as often as I do if it weren't for the people at Haverhill Brewing Company/The Tap, my local brewpub in Haverhill, MA. Because of them and their respect for homebrewers, I am able to purchase sacks of grain at cost. What this boils down to is significant savings on my part.

I went today to pick up 55 lb. bags of Pilsen, Vienna, and Munich for a Flanders Red Ale that the Renegades of Funk are brewing over the Christmas Holiday. In total, it cost $102. To put that into perspective, to order the same grains from midwestsupplies.com, an online retailer that I use for pretty much every other homebrewing purchase because of their low prices, it would cost me $178.85 for the grain and another $79.57 for shipping. That is a grand total of $258.42.

That saved me $152. 42 and reduces my carbon footprint by buying it locally. My brewpub sold it at cost to me, therefore not making money off of that specific transaction, but while I was there I took the liberty to purchase five bombers of Joshua Norton, their exceptionally delicious and well made Imperial Stout. They sell bombers in-house for much lower than the liquor stores in the area and actually make more of a profit than if I were to buy it somewhere else. On another occasion, Evan and I ate lunch there and had 2 pints of beer each before we bought a bag of Marris Otter to brew our Imperial Stout. It seems like a win-win for all parties involved.

Autumnus: An American Brown Ale

The cold has gripped New England and probably won't let go until April. I was driving to my Aunt's house the other day and I realized that I was a little too early. I decided to pull off the road and park alongside a large pond that is on the way to their house. To my surprise, the edge of the pond had started to ice over. I immediately got back into my car and drove to my Aunt's house, dejected and early.

I wanted to brew a beer that will scare the chill right out of you. Hopefully, it will be toasty, nutty and hoppy as hell. I have never used Nugget as a flavor or aroma hop, so I am really excited to see what it adds. I am hoping that a Nugget/Centennial combo will work well in a dark seasonal ale.

3.25 gallon batch

6.25 lbs. Canadian 2-row

.60 lbs. Flaked Oats

.50 lbs. American Crystal 60

.30 lbs. Chocolate

.50 oz Nugget @ 60 minutes

.50 oz Nugget @ 10 minutes

.50 oz Centennial @ 10 minutes

.75 oz Nugget @ 0 minutes

.75 oz Centennial @ 0 minutes

Yeast: Wyeast 1968 London ESB Ale

Mash Temperature: 152 degrees

OG: 1.062

Projected FG: 1.018

IBU's: ~46

UPDATE: 1/14/11 ~ The hop aroma wasn't as strong as I was expecting, but it is still a nice beer. It has a silky mouthfeel, thanks to the oats. I made 3 experimental bombers that turned out exceptionally well. The first was bottled with the equivalent of 2 ounces of Amarillo hops, the second was with the equivalent of 2 ounces of whole coffee beans (Mokka coffee from Maui), and the third was with the equivalent of 8 ounces of cacao nibs. Each one changed the beer pretty dramatically. The dry hopped version was probably my favorite. Maybe next time I will omit the flame out addition of hops and switch them to dry hops.

McGinty's River Ale

In Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises", the main character (Jake Barnes) leaves the chaos and pretentiousness of Paris and goes fishing in Spain on the Irati River. The fishing trip symbolizes purity and rejuvenation. I wanted to brew an American Pale Ale that is meant to be enjoyed without any pretensions: something you can sit around a table or campfire with a group of friends with. I decided to use Marris Otter and Caramel 60 to give the beer some backbone to stand up to the approaching Autumn nights. The type of fly Jake uses while fishing is called a McGinty, thus the name of the beer.

Recipe:

9.0 lbs. Marris Otter
0.5 lbs. Crystal 60
0.5 lbs. Carapils

0.5 oz Zeus 12.3 AA @ 60
0.75 oz Centennial 9.0 AA @ 10
0.75 oz Amarillo 7.8 AA @ 10
1.00 oz Centennial @ flameout
1.00 oz Amarillo @ flameout

Yeast: US-05

OG: 1.054
Estimated IBU's: ~35.6
Estimated ABV: ~5.5%