Kit for an Imperial Russian stout?

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Antony

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Hey guys,

I am feeling its now time to brew an imperial russian stout, and was wondering if anybody had a suggestion of a Kit to use, or how to modify a standard kit to become a RIS. I fancy something on the weaker end of the RIS scale, maybe 7-9% ABV. If it could be ready for Xmas/January then that would be great.

I guess 330ml bottles would be best? I have a load from my dad so can easily do that :D


Thankyou

Ant
 
Hi Antony,

My suggestion would be a Coopers Stout (Original, not Irish) and use 2kg Dark DME/1kg Dark DME & 1kg Beer Kit Enhancer. Brew this to three gallons rather than 5. Should be a dark colour and the right kind of percentage.

Coopers + 1kg DME comes out at ~7% when brewed to three gallons. The extra kg should boost you a bit more. :)

Hope this helps,

CJR
 
That looks good calumn. I like your use of a small pan for a partial mash, I might have to try that.

Now, time to put what I have learnt to the test.

1. Basing it on a kit, putting a load of DME in would cause a loss of the hop balance (maybe not such an issue in a stout) So I would need to boil some hops and strain like you did to keep the bitterness up. Could I also dryhop, or would that just be odd?
2. I can mash small volumes, however I dont know what ratio of water to grain to use. Would I need multiple malts, or could I just go with a chocolate malt or something. I think I would use at least some Dark spraymalt to try and get a complex flavor profile.
3. This will probably be a long time in the waiting, so I guess a Good quality kit to start would be the best idea, maybe a milestone kit?
4. Since I'm bad at not drinking beer (I'm sitting here with my coffee stout, that only went into the fermenter 13 days ago) I am going to have to find a friend or relatives house to put it in to condition.
5. Any suggestions on a yeast that will nom through the high gravity and sugar, or could I put the partial mashes in during the fermentation to keep the OG down?
6. I'm definitely jumping in at the deep end, so thank you for your patience :D
 
You'll need extra hops to deal with the sweetness of the extra malts (as in calumscott's example). I've brewed up to 8.5%, and that definitively improves after four months of conditioning.
 
I just put a Coopers Original Stout on tonight, just with a humble 1Kg DME and 650g sugar at 23L to give me around 5.4% in the keg, but I had a RIS in a pub recently and the smell coming off the FV tonight encourages me to pimp up a future kit like that.

It smelled coffeeish to me, and I love that smell, even though I don't like the taste of coffee!
 
You'll get that "almost coffee" thing from steeped chocolate malt - it's a lovely malt, the roast flavours aren't overbearing so really shine and add something special to your beer.
 
This is the Coopers recipe - brews to 20l :shock:

Ingredients
1.7kg Stout beer kit
1.7kg Dark Ale beer kit
1.7kg Lager beer kit
1kg Dextrose

Method
Prior to mixing the brew, rehydrate the 3 sachets of yeast by adding to 250ml of tepid water, stir to make a creamy mix, cover with cling-wrap and sit for 15 to 30mins.

Add the contents of the 3 beer kits and the dextrose to the fermenting vessel and dissolve with 4 litres of hot water.

Add cold water up to the 20 litre mark and stir vigorously. Note: The brew should start at about 18°C so 5 to 10 litres of refrigerated water may be required to hit this temperature. Add the creamed yeast and stir vigorously.

Try to ferment as close to 18°C as possible.
 
Okay, here is what I'm thinking.


Brewed to 18L

2 Can premium Stout kit (probably milestone or something)
1kg Chocolate malt. mashed for 60mins (about as much as I can mash without a real pan)
500g DME (dark or medium)
Extra bittering hops, Probably a classic like fuggles or EK goldings boiled for around an hour. (how much is another question)


I estimate that should give around 2% ABV on top of the short brewed kit, up to around 7%. and should be a good intro to partial mash brewing :D
 
Hi Antony,
Just be a bit careful as you are using two cans of hopped extract in the stout kits.
I know that the Coopers stout kits have quite high IBUs but can't say for other makes.
 

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