This topic is for discussion of the Russian Imperial Stout recipe to be brewed for one of the BOCK bourbon barrels.
Barrel Fill 2020 – Russian Imperial Stout recipe discussion
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This topic is for discussion of the Russian Imperial Stout recipe to be brewed for one of the BOCK bourbon barrels.
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Here is what I remember discussing last night: dropping the roasted barley to 1 lb, and adding some pale chocolate malt to split with the darker chocolate. According to Beersmith, the color is 40 SRM (was 44.4), but still at the high end of spec for an imperial stout. The net effect should be less roast and more chocolate flavor. I’m still on the fence about lowering the level of crystal malts, but I hesitate to change the recipe too significantly. I think we may have also talked about upping the oats. Thoughts?
Batch size: 5.5 gallons
Est Original Gravity: 1.099 SG (@72% efficiency)
Est Final Gravity: 1.020 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 10.5 %
Bitterness: 78.6 IBUs
17 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) Bel (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 81.0 %
1 lbs Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 2 4.8 %
1 lbs Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 3 4.8 %
8.0 oz Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 4 2.4 %
8.0 oz Pale Chocolate Malt (215.0 SRM) Grain 5 2.4 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 6 2.4 %
8.0 oz Special B Malt (180.0 SRM) Grain 7 2.4 %
2.00 oz Magnum [14.00 %] – Boil 60.0 min Hop 8 61.7 IBUs
2.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] – Boil 30.0 min Hop 9 16.9 IBUs
Yeast: Safale US-05 dry yeast (2X 11.5g fresh packages, see http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html#“)
Mash at 151 deg F for one hour
Target Fermentation temperature 66 deg F
I’m good with it. Brewing 5 gallons. Will barrel as much of that as necessary.
I agree and am good with everything above.
I’d also prefer not to make too many changes at once, so i’m in favor of moving forward with the above recipe.
I brewed this yesterday (2/20), bumped up the grain bill to make about 7 gallons. To get it to all fit in a 10 gallon rubbermaid cooler I substituted some LME for 2 row. Tastes pretty good pre-ferment, more chocolatey than I recall from previous batches.
Yes, I can bring a bomber of the 2019 version
Does anyone have a bottle of the 2019 Barreled RIS that they can bring to the 2/10 BOCK meeting (tomorrow)? Would be good to get the brewers for this year’s version around a table to discuss what changes (if any) we should consider.
I like that idea! I want to get the recipe finalized soon so people can brew as early as next weekend.
I think we want the roast from the chocolate and roasted barley. However, maybe we don’t need quite so much. So maybe go to 1 lb chocolate, 8 oz roasted barley, and x oz cold steeped dehusked carafa III or blackprinz added in the last 10 minutes of the boil. And ratio down the caramel malts to maybe 10 oz total.
If we do this, we could also consider switching to pale chocolate malt to get a more true chocolate flavor, and using the cold steep to correct the color.
We talked last year about steeping grains and ultimately decided not to do it. Maybe this year is the year to try steeping, or adding at the end of the mash the dark & crystal malts? If we do, we might want to keep the recipe fairly close to previous years so that steeping/late dark grain addition is the main variable between this year’s RIS and those from past years. Just a thought, I’ll do whatever you all want.
Below is what we used last year. I got a sharp malt bitterness from this version (which mellowed a bit over time), so I’m open to a few tweaks … similar to what Spicer is mentioning. Maybe back off on the Dark Crystal / Special B a bit and up the chocolate malt (and maybe the flaked oats) + sugar.
We can also maybe work through this with steeping some of the grains vs. full mash. Thoughts?
Est Original Gravity: 1.099 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.024 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 10.1 %
Bitterness: 76.8 IBUs
17 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) Bel (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 80.0 %
1 lbs 8.0 oz Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 2 7.1 %
1 lbs Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 3 4.7 %
12.0 oz Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 4 3.5 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 5 2.4 %
8.0 oz Special B Malt (180.0 SRM) Grain 6 2.4 %
2.00 oz Magnum [14.00 %] – Boil 60.0 min Hop 7 60.3 IBUs
2.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] – Boil 30.0 min Hop 8 16.5 IBUs
Yeast: Safale US-05 dry yeast (2X 11.5g fresh packages, see http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html#“)
Mash at 151 deg F for one hour
Target Fermentation temperature 66 deg F
I don’t have any of this from last year’s barrel, but the 2018 version is a bit too sweet and not chocolatey enough for my tastes. Also a bit astringent. Maybe consider a recipe with less dark crystal, more chocolate malt, some simple sugar to dry it out (dark brown sugar?) and a more attenuative yeast (like WLP090)? Thoughts?