RIS II

For my twenty-fifth batch of homebrew in the spring of 2009, I made a big, burly Russian imperial stout.  Despite going through a more complicated mash schedule than I was ready to handle, starting fermentation far too warm, and needing champagne yeast to knock down the gravity into the 1.020's, the beer turned out pretty tasty; rich and full-bodied without being cloying or overly alcoholic, with layers of chocolate, dark fruit and coffee flavours.  I still have a bottle or two around, which I’ll hopefully keep for at least another year or two.

For Batch #75, I decided to revisit the recipe and tweak it (and the process) a bit.  I upped the amount of roasted barley (and switched to a more heavily roasted UK variety) and malted oats, went with American crystal 120 instead of British dark crystal, and added a pound of sugar to dry out the beer a bit.  I made sure this time (as opposed to last time) to dose it not once but twice with yeast nutrient and energizer, kind of following Curt Stock’s SNA outline for mead, to hopefully keep the primary yeast going as long as possible.  I also went with a simple infusion mash instead of the long, drawn-out reiterated mash I used before; I look forward to revisiting that method down the road, particularly for a really massive light-coloured beer, but decided this time to just collect a greater volume and boil longer.  The efficiency was far from great, but it’s still a hefty beer.  Next time, I’ll probably do an overnight mash; it’s the one process I’ve employed that’s really made my efficiency jump.  To cap off this adventure, I’ll add a couple ounces of Hungarian oak cubes that have been sitting in Jim Beam for a couple months to secondary.

With the help of several good friends, I ended up with a bit over 5 gallons in my 6-gallon carboy; we dumped everything from the kettle into the primary, choosing just to rack off the trub after fermentation.  After adding a big plug of yeast slurry and a good long aeration from my friend Ted’s system, I put it to bed in the basement, where the ambient temperature was in the low 60's.  With the amount of headspace in the carboy, I figured I was in good shape.  By the next afternoon, it had blown off the airlock and was chugging krauesen out the carboy opening.  Not sure if all the extra trub really pushed this to the tipping point, but I’ll probably take the time to filter it out next time.  I cleaned it up, put in a blowoff tube, and got it in a water bath to stabilize it.  Within a few days, it had settled down, so I reattached an airlock and took it out of the water bath.  Fermentation has been slow since the first couple days, so I’ve been agitating the fermenter several times a day.  As long as it reaches a respectable terminal gravity in the next month, allowing me to age it on the oak for a while and get it bottled before our move to Utah, I’ll be happy.

RIS II - THE SEQUEL

Batch size: 5.3 gallons
Projected OG: 1.092
Projected SRM: 73.2
Projected IBU: 74.3
Boil time: 120 minutes
Brewhouse efficiency: 56%

Grains/Fermentables
72.3% - 17 lb 2-row
8.5% - 2 lb UK Roasted barley
8.5% - 2 lb Oat malt
4.3% - 1 lb Chocolate wheat
2.1% - 8 oz C 120

4.3% - 1 lb Dark brown sugar (10 min)

Hops
1.5 oz    Columbus (14.5%) (120 min)
1 oz    EKG (4.5%) (20 min)
1 oz    EKG (10 min)

Yeast
WY1450 Denny’s Favorite 50 - slurry

Extras
1 tsp    Irish moss (10 min)
.5 tsp    Yeast nutrient (dissolved in water, 10 min)
.5 tsp    Yeast energizer (dissolved in water, 10 min)
.5 tsp    Yeast nutrient (dissolved in water, day 3)
.5 tsp    Yeast energizer (dissolved in water, day 3)
1.9 oz    Medium-plus toast Hungarian oak cubes, soaked in Jim Beam (secondary)

Water additions (mash)
2 g    Baking soda
1 g    Calcium chloride
1 g    Chalk

Brewday: 30 April 2011
Mash-in: 150F for 90 minutes
Pre-boil volume: 8.125 gallons
Pre-boil SG (w/o sugar): 15.4P (1.063)

Everything put in fermenter - will filter coming out of primary
Ferment in basement at ambient temp (62̊F); blowoff the next day, moved to water bath at 59F

Secondary: 2 June 2011
SG: 1.033
Considered adding champagne yeast to get down into 20s, but given time considerations before the move and the oak, it'll go as low as it goes.  Next time I may pitch a large active starter instead of just going from a slurry.

Bottled: 6 August 2011
FG: 1.027
ABV: 8.7%
Sample tastes rich & potent; looking forward to snow on the ground so we can crack open these!
Bottled with 2.1 oz table sugar

First tasting: 20 August 2011
Very rich, lots of dark chocolate, no discernible roast.  Sample bottle was almost completely flat; hopefully the rest will carbonate with more age.

Reyeasted: 22 November 2012
Bottles never carbonated; have drunk them straight as a more syrupy, port-like beverage or have used them for cooking.  Added rehydrated champagne yeast (with yeast energizer) to the final four bottles to see if they might carbonate as originally intended.