Russian Imperial Stout

I haven't brewed a really big beer since November 2011, when I brewed a Barleywine. (I still have 9 bottles in the basement as it approaches its 2 year mark.) For my next big beer, I'll be brewing a Russian Imperial Stout from Brewing Classic Styles, called "The Czar's Revenge" but with a couple of ingredient substitutions.

With my acquisition of an 8 gallon pot, I can now do directly heated mashes. For the RIS, I will mash the full volume of grains in the 8 gallon pot, heat to 167F for mash-out, transfer to the 5 gallon cooler, drain, and add the remaining water at 167F for the 2nd runnings to reach my pre-boil volume.

As an aside, I thought about steeping the dark grains separately to reduce harshness, as this recipe uses a lot of black patent (8%) and could potentially have some astringency. But since that is in some ways part of the style and because steeping the dark grains separately form the main mash further complicates an already complicated brew day, I decided to put all the grains in one mash.

I will be adding 1 full packet of dry yeast to the RIS. According to the calculator at Mr. Malty, only 1.1 packets of dry yeast is necessary for a beer this volume and gravity. I figure I'll be OK and won't have to worry much about under-pitching as long as I aerate well.

As for temp. control, I definitely do not want to pitch the RIS yeast too warm as that could cause nasty fusel alcohols from a very vigorous fermentation.

Russian Imperial Stout
10.5# Breiss 2-Row
1# Light DME (added to bump up the gravity, may need to add more depending on efficiency)
1.125# Black Patent
12oz Special B
6oz Caramunich I
6oz Chocolate Malt
6oz Pale Chocolate

1.25oz Warrior, 70 min
1oz Kent Goldings, 15 min
1oz Kent Goldings, 1 min

Danstar - Dry 97

Mash at 154F for 75 minutes

Assume 65% mash efficiency

Expected OG / FG / IBUs / ABV: 1.095 / 1.024 / 75 / 9.2%

10/12/13
Made a starter of washed WLP002, which I was intending to use for a parti-gyled beer, probably a mild or porter.

10/13/13
Shit! The starter showed no signs of activity. No bubbles, no krausen, nothing. I must have somehow killed the yeast. I thought about running off the 3rd runnings to make some wort for future starters, but since I do not have a pressure cooker I could not completely sterilize the wort. Botulism can survive boiling, and although the probability that boiled wort will have it, the magnitude of the harm associated with a botulism infection is high - i.e. death. So a disappointing start to the day, especially since I could have gotten another 3-gallon beer from such a huge grain bill.

Otherwise, mashed with 4.5 gallons of water at @ 167F, to reach a mash temp of 154F. Mashed for 75 minutes to assure full conversion. I kept the mash in my new 8 gallon kettle, and applied direct heat (while stirring the mash gently) to keep up the temperature.

Direct-heated the mash to 167F, rested for 10 minutes, then ladled the mash to my cooler for mashing out. Got 3.75 gallons of 1st runnings at 17.2 Brix (1.071 SG). The second runnings were at 11.4 Brix (1.046 SG). Collected around 4.75 gallons of pre-boil wort at 14.5 Brix (1.059 SG), prior to adding the extract.

My 5-gallon kettle was nearly full, and I had to be very careful to avoid a boiler-over. After about 15 minutes of boiling, I added the 1# of extract, resulting in a new gravity of 18.4B or 1.076 SG. I boiled the wort for 45 minutes or so even before adding hops, so in total I ended up boiling for around 135 minutes. Maybe I got some melanoidin flavors (OK by me in such a flavorful beer.)

After boiling, the volume of wort was pretty much right on target at 3.25 gallons. According to my refractomer, a few minutes before flameout the wort was at 24B or 1.101 SG. Yay!

Cooled to around 110F using my IC and stirring, then placed covered kettle in tub of 64F water to cool.

A few hours later the wort was at 68F. Transferred to 5 gal Better Bottle making sure to heavily aerate during transfer, and pitched entire yeast packet.  Ambient temp was 64F.

10/14/13
Around 24 hours after pitching, the wort was bubbling at a surprisingly slow pace. I think in my last IPA with this yeast it was fermenting slowly after 24 hours and then after 48 it was going much more active. In any case a restrained fermentation here is probably a good thing at this point.

10/16/13
About 48 hours after pitching, fermentation remains quite active (more active than only a day after pitching). A thick, dark brown krausen has formed and the airlock bubbles maybe once every 2 seconds.

11/2/13
Transferred to secondary. Less than three gallons in the secondary, I would guess more like 2.5 - 2.75. I considered brewing a very small batch to bring things up to volume, but that could apparently cause quality problems. Quality over quantity, especially for a beer that is as expensive and time consuming to make as this one.

Put .75oz of toasted oak chips in a sanitized mason jar along with about 2 shots of whiskey, to pre-soak and draw out some of the oak flavors.

11/11/13
Added the oak and whiskey to the secondary fermenter. The stout smelled good, as did the oak mix. Now I wait. For a long time.

 2/23/14
Bottled today, going for 2 volumes of CO2, and added a few grams of US-05. The beer tasted quite good, though to my palate there wasn't much oak or whiskey. Finaly gravity was 1.034. So 8.8% ABV. Cool.

 8/12/14
Ugg. Bottles have been way overcarbonated for a while. Not sure if it's infection, brett, or stalled fermentation getting restarted. I have cracked the caps slightly open to let out excessive CO2 a number of times, which was really tedious, but the level of overcarbing seems to be slightly less with each opening. The problem though is that opening the bottle even slightly causing foaming and potentially some beer to come out. I cleaned the outside of the bottles with a bleach solution to reduce mold etc.

I would hate to have dump this batch but if the beer is completely lost I will do it.