First Russian Imperial Stout

[Dozer71]

Looking at doing my first RIS and have come up with this to date with a couple of questions.

Use BIAB so have reduced it to a total of 16 Litre (around 4G) to the FV and allow for 1kg of LDM or dextrose to reduce overall grain bill and keep efficiency up (hopefully). Grain bill as follows

67.2% Gladfield Ale Malt 6.00kg
1.3% Black Patent Malt 0.12kg
6.2% CaraMunich 1 0.55kg
1.6% Barley Roasted 0.14kg
1.3% Chocolate Malt 1200 0.12kg
11.2% Munich 1 1.00kg
11.2% Dry Malt Extract Light 1.00kg

60 min of Northern Brewer/Goldings to 70IBU
US05 or Nottingham - probably US05
ABV to be around 10% which is based on reducing my normal efficiency (72-74%) to 65%. Based on this the ABV minus adjunct is around 8% which is my starting point for the yeast.

1st question - is LDME or dextrose better? Was thinking either mash at 68C (more body) and add dextrose which thins it a little or 66C and add LDME.

I plan on adding the dex/LDME starting on day 3 (bit each day) after yeast has taken off as I don't have oxygen and don't want to overload it. I no chill and will pour through a sieve into FV to aerate and stir vigorously/shake to get initial oxygen in - not perfect, but best I can manage.

2nd question - I have a 5 Litre (bit over 1G) port barrel so will transfer some into this for experimentation. Is it correct that with smaller barrels the aging time is less - haven't found a lot of info as most use 5 Gallon barrels - and if so an approximate time frame (obviously will vary with taste) like 1 to 2 weeks or 1 to 2 months or longer. I will taste test but don't want too start too early (or too late for that matter) on the sampling.

Thanks

 

[giraffe]

well with a beer that big, you could safely use 11% dextrose, id use that for the simplicity. And really, not many people complain that their RIS came out too dry, its usually the opposite problem. Other than that, It looks pretty good to me. With smaller barrels there is more barrel surface area/contact per volume of beer, so the flavor will be imparted quicker. Ive never used a barrel that small, Id take a sample at a week, especially if you havent used the barrel before.

 

[Dozer71]

Cheers for that.

 

[JKaranka]

I would up the patent malt ever so slightly to 2% or replace a pound or two of pale malt for brown malt.

 

[solbes]

I'd go for LME instead of dextrose for the added sugars. Having a LARGE yeast pitch (or 2/3 of a yeast cake) will assure it finishes properly.

Have no experience with a small barrel, but I would echo comments above to sample early as the increased surface area of a small barrel will oak it much faster. I would guess it's oaked in 1-2 weeks. I might also have another beer ready to fill next (and that one might take 2-3x longer to oak similarly).

 

[JKaranka]

I'd absolutely go with simple sugars rather than LME in a big beer. LME risks raising FG while in a big beer you really are struggling to keep the FG low enough. You rather shoot for dry and end up medium bodied than shoot for medium and end up with sweet.

 

[mrdauber64]

Go with d-180 candi sugar. Gives awesome flavor in an RIS and helps dry it out.

 

[JKaranka]

Candi would be ok and interesting but you don't have to bother if you don't want to