Anyone have a favorite (extract-based) imperial stout recipe

HoochinHank

... that doesn't need 6+ months to age out? Altho, if it DOES need to age 6+ months, I can do that too, I suppose.
I'm thinking of attempting the following next friday (when my ferment bucket should be freed up, and it will have a nice juicy US-05 yeast-cake from a simple, 5% Amber Ale):
[3 gallons into the fermenter]
[45%] 3 lbs Briess Golden Light DME
[45%] 3 lbs Briess Sparkling Amber DME
[6%] 6 oz Bairds Roasted Barley 550L
[3%] 3 oz Briess Caramel 120L
[2%] 2 oz Briess Chocolate 350L
.6 oz Magnum @ 45 minutes (33 IBU)
.7 oz Willamette @ 30 minutes (12 IBU)
1 oz Kent Goldings @ 20 minutes (15 IBU)
Software predictions -- OG: 1.090, FG:1.018, ABV: 10.3%, IBU: 60, BU/GU: 0.66, Color: 37 SRM
Other dark roasts I have available for substitutions are:
Fawcett Dark Crystal
Briess Black Malt
Briess Midnight Wheat
Other hops I have on hand are: 2 oz Perle, 2 oz Cascade
Other yeasts I have are: S-04, and Nottingham
(And if you've been following any of my misadventure posts, I now have a good way to mill my specialty grains, no more hammers, cuz that was awful!)

VikeMan

I'm not an extract brewer, so will refrain from critiquing the recipe. But in my experience, the "secret" to brewing a big stout that doesn't need a lot of aging is to pitch a lot of healthy yeast, i.e. lager-like cell counts, 1 Million Cells per Milliliter per °P minimum, and to ferment at low temperatures. I ferment all of my big stouts at 60F with WLP001.

HoochinHank

I was able to maintain 62F to 66F during the 10 day ferment of my amber just by using ice packs next to my fermenter. Not sure I could do any lower than that without moving to my fridge, and my fridge won't go any HIGHER than 55F.
Would the US-05 yeast-cake of a 5% amber batch have enough cells? If I were to skip the yeast-cake, and just pitch new, would a full pack of US-05 be sufficient for this 3 gallon batch?
(you probably gave me enuff info with that 1 million cells per ml per deg P, but I've been drinking!)

RM-MN

Your fridge won't maintain higher than 55F with its internal thermostat. Add an external controller and it can be maintained much higher. Inkbird is the best known brand of such controller.
A yeast cake is often said to contain enough yeast to make 4 new batches of the same size. Technically you would be overpitching but there are few, if any, drawbacks to that in this context.
My stouts were drinkable at 3 weeks from bottling. They were much better at 6 months. One higher ABV was still improving at 2 years. Think of how many yeast cells there are suspended in your beer so that you can carbonate the bottles. In my opinion, yeast isn't the best tasting substance. Given lots of time, much of the yeast will flocculate and settle out.

DBhomebrew

A very big beer with lots of roast. It might be tasty in a few months, but it'll likely be tastier, smoother, given 6, 9, or more. Go ahead and drink it early, but be sure to reserve a few bottles for a 12mo tasting. It'll help increase your patience for the next time you brew a big beer.
A few recipes in here...


Russian Imperial Stout Clones & Brewing Tips - Brew Your OwnWhen you’re talking beer and you say “stout,” some things come immediately to mind, most notably the words “dark” and “roasty.” When you say “imperial stout,” however, you’ve just left the realm

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byo.com

DBhomebrew

This is an excellent approach.

Bobby_M

I have a couple of notes.
Yeast cakes have enough cells to do a lot more work, but the yeast is generally in less than ideal health. Be sure to aerate the heck out of your wort to help with that.
These big beers generate a LOT of heat when pitched with the appropriate yeast pitches. I've fermented 1.100 stouts and barleywines on yeast cakes before and measured a temperature 12F hotter in the core of the fermenter than the surrounding ambient temp. If you find a spot that's 68, it may be 80F. That's where the fusel alcohols are pushed and that's where the long aging period comes from.

HoochinHank

Thanks for the info, I was aware of the oxygenation needed for liquid yeast, but have added that step in big bold letters for brew-day to-do's to make sure I don't forget.
If I set my fridge at 50F, that should keep the beer well under 65F during even the most rapid stages of fermentation, but will that be too cold once most of the sugars are converted to ethanol? I should probably get a refractometer before attempting this...

GoodTruble

With a batch this small, internal temp may not be as bad. I like using Nottingham for stouts so that I can ferment at temps below 55 in a fridge and be fine.
Sounds like you are committed to US-05. I'm not sure if it can ferment under 55F (I know specs say down to 64F, but I bet if can go lower). But if you can keep it in low 60's, I think it will be fine.
Also, tip for future extract stouts - I've had a lot of good results brewing a separate light beer, and then just mixing an extra 1-2 gallons of that wort with dark or extra dark DME. At some point, it became common knowledge to only use light DME and then use darker malts. But I've had a lot of luck doing the opposite. Light grains and dark DME.

HoochinHank

Definitely not totally committed to the yeast-cake idea! I just thought it might work out. My main goal is to try and make a not-awful imperial stout that I could feel proud to share with friends/family over Xmas. (so if it was decent 3 months after brewing, I'd be very happy).
If I'm able to borrow a refractor from my friend who works at a local winery (difficulty: it's harvest season, not sure if he would let me take it home for a week), I think I'll go with the yeast-cake, but if not, I'll probably go with Nottingham in the fridge.

RM-MN

Refractometers for beer are not terribly expensive and are pretty handy as one begins all grain brewing. You probably should own one.
aichose Brix Refractometer with ATC, Dual Scale - Specific Gravity & Brix, Hydrometer in Wine Making and Beer Brewing, Homebrew Kit: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientificaichose Brix Refractometer with ATC, Dual Scale - Specific Gravity & Brix, Hydrometer in Wine Making and Beer Brewing, Homebrew Kit: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientificwww.amazon.com

BrewnWKopperKat

If you're willing to share a favorite recipe (or two), there's the "I Brewed A Favorite Rcipes Today" topic over in the "Extract Brewing" forum.

DBhomebrew

Not-awful doesn't sound like something I'd be proud to share. Instead of trying to rush a beer like an imperial stout, why not brew a full flavored American brown or moderate stout? Three months would be enough to make them pride worthy with big, bold flavors.
If you're deadset on an imperial, keep it to the barely imperial end of things. 8-9% might be decent by Xmas. 12% not likely.

Huh? And, yeah, they go for ~$15 on Amazon.

HoochinHank

Appreciate your input @DBhomebrew (and that earlier link to byo.com with the imp stout recipes)! I definitely want to pursue my imperial, but understand that the odds if it being tasty by Xmas are rather slim. Seems like the best time to brew an imperial was 9 months ago. That makes the next best time this weekend!
How the heck had I never thought to check Amazon for a refractor before now?!? I thought they ran around $50 plus...
But other than all that, nobody ever mentioned anything about my actual ingredients. I'm mostly hoping to avoid any big burnt coffee flavors, with a not very thick body, and a little "dryness" from the roast barley. Anything look obviously out of line?

DBhomebrew

Indeed! I've got a historical Russian Imperial brewed just before my second son was born. He's 15mo now. I've snuck a few tastes, but I'll share it for the first time with family this holiday season. Another big beer I brewed last New Year's will also make it's first appearance.

DBhomebrew

Small note here. Your Sparkling Amber DME has some amount of caramel 60 and Munich in it. Be sure to take that into account when you're looking at your specialty percentages.

HoochinHank

I saw on one of the online vendors website (ritebrew.com), that the Briess Dark extract was made with:
30% base malt13% caramel 60L54% munich 10L3% black maltSo I'm presuming that they use the same recipe for the Amber extract, just skipping the black malt. Not sure how much accounting for anything I'm doing, way too much of a newb for that (thus all my dumb questions and comments on this awesome forum), mostly just that the two beers I've made with amber extract so far have turned out better than I'd dared to hope (especially with decent temp control and a little choc350 -- even while warm and flat from the hydrometer sample).
If I was going to skip one of the grains in the recipe I posted at the top of this thread, it'd definitely be the cara120

BrewnWKopperKat

I thought the original recipe looked fine.

for "Traditional Dark", the grain bill percentages are available in product information at Briess's web site (start here): "a blend of 54% Bonlander® Munich Malt 10L, 30% Base malt, 13%, Caramel Malt 60L, 3% Black Malt, and water".
With the exception of Amber DME/LME, malts used to make the other DME/LME products are also available at that page.
A number of years ago, Briess made a couple of "style recipe specific" DME/LME products (Porter, Amber). Here (link) is a HomeBrewTalk topic that mentions Porter LME with a grain list. Until a couple of years ago, there were some articles from the mid 2000s at Briess's site that talked in more detail about these products. I think the articles in still available in the "Way Back Machine" but I can't immediately find them. There are a couple of articles from the mid 2000s from Briess in their Resource Library (link)
Assuming that Amber DME/LME is intended to be a base malt for Amber (and other red) ales, its' plausible (similar to what @DBhomebrew mentioned) that Amber DME is mostly base malt, some munich, and some crystal 60 (maybe 85%/5%/10% - link). I haven't seen Amber Ale recipes that are 30% base malt, 55% munich, and 15% Crystal 60L.

eta: link to articles (2005-ish) on recipe specific extracts.

HoochinHank

Interesting @BrewnWKopperKat! I wonder why they (Briess) are so coy about the formula?!? Nonetheless, I really like it so far, I can see myself making a whole bunch more ambers and variations thereof with different hops and grains. I would have actually ordered a 3lb bag of Briess Dark DME to experiment with, but ritebrew only had it in LME, so I passed.