Imperial Stout - thoughts?

I just brewed this on Monday (6/18) & got an OG of 1.072. It's got crazy, crazy activity going right now in my 6.5 Gallon carboy. It plugged up my airlock with foam & beer so I had to install a blow off tube. I will report back with a reading when I go to Secondary. This is my first dark beer, anything I should be aware of?

* (2) 3.3 lbs Cans Munton & Fissons Old Ale Kit
* 3.3 lbs Can Munton's Light Plain Malt Extract Syrup
* 1/2 lb Roasted Barley
* 1/2 lb Black Patent Malt
* 3 tsp gypsum
* 2 oz Nugget Hop Pellets
* 1 oz Cascade hops leaves
* 1 cup dry light malt extract for priming
* (2) pkgs Irish Ale Yeast
* (2) pkgs dry yeast from Ale Kits (added during boil for more yeast food)
* 1/2 tsp Irish Moss
* 2 Tbs yeast nutrient

Sounds like a happy fermentation :)

Maybe try not to rack to secondary the beer will settle out fine in primary.
There is no real advantage to racking to secondary only oxidation risk.

Just my 2c do what you need to do.
 
I just brewed this on Monday (6/18) & got an OG of 1.072. It's got crazy, crazy activity going right now in my 6.5 Gallon carboy. It plugged up my airlock with foam & beer so I had to install a blow off tube. I will report back with a reading when I go to Secondary. This is my first dark beer, anything I should be aware of?

* (2) 3.3 lbs Cans Munton & Fissons Old Ale Kit
* 3.3 lbs Can Munton's Light Plain Malt Extract Syrup
* 1/2 lb Roasted Barley
* 1/2 lb Black Patent Malt
* 3 tsp gypsum
* 2 oz Nugget Hop Pellets
* 1 oz Cascade hops leaves
* 1 cup dry light malt extract for priming
* (2) pkgs Irish Ale Yeast
* (2) pkgs dry yeast from Ale Kits (added during boil for more yeast food)
* 1/2 tsp Irish Moss
* 2 Tbs yeast nutrient
Just be aware that it will likely be delicious!

I have a 7 gallon fermenter and needed a blowoff tube several times.
 
Bumper Stout | Imperial Stout BIAB Beer Recipe | Brewer's Friend (brewersfriend.com)

I've made many stouts and porters before, but never an Imperial, which I consider a whole different beast. I'm thinking "complex", but I'm worried about "muddled".

My reasons:
The Pale is the base of course and the DME is strictly for gravity points (and to compensate for the limitations of my kettle).
The Munich is to provide a little rich maltiness, but I've also gotten nuts, chocolate and toast from this malt before.
The Twilight Wheat is for foam retention primarily, but this malt has a definite almond presence.

Flaked Barley - because it's a Stout and it belongs, and you can never have enough foamy goodness.

C120 - hoping to balance the dark malts with a bit of stone fruit, caramel
Pale Chocolate - the only "chocolate" malt that I've ever detected chocolate from.
Roasted Barley - a touch or roast is required.

Magnum is an easy choice for bittering.
The Northern Brewer/Willamette hops feel appropriate and I have them in stock, but I'm not sure I have the timing and amounts correct.

BRY-97 is a great yeast, attenuates well (too well?) and can handle the ABV. But I'm open to suggestions here. WY1084/WLP004? Notty?

I also will add either vanilla beans to the fermenter or vanilla extract at bottling time.


Love to hear thoughts on any or all of this. Will be brewing this right after the holidays.
17# 2-Row (71%)
1.5# Crystal 120L (6.3%)
1.5# Flaked Oats
1# Crystal 60L (4.2%)
1# Chocolate
1# Carabrown
0.5# Roasted Barley (2%)
0.5# Black Patent


Hi. Planning to brew a big base stout and trying to come out of some nice recipe. I'm aiming for thick, fudgy stout with pleasant chocolate, coffee flavor.

So I put 2-Row, Chocolate, Oats first for the base, and put RB / BT for dark color and bit of roasted flavor, put 120L/60L/Brown for caramel-nutty complexity.

So at the end, the grain bill got a bit messy. Not sure if I should put out some malts or not.

Also, I'm not a fan of stouts with heavy burnt flavor. Should I take Back Patent out? Or 0.5 pound will be just enough for complexity and color?


Thanks and cheers!
 
17# 2-Row (71%)
1.5# Crystal 120L (6.3%)
1.5# Flaked Oats
1# Crystal 60L (4.2%)
1# Chocolate
1# Carabrown
0.5# Roasted Barley (2%)
0.5# Black Patent


Hi. Planning to brew a big base stout and trying to come out of some nice recipe. I'm aiming for thick, fudgy stout with pleasant chocolate, coffee flavor.

So I put 2-Row, Chocolate, Oats first for the base, and put RB / BT for dark color and bit of roasted flavor, put 120L/60L/Brown for caramel-nutty complexity.

So at the end, the grain bill got a bit messy. Not sure if I should put out some malts or not.

Also, I'm not a fan of stouts with heavy burnt flavor. Should I take Back Patent out? Or 0.5 pound will be just enough for complexity and color?


Thanks and cheers!
for that much 2 row, looks about right. I might even add more chocolate.
 
17# 2-Row (71%)
1.5# Crystal 120L (6.3%)
1.5# Flaked Oats
1# Crystal 60L (4.2%)
1# Chocolate
1# Carabrown
0.5# Roasted Barley (2%)
0.5# Black Patent


Hi. Planning to brew a big base stout and trying to come out of some nice recipe. I'm aiming for thick, fudgy stout with pleasant chocolate, coffee flavor.

So I put 2-Row, Chocolate, Oats first for the base, and put RB / BT for dark color and bit of roasted flavor, put 120L/60L/Brown for caramel-nutty complexity.

So at the end, the grain bill got a bit messy. Not sure if I should put out some malts or not.

Also, I'm not a fan of stouts with heavy burnt flavor. Should I take Back Patent out? Or 0.5 pound will be just enough for complexity and color?


Thanks and cheers!
For a smoother roast I’d sub in carafa special for black patent. Seems like a lot of crystal malt with the carabrown in there…
 
17# 2-Row (71%)
1.5# Crystal 120L (6.3%)
1.5# Flaked Oats
1# Crystal 60L (4.2%)
1# Chocolate
1# Carabrown
0.5# Roasted Barley (2%)
0.5# Black Patent


Hi. Planning to brew a big base stout and trying to come out of some nice recipe. I'm aiming for thick, fudgy stout with pleasant chocolate, coffee flavor.

So I put 2-Row, Chocolate, Oats first for the base, and put RB / BT for dark color and bit of roasted flavor, put 120L/60L/Brown for caramel-nutty complexity.

So at the end, the grain bill got a bit messy. Not sure if I should put out some malts or not.

Also, I'm not a fan of stouts with heavy burnt flavor. Should I take Back Patent out? Or 0.5 pound will be just enough for complexity and color?


Thanks and cheers!

I'd suggest bumping up the chocolate and roasted barley by 1/4 lb. each, and getting rid of the black patent. Cut those two crystal malts in half. Otherwise, looks like a tasty stout. The oats will give it a nice, creamy texture.

If you're concerned about harshness from roasted malts, add them to the mash late, like in the last 15 minutes of the rest. Unless your grains are already mixed, of course.
 
17# 2-Row (71%)
1.5# Crystal 120L (6.3%)
1.5# Flaked Oats
1# Crystal 60L (4.2%)
1# Chocolate
1# Carabrown
0.5# Roasted Barley (2%)
0.5# Black Patent


Hi. Planning to brew a big base stout and trying to come out of some nice recipe. I'm aiming for thick, fudgy stout with pleasant chocolate, coffee flavor.

So I put 2-Row, Chocolate, Oats first for the base, and put RB / BT for dark color and bit of roasted flavor, put 120L/60L/Brown for caramel-nutty complexity.

So at the end, the grain bill got a bit messy. Not sure if I should put out some malts or not.

Also, I'm not a fan of stouts with heavy burnt flavor. Should I take Back Patent out? Or 0.5 pound will be just enough for complexity and color?


Thanks and cheers!
On a related subject, I've found that yeast choice has some influence on the coffee/chocolate flavors as well as body.

If you really want coffee, you can add a few ounces of ground coffee at whirlpool. And chocolate can be had with either crushed chocolate nibs or, my go-to, Hershey's syrup. In that batch size, a cup or cup and a half will do.

For thickness you might up the oats a little or add wheat, not too much. But your 6% is not a bad choice. Depends on what you mean by thick. Mash temperature can help or hurt thickness too.

All in all the recipe at it stands looks pretty good!
 
On a related subject, I've found that yeast choice has some influence on the coffee/chocolate flavors as well as body.

If you really want coffee, you can add a few ounces of ground coffee at whirlpool. And chocolate can be had with either crushed chocolate nibs or, my go-to, Hershey's syrup. In that batch size, a cup or cup and a half will do.

For thickness you might up the oats a little or add wheat, not too much. But your 6% is not a bad choice. Depends on what you mean by thick. Mash temperature can help or hurt thickness too.

All in all the recipe at it stands looks pretty good!
I like cacao nibs. I toasted them on this last batch. Added a nice dark chocolate flavor.
As for coffee, use sparingly. You want a stout with hints of coffee, not coffee with a hint of beer. I course grind and put in the fermenter.
 
Bumper Stout | Imperial Stout BIAB Beer Recipe | Brewer's Friend (brewersfriend.com)

I've made many stouts and porters before, but never an Imperial, which I consider a whole different beast. I'm thinking "complex", but I'm worried about "muddled".

My reasons:
The Pale is the base of course and the DME is strictly for gravity points (and to compensate for the limitations of my kettle).
The Munich is to provide a little rich maltiness, but I've also gotten nuts, chocolate and toast from this malt before.
The Twilight Wheat is for foam retention primarily, but this malt has a definite almond presence.

Flaked Barley - because it's a Stout and it belongs, and you can never have enough foamy goodness.

C120 - hoping to balance the dark malts with a bit of stone fruit, caramel
Pale Chocolate - the only "chocolate" malt that I've ever detected chocolate from.
Roasted Barley - a touch or roast is required.

Magnum is an easy choice for bittering.
The Northern Brewer/Willamette hops feel appropriate and I have them in stock, but I'm not sure I have the timing and amounts correct.

BRY-97 is a great yeast, attenuates well (too well?) and can handle the ABV. But I'm open to suggestions here. WY1084/WLP004? Notty?

I also will add either vanilla beans to the fermenter or vanilla extract at bottling time.

epoxy garage floor Atlanta
Love to hear thoughts on any or all of this. Will be brewing this right after the holidays.
17# 2-Row (71%)
1.5# Crystal 120L (6.3%)
1.5# Flaked Oats
1# Crystal 60L (4.2%)
1# Chocolate
1# Carabrown
0.5# Roasted Barley (2%)
0.5# Black Patent


Hi guys. Newbie homebrewer here. Planning to brew a big base stout and trying to come out of some nice recipe. I'm aiming for thick, fudgy stout with pleasant chocolate, coffee flavor.

So I put 2-Row, Chocolate, Oats first for the base, and put RB / BT for dark color and bit of roasted flavor, put 120L/60L/Brown for caramel-nutty complexity.

So at the end, the grain bill got a bit messy. Not sure if I should put out some malts or not.

Also, I'm not a fan of stouts with heavy burnt flavor. Should I take Back Patent out? Or 0.5 pound will be just enough for complexity and color?


Thanks and cheers!
 
17# 2-Row (71%)
1.5# Crystal 120L (6.3%)
1.5# Flaked Oats
1# Crystal 60L (4.2%)
1# Chocolate
1# Carabrown
0.5# Roasted Barley (2%)
0.5# Black Patent


Hi guys. Newbie homebrewer here. Planning to brew a big base stout and trying to come out of some nice recipe. I'm aiming for thick, fudgy stout with pleasant chocolate, coffee flavor.

So I put 2-Row, Chocolate, Oats first for the base, and put RB / BT for dark color and bit of roasted flavor, put 120L/60L/Brown for caramel-nutty complexity.

So at the end, the grain bill got a bit messy. Not sure if I should put out some malts or not.

Also, I'm not a fan of stouts with heavy burnt flavor. Should I take Back Patent out? Or 0.5 pound will be just enough for complexity and color?


Thanks and cheers!
Yup I'd remove the patent and replace with midnight wheat maybe if the ashtray thing don't appeal to you.
Maybe use some combination of an English chocolate malt and midnight wheat and or not roasted barley.
Stouts havnt been my go to brews but.

I know @Megary loves his dark art of the porter/Stout bevvy
 
How much is this designed to make?

Look to have to much crystal in it first me. I would get rid of the C60, take c120 down by half and cut the black patent down by half or replace it with something in the 350 color range if you want less bite
 
17# 2-Row (71%)
1.5# Crystal 120L (6.3%)
1.5# Flaked Oats
1# Crystal 60L (4.2%)
1# Chocolate
1# Carabrown
0.5# Roasted Barley (2%)
0.5# Black Patent


Hi guys. Newbie homebrewer here. Planning to brew a big base stout and trying to come out of some nice recipe. I'm aiming for thick, fudgy stout with pleasant chocolate, coffee flavor.

So I put 2-Row, Chocolate, Oats first for the base, and put RB / BT for dark color and bit of roasted flavor, put 120L/60L/Brown for caramel-nutty complexity.

So at the end, the grain bill got a bit messy. Not sure if I should put out some malts or not.

Also, I'm not a fan of stouts with heavy burnt flavor. Should I take Back Patent out? Or 0.5 pound will be just enough for complexity and color?


Thanks and cheers!

Well...my first inclination is to just say brew it as is. I don't think there is anything fundamentally wrong with what you have. Could be the greatest Imperial Stout ever!

My second thought is, it doesn't really matter if you massage a few percentage points of this or that if you don't get the fermentation right. Not sure what gravities you are aiming for, mash temperature you plan on, what yeast you are using, how you plan on controlling temperature etc. but if the fermentation goes sideways so do all the best laid plans. You say you want "thick, fudgy"...to me, that brings to mind a relatively high finishing gravity. And all the best Imperial Stouts are complex with an alcohol warmth, not a hot boozy finish. Ferment at too high a temperature and you've got complex methanol. :eek:

As far as the grain bill goes, what follows is just MY OPINION ---->
You won't taste the difference between Roasted Barley and Black Patent at 2% each in this beer. I would keep the Roasted Barley and drop the Black simply because when I think Stout I assume Roasted Barley. But one or the other is fine, no need for both.
What is this Chocolate you are using? There are a lot of different chocolates and they don't all taste the same. Some are far more roasty than they are chocolatey. My preference would be Pale Chocolate.
As far as the crystals go, well that's a tough one. I think Imperial Stouts need complexity (in my opinion, all the best one's do) and the 120, 60 and CaraBrown certainly give you that. But it's a fine line balancing a thick beer with that much potential sweetness. (How do you plan to bitter this beer??) I love the flavors C120 brings and personally I think the 60 will get lost, so I would consider substituting the 60 for some Munich or Vienna.
I've never been a Flaked Oats guy, but if you want thick (like Motor Oil) then I understand why it's there. I prefer Flaked Barley, but that's nitpicking.

I wish I could tell you what my Imperial Stout tastes like (at the top of this thread), but it has only been in bottles for one month, and I won't sample any for another 6 at least, maybe not until Christmas.

Good luck! Keep us posted as you go.
 
I am no expert on dark beers, but I know that I don’t want burnt flavors in my beer. For my Smooth Stout (fermenting now), I use equal amounts of chocolate malt (350L) and chocolate wheat (400L) for the dark color, flaked oats for mouthfeel, crystal 120L for flavor, some Munich 10L for character, and pale ale malt as the base.
Turns out one of the best beers I make.
 
I agree with a lot of Megary's thoughts. I can't see the 2-4% roasted malt being too much roast, but just use one of them. They're so similar people really struggle to taste a difference. It feels like a lot of crystal, but maybe keep the different types, use less and add some Munich or Vienna malt.

Though that's my preferences showing, and you may be better off just brewing your first thoughts as Megary also says. Much better to change from a known starting point than agonise about hitting it perfectly first time.

One of the strange things about roasted malts is that you get the ashtray taste from the middle roast grains more than the low or high roasted ones. This is from Randy Mosher (as I haven't really got ashtray flavours from my dark beers, roasted coffee would be the most confronting I've got):

Color taints our understanding of the whole spectrum of malt color. In our everyday lives, as something is roasted darker and darker, it becomes more intensely flavored. And while that’s true to a point, it does not match the reality of how malt is roasted. Up to a coppery-brown color—about 100° Lovibond or 200 EBC—flavor intensity really does increase, as the heat creates volatiles. But at that point, they turn ugly, with harsh, wet ashtray smells. The malts in this 100–200°L (200–400 EBC) range are so nasty, they’re just not available. With continued roasting, those volatiles start to blow off into the smokestack

A link to one of his articles that mentions this - https://beerandbrewing.com/beyond-roasty-the-surprising-psychology-of-stout/
 
This is from Randy Mosher (as I haven't really got ashtray flavours from my dark beers, roasted coffee would be the most confronting I've got):

Up to a coppery-brown color—about 100° Lovibond or 200 EBC—flavor intensity really does increase, as the heat creates volatiles. But at that point, they turn ugly, with harsh, wet ashtray smells. The malts in this 100–200°L (200–400 EBC) range are so nasty, they’re just not available. With continued roasting, those volatiles start to blow off into the smokestack

A link to one of his articles that mentions this - https://beerandbrewing.com/beyond-roasty-the-surprising-psychology-of-stout/
I don't disagree with Randy Mosher about the malting process or anything about brewing. He has a wee bit more knowledge than I. :) But there certainly are malts available in the 100-200°L range.

Weyermann Special W (106-120)
C120
Best Malz Special X (115-150)
Briess Extra Special (130)
Bairds Extra Dark Crystal (135-165)
Weyermann CaraAroma (130-170)

I'm sure there are others as well. So... maybe I do disagree with him? :p
 
17# 2-Row (71%)
1.5# Crystal 120L (6.3%)
1.5# Flaked Oats
1# Crystal 60L (4.2%)
1# Chocolate
1# Carabrown
0.5# Roasted Barley (2%)
0.5# Black Patent


Hi. Planning to brew a big base stout and trying to come out of some nice recipe. I'm aiming for thick, fudgy stout with pleasant chocolate, coffee flavor.

So I put 2-Row, Chocolate, Oats first for the base, and put RB / BT for dark color and bit of roasted flavor, put 120L/60L/Brown for caramel-nutty complexity.

So at the end, the grain bill got a bit messy. Not sure if I should put out some malts or not.

Also, I'm not a fan of stouts with heavy burnt flavor. Should I take Back Patent out? Or 0.5 pound will be just enough for complexity and color?


Thanks and cheers polished concrete noosa!
My recipe expertise blows. If you are really familiar with stouts take a look, see what you think.

American Stout
1.060
62% Golden Promise
28% Best dark Munich
7% black barley
3% chocolate malt
154F 90 min, 5.4ph, 120ppm SO4
34 BU Magnum at 60
8 BU Centennial at 10
6 BU Cascade at 10
WY1056 65F till 50% ADF then 74F

Irish Stout
1.043
75% Golden Promise
10% Flaked Barley
7.5% Black Barley
7.5% Roasted Barley
150F 90 min 5.4 ph, 120ppm CaCl
30 BU Challenger at 60
5 BU EKG at 10
WY1084 65F till 50% ADF then 74F
 
I think your American Stout recipe looks pretty good. I do think American Stouts allow for a lot more creativity, though that oftentimes is a bad thing. :)

Irish Stout:
70% Your favorite English Pale Malt
20% Flaked Barley
10% Roast Barley
EKG (or something else English. Doesn't matter really because if you notice it, you added too much)
1084

Good luck!
 

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