Yeast for a Russian imperial stout?

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Wi6673r

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hey guys, I’m making a Russian imperial stout, 5 gallon batch, I’m not sure how much yeast I need or what kind? Help?
 
I did a 1.10 RIS with S-04. It was pitched onto a fresh cake from a 4.5 gallon batch of a light blonde ale. Took off like a rocket and fermented quickly and attenuated to over 75%
 
What in the heck does all that mean, I’m new at this haha, got any other pointers?
 
There's a few strains are suitable for a RIS.
Before we know how much yeast you need we need to know what you want from it and starting gravity.
Do you currently have a beer fermenting?
If so what is it?
 
wiggler said:
What in the heck does all that mean, I’m new at this haha, got any other pointers?
Click to expand...
Right...beginners forum...sorry. :oops:
I don't know what OG you're shooting for on your RIS, but the one I did was right at 1.100 gravity to start. A couple of weeks before I made the RIS, I had brewed up a low-gravity blonde ale with a single packet of Fermentis S-04 dry yeast to build up a larger colony of yeast. I racked the blonde out of the carboy and left the yeast and, after cooling, put the RIS right from the boil pot and into the fermenter on top of the fresh yeast sediment (called yeast cake or slurry or trub).
Even though it was a huge beer, there was enough yeast built up - probably about 4 times the original cell count in the packet of dry yeast - that it started fermenting very quickly and finished within a few days, at least in terms of reaching FG, final gravity. It aged for a while after that, of course but the yeast did its job pretty quickly. The attenuation (how much of the sugar in the wort the yeast was able to turn into alcohol) was about 75%. That's fairly typical for a lot of English yeast strains and good attenuation for a high-gravity beer like this and the ABV of the final beer was around 10%.
Batch size and OG are the determining factors for how much yeast. Being that you're new, I'd suggest dry yeast because you can simply pitch more than one packet if you don't have any way to make a starter or harvest/repitch yeast from a previous brew.
Hope that's more helpful. ;)
 
Do not currently have one in the fermenter, the og is 1.094 and the FG is 1.014, abv is looking to be righ around 10.5%, i may switch the amount of some late addition belgian candy to a slightly lesser amount. The recipe is called "Im your father" if you would like to take a look at it and maybe send me some thoughts before brew day.
 
J A said:
Right...beginners forum...sorry. :oops:
I don't know what OG you're shooting for on your RIS, but the one I did was right at 1.100 gravity to start. A couple of weeks before I made the RIS, I had brewed up a low-gravity blonde ale with a single packet of Fermentis S-04 dry yeast to build up a larger colony of yeast. I racked the blonde out of the carboy and left the yeast and, after cooling, put the RIS right from the boil pot and into the fermenter on top of the fresh yeast sediment (called yeast cake or slurry or trub).
Even though it was a huge beer, there was enough yeast built up - probably about 4 times the original cell count in the packet of dry yeast - that it started fermenting very quickly and finished within a few days, at least in terms of reaching FG, final gravity. It aged for a while after that, of course but the yeast did its job pretty quickly. The attenuation (how much of the sugar in the wort the yeast was able to turn into alcohol) was about 75%. That's fairly typical for a lot of English yeast strains and good attenuation for a high-gravity beer like this and the ABV of the final beer was around 10%.
Batch size and OG are the determining factors for how much yeast. Being that you're new, I'd suggest dry yeast because you can simply pitch more than one packet if you don't have any way to make a starter or harvest/repitch yeast from a previous brew.
Hope that's more helpful. ;)
Click to expand...

This made much more sense
 
I am still pretty new to brewing, only have done 15 batches to date. I don't have any experience with a RIS (Russian Imperial Stout), but might suggest searching other RIS recipes on this site and see what different yeasts are used. I expect that the key won't necessarily be which yeast you use, it will be how much yeast you use. You need a lot more yeast cells to eat up all that sugar with such a high OG.

Please stay with this thread and in the end update is on how this turns out.

The biggest thing I have learned is that you learn the most from the mistakes you make. It will take time, and a lot of batches to become confident, and competent.

S-04 is probably a good strain to use, just make sure you pitch enough. My mom always said "many hands make light work", to ad lib, if you don't have enough people (yeast cells) to do the work, it will take a long time, and will not be done well.

Cheers
Craigerrr
 
Regarding the recipe, you're using First Wort hop additions and that's not something that you can really do with extract brewing. Figure out your actual boil time and use the boil setting for hop additions to get an accurate IBU calculation. There's no need to boil amber and Dark Extracts for a full 60 minutes. I'd do 30 or maybe 45 at most for decent hop uptake.
I'd use more Crystal in the steeping grains. You've got mostly roasted\burnt malts and you'll need a lot more Cara/Crystal type malt to soften the feel and add body. Consider adding some C-40 or even lighter for flavor and dextrines.
 
will do, i actually had all my grains and extracts delivered yesterday but i can run to my local hardware store, yep hardware store and get a lighter crystal malt, gonna plug one in on my recipe and see what happens. You guys are very helpful, i should have questioned earlier.
 
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J A said:
Regarding the recipe, you're using First Wort hop additions and that's not something that you can really do with extract brewing. Figure out your actual boil time and use the boil setting for hop additions to get an accurate IBU calculation. There's no need to boil amber and Dark Extracts for a full 60 minutes. I'd do 30 or maybe 45 at most for decent hop uptake.
I'd use more Crystal in the steeping grains. You've got mostly roasted\burnt malts and you'll need a lot more Cara/Crystal type malt to soften the feel and add body. Consider adding some C-40 or even lighter for flavor and dextrines.
Click to expand...
FWH with extract is actually pretty easy: You mix up your wort at about mash temperature, say 165 degrees then add hops. Wait a while, then start boiling. Easy-peasy.
 
Nosybear said:
FWH with extract is actually pretty easy: You mix up your wort at about mash temperature, say 165 degrees then add hops. Wait a while, then start boiling. Easy-peasy.
Click to expand...

Fair enough...just complicates the process for an inexperienced brewer and makes IBUs harder to calculate.
 
think im nailing it down, will prob start brew in a few days or so and i will see how it goes, will keep an update
 
Well she is in the dark at a comfortable 68 degrees F bubbling away, I bought mangrove jacks m42 yeast packet 10 g and a liquid yeast pack, screwed up the yeast pack as far as sanitizing and was only to save about half of it. I went ahead and dumped that and anothe 10 g packet in. one packet says it is enough for 6 gallons of wort up to 12%abv, My OG was off, predicted to be 1.098 and it came out to 1.350 at 68 degrees. Not sure what i did but it smelled amazing and looks amazing, whether or not it will taste amazing is another question.
 
Hmm, if that 1.130 is correct, I think you're going to have a difficult time.
 
Just dillute to the proper OG...A little water ain't gonna scare anything out of a beer that big. Check the boiloff and dilution calculator in the tools section and it'll tell you exactly how much to add.
 
J A said:
Just dillute to the proper OG...A little water ain't gonna scare anything out of a beer that big. Check the boiloff and dilution calculator in the tools section and it'll tell you exactly how much to add.
Click to expand...
I already got that bad girl fermenting, can i still add water?
 
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