Sunday, January 25, 2015

Russian Imperial Stout, Bottled

Bottled this today with FG of 1.020 placing ABV at 8.66%. Aromas of dried stone fruit, chocolate, and spice. Flavors of chocolate, spice, and dried stone fruit as well. Nice silky-smooth, medium to full body, with a nice lingering bitterness that is customary for this style. The finish is on the drier  side to avoid being cloyingly sweet. The flavors are very rich and complex and will benefit from some bottle aging.
CHEERS!

Saturday, January 17, 2015

Russian Imperial Stout, Secondary


Racked to secondary today. Gravity was 1.020 which places ABV at 8.66%. There is still some airlock activity. Color is a deep brown with orange/red highlights. Aromas of chocolate, spice, prunes, and dried stone fruit. Flavors of bitter chocolate, dried stone fruit, and spice, with a lingering bitterness. The finish is slightly dry due to the rye malt. The alcohol is warming but not "hot". This beer will be in secondary for about two weeks or until it clears up. It will definitely require some aging in the bottle to allow the flavors to meld. I'll post again when it is time to bottle.
CHEERS!

Friday, January 2, 2015

Russian Imperial Stout

My brew day went fairly well. I was a quart over with my water measurement, but ended up with 5.5 gallons going into the fermenter. Had a little boil over when the hops went in. (Not fun scrubbing the outside of my kettle that had caramelized wort and hops baked on.) Projected SG was 1.093. Actual was 1.086, most likely due to the excess water. Projected ABV should be around 9.5%. The color was calculated at 42 SRM, but I'm not sure if it will be that dark. The wort is definitely dark brown with ruby and amber/orange hues. Full krausen at day 1 and everything is looking good! I'm excited to see how the flavor develops. The rye and chocolate rye should add some nice spiciness. The Special B should add some deep caramel and raisin/prune flavors. I'm keeping the fermentation temperature around 60-62 degrees with Fermentis US-05 yeast which is a high attenuator and neutral in flavor.
Thanks for reading!
CHEERS!