Sure we have a few more months of nice weather ahead, but as Ned Stark would remind us: winter is coming. Before you know it, the temperature will drop and you’ll be sitting in front of the fire wanting a big barleywine or Russian imperial stout to drink. So you’ll go ahead and brew one and have it ready to enjoy in front of the fire in a few weeks, right? Wrong. These big beers take time to condition and let the flavors meld and develop. The time to think about and brew these beers is now. It can take four to six months before these beers hit their peak flavor.
I have started putting together my recipes for my barleywine and imperial stout. I’ll share the imperial stout recipe I brewed last year. This beer won gold for stouts in my club’s annual competition. I will be changing the recipe this year. Seems crazy to change the recipe of a gold medal winning beer, but there is still room to improve. I will be trying to add a little more malt complexity to this beer.
Recipe Specifications -------------------------- Boil Size: 6.72 gal Post Boil Volume: 5.72 gal Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal Bottling Volume: 5.50 gal Estimated OG: 1.088 SG Estimated Color: 64.6 SRM Estimated IBU: 99.1 IBUs Brewhouse Efficiency: 85.00 % Est Mash Efficiency: 85.0 % Boil Time: 60 Minutes Ingredients: ------------ Amt Name %/IBU 12 lbs 12.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) 78.5 % 1 lbs 12.0 oz Chocolate Malt (300.0 SRM) 10.8 % 1 lbs 12.0 oz Roasted Barley (500.0 SRM) 10.8 % 1.40 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [16.80 %] - Boil 60 min 95.0 IBUs 0.50 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 10 min 4.0 IBUs 0.50 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 0 min 0.0 IBUs 1.0 pkg British Ale (Wyeast Labs #1098) [2 liter starter] Name Description Step Temperat Step Time Mash In Add 6.81 gal of water at 160.7 F 152.0 F 60 min Mash Out Heat to 168.0 F over 2 min 168.0 F 10 min Sparge: Fly sparge with 2.58 gal water at 168.0 F
Normally I advocate only changing one thing at a time in a recipe. Otherwise it can be difficult to determine what change caused the end result. However, in this case I will be changing the malt bill and the hop schedule. I want that additional malt complexity, but I don’t want to lose the balance I currently have between the bitterness and residual sweetness. So I will also be increasing the bitterness slightly in this beer to accommodate the change in malt bill.