It Begins Again

With Chief Assistant Brew Master Mark having a scheduling conflict, I had to turn to Acting Chief Assistant Brewmaster Joel to assist me with my newest batch of beer.

I decided on a solid Russian Imperial Stout for this particular round. This beer is heavy and chewey, with tons of strong flavors like coffee, chocolate, dark-toasted wheat bread and molasses.

As you can see in the pictures, this beer has roughly the consistency and color of motor oil. Rest assured the taste is huge.

I used:
3 lb. Dark Malt Extract
2 lb. Amber Malt Extract
4 lb. Irish Stout Malt Extract
1 lb. Crystal malt, 60L
½ lb. Roasted Barley
½ lb. Black Patent malt
2 ½ oz. Perle hops (90 minute boil)
1 ¼ oz. Styrian Golding hops (15 minute boil)
1 ½ oz. Cascade hops (end)
4 Tablespoons of Gypsum
Irish Ale Yeast (wyeast 1084)

The Crystal, barley and Black Patent were all first cracked, then steeped at 150 degrees for a half hour. After sparging, water was added to the boiler for 1 1/2 total gallons. Just before boiling, the dark, amber and Irish malts were added. At boiling, the Perle hops were supposed to have been added, but Ie accidentally did it backwards (too much beer while brewing...); I added the Cascade first, added the Styrian after an hour and the Perle 15 minutes later. Oops...shouldn't do much to the taste, but will give it a bigger hop aroma.

After cooling the wort to 70 degrees, we added 3 1/2 more gallons of water to the fermenter, and poured in the wort. The filter became clogged a few times with goo from the wort (this stuff was THICK), but we made it all in. We pitched the yeast...and now the biological magic begins.

A huge thanks again to ACABM Joel for spending 5 1/2 hours on a Monday night with me. More updates to come as it ferments violently. Since this beer is so strong, t will actually ferment/bottle condition for about 4 months; however, it won't even be in bottles for another 3 or 4 weeks yet.