Just to follow up, turns out I'm just as impatient as the rest of them. This beer wasn't infected, its just that three months was woefully too short of an aging time and that flavor was a combination of the kveik, the pH and the roasted malts. This has started to taste MUCH better after yet another month of aging and is continuing to improve. I just jumped the gun prematurely on it, but thank goodness I didn't dump it. Go ahead, brew the beer, but be more patient than I was!
How about the body of the beer? Does it continue to thin out? How long do you think you should let it mature, as i know some people let it chill in the fridge for a year or so...
"Fail" videos are always better than others because they require more analysis. It creates a situation where you get to present signs of a problem, how you know it's a problem, how you can try to fix it or prevent it in the future, and generally shows an aspect of brewing rarely seen in other videos. BTW, I've made MANY beers, and have had 3 infections. Two were back to back, and were essentially one infection that ruined two beers. One was an infection creating butyric acid that I was able to save by adding brett, which metabolized the butyric acid as well as created additional pleasant character and became a big success. Considering your infection, I tried aging out one of mine when it was mild. It only gets worse. I suggest drinking it while it is still drinkable rather than dumping it when it almost certainly gets vinegary. It's disappointing, but the sooner you drink that thing, the sooner you can put it behind you and try again.
Thanks for that! Yeah, I think there is value added by still cataloguing the process and people can still learn something (including myself). Butyric acid is probably the worst kind of flavor - thankfully didn't end up with that. Working on getting it down now, its on the cusp of developing a cider vinegar character - still mild.
Quickly drinking an imperial stout, even when it's not the best? That sounds like a duty some of your friends could help with! I mean my friend asked me to help him move. I would have much rather be invited over to drink beer! LOL
Good timing for the video, just about to start my first attempt of brewing russian imperial stout. Long time fan of the channel, keep up the good work! Greeting from Finland!
Best of luck! Check out the potential improvements section so you know what to expect, and be patient with the aging! Its gonna taste like crap for a while
I've been watching your videos for a good while since getting into this hobby (learning a lot from them by the way) and got a good chuckle from the trombone in the background. I'm a professional trombonist and I know quite a few fellow trombonists and other musicians who are homebrewers, many who are good at it. If not, they love to drink beer and are good at that too. Anyway thought I'd reach out since you are a clearly part of the trombone community as well and we are basically family. Haha. I brewed your Irish Red Ale for my first all-grain brew. Great recipe! I did it twice, the second time improving my mash efficiency by insulating my brew kettle and dialing in roasted barley for color. Definitely saw an improvement. If anything it's nice not having to constantly adjust my burner. I have an English IPA fermenting in my temperature controlled chest freezer setup and am excited to continue brewing and share with my bandmates/family/friends. Thanks for the excellent resource!
Great vid! A friend sent me an imperial stout recipe he brewed a few years back, seeing your vid made me decide to try it out and let it age ‘till fall ! Recipe is less complexe than yours but targets a OG of 1.093 that turned out to be 1.080 and he mashed at 150F for 90 min, there is no mention of double mash but would you still recommend it at a lower volume, I’m gonna scale down from 5G to 1G as I am literally an apartment brewer ! Recipe calls for S-04 but from what you said should look to another strain? Thanks a bunch my friend !
FYI, kveiks in general drop the pH more than any other ale yeast. Also, Hornindal is slower than other yeasts to metabolize maltotriose and it will do so by very slowly fermenting the leftover sugars. Even if the yeast dropped at the bottom and it appear to be clear. Lars Marius (the kveik guru) talked and wrote about it.
How you gonna throw that trombone in the background and not give us some brass action? Oddly enough, the only major infection I've had in many years was a super hoppy dark beer that blew the lid off the fermenter, which is where I thought the infection came from but who knows. Turned out interesting though. If the infection continues you could bottle it and say its a The Bruery Sour Stout lol. I wonder if the problem came from the yeast, either a contaminated kveik or just the kveik kept going. I use Hornindal and Espy at work for NEIPAs and they chew threw everything down to like 1.7 plato (thank god for chloride and low bitterness). Hornindal always gives very tropical flavors for me but some other kveiks (Voss in particular) give a very weird flavor to me. I wonder if your "infection" is actually just the kveik. It seems reiterative mashing is the best way for BIABers to do high grav. I did that 6 hour boil stout on the home level and pro level we do two back to back no-sparge half capacity brews. Seems like a double mash is a real time saver.... but I think I may (gasp) think of adding DME next time I want to go super high grav. Anyways, this video inspired me to crack open one of my year old stouts and I agree with you on your malt bill analysis. Going for smooth and chocolatey isn't as good as a good ol' roasty boi. I blame the stout for this freaking dissertation I've written.
Stout based dissertations are the best kind. I'm not going to throw out the possibility of the yeast lending this type of character just yet, because it may be true! At some point I will be doing some sort of super high gravity stout where DME will have to be an ingredient! Also definitely bringing back the roasted barley. Glad you enjoyed the video, keep the dissertations coming!
Making one my self 40 literes. To night... Long nigth, Aheed... :-) sleepy at work tomorrow. Beer.. Voss kveik. And demera and muskovado. And som champagne yeast later. Nøgne ø style high abv.. Norway here :-)
I'm glad I found this video because I don't want to get a 20 gal system but I don't want to miss out on these high gravity brew opportunities either. A double mash was something I never considered and just solidified my decision to get a 10 gal BIAB! Keep up the good work.
David Heath Homebrew has a few videos on it. He calls it a re-iterated mash. It seems like an awesome technique to squeeze gravity points out of these systems.
I had a few processing questions. I have done a few double mashes before and had varying results (definitely my errors). I recently got an anvil 6.5 gal brewing system, and can't seem to get the water volume right for the double mash. How did you go about setting the water volume used for the first and second mash? Do you use more for the first and sparge to optimum level, or do you sparge a little at the end? I've tried to do my own calculations and screw it every time. Thanks for the help!
I would use as much water as possible for the mash, then sparge to get your volumes up at the end of the second mash. You could also add some mash temp water in between your first and second mashes if you account for the dilution
When doing a double mash, is there any advantage/disadvantage to doing a quick sparge on the grain from the first mash? I brew in a brewzilla and am planning on a RIS next month. Trying to find the best way to do the double mash.
I would advise against it unless you are using sparge water that is at or below your mash temp. You do not want to denature the enzyme that will be needed for conversion in the second mash stage. Sparge away after your second mash though!
Perfect! Ive rewatched your other RIS video a few times. I'm preparing to do one in a couple of weeks with a smaller system. This is the exact process I'll have to do!
@@TheApartmentBrewer Hopefully! I enjoy big beers like this but never tried brewing them because I could only make half batches. Now that the weather warming up, I'm finally going to go for it and age until roughly November. I recently upgraded to a 240v Brewzilla and I'm still getting used to it.
@@TheApartmentBrewer i don't either but the times I've used kveik it comes through in the taste - like a neipa can become a lemon juice ipa very quickly with kveik - ive stopped using it for that reason. love your videos - thanks for sharing again
I was going to say the same thing. Except I played in middle school (had to give it up before high school). Between my wife and I we have... too many instruments. Trombone is next on my list to re-add.
@@Vykk_Draygo Nice! I played actively for 11 years. Occasionally I still do but I'm waiting to move to a place without neighbors so I can actually play unmuted. It's such a great instrument
@@TheApartmentBrewer Yeah, I sold my amps when moving into this apartment. My neighbors don't seem to understand that drums aren't an appropriate apartment instrument... but it is what it is. But yeah, trombone was my first, so it holds a special place. Love it!
You were doing very weloo the part about RIS being oppy to survive the journey. Ron Pattinson who has researched this topic ong and hoppy because the Russians
Thank you again for posting videos that show the hits and misses! Anyone who does any sort of crafting knows it doesn't always work and people can learn a lot when it does, but only if people like you are generous enough to show them! That's awesome!
I’ve been subscribed for about a month. Enjoy the thoroughness of the vids. But I’m commenting because of the trombone. I too, am a brass playing brewer. “Did we just become best friends?!” - Step brothers Also, any time you can quote BrewingTV (it was a thing when I started brewing) I’m an instant fan.
Bummer if that's bacteria My last brew was a big (also 1.100) stout with oatmeal on the last day of 2020. I am bulk aging, planning to bottle in October maybe? I don't know we'll see how my patience holds up. But I want to brew it every year and keep some bottles for year-to-year tasting.
At this point, what percent chance do you think it’s actually an infection? And is it safe to say any infection didn’t happen when dry hopping? With that high an abv and the blanket of co2 that would be covering your beer at that point I would think you could have pitched actual bacteria and nothing would have been able to take off. I brew makgeolli and we have to get in there with barehands to mix cooled steamed rice into a fermented starter (10+%abv) before leaving it to ferment and I’ve never had any kind of infection - which I would think attributable to the protection you get from a high abv...
Well, you really can't rely on ABV to actually help you kill off bugs until its in much higher concentration, more like 30-40%. But I'm still fairly sure its external.
Really enjoying your videos. I’m having a hard time figuring you out though: I’ve seen an UCP MOLLE ruck sack (hooah), and a trombone with real mutes (so not a casual “Will Riker” kind of player), and finally you have a beard. What do you do, man? Keep it up!
So I do a bunch of things haha. In short, brewing and youtube aren't my only hobbies and I have multiple jobs. I'll probably end up doing some sort of off the cuff video on that sort of thing in a bit.
Not sure what the purpose of dry hopping a RIS would be. With that high ABV you don't need the hops as a preservative and you aren't likely going to taste it over the dark malt. Personally I'd axe the dry hop all together. I use Wyeast 1728 for my RIS's.
Its actually more common with RIS than you might think. It all depends on the type of hop though, you cant do it with just any standard hop because it will be either out of place or like you said will get lost in the roast. It's not going to be analogous to typical dry-hopped beers like IPAs at all. Northern brewer is really unique among hops though in that it gives a really nice complimentary woody/minty flavor and aroma, but I still think I overdid it here. Earthy hops like most English varieties would be good options as well.
'it will go fast at first but it's gonna take some time to clean everything up at the end' -> is there any objective way to measure when this is done? Once the SG is stable for X days that's one thing but the clean-up phase thereafter, I'm just doing guesswork..?
Literally when it tastes good to you. Stable gravity measurements tell you that sugar fermentation and alcohol production is complete. However for a longer period after that yeast will metabolize other byproducts of fermentation (ex. acetyldehyde, sulfur compounds, fusel alcohols) and improve the flavor of the beer. That's what I mean by "cleanup phase" but in some beers like this one, a much longer aging period with slow oxidation and esterification will have positive effects, mellowing the harsh flavors from the roasted malts and high alcohol levels.
Hey at 8:01 what is that device you have on top of your kettle with the glass window to see the beer? What is the purpose of that, is it just to see the beer through a clear glass window or is there another use for it?
That's an NPT inline sight glass. I use it to gage the color of the wort and to observe clarity after mashout. Also it's useful to see if you're recirculating excessive amounts of grain or hop particles, especially when going to the chiller later on in the brew day
Just goes to show you can't win them all. Chalk it up to lessons learned and hopefully you can pinpoint what went wrong and where. My advice - brew another RIS now and age it till winter! 🍻 🤘
Question- How would one adjust their water profile if I'm only mashing with 4.5 gallons of distilled water and sparging with the other 3? Heat it all at one time and add the total amount of brewing salts? Add it all to the 4.5? Never understood that part of it
Ok so I brewed my Imp Stout but buggered up the water levels and boil off was less than I expected (stupid stove). Plan on bottling it saturday after 1 month in primary. I’ll start taking gravity readings on Thursday until Saturday to check fermentation, I expect a 6-7% abv. Gonna bottle age until October and guy at LHBS said that high gravity beers can continue slowly fermenting in that long ageing period. How should I approach priming? Should I underprime to be sure? Aiming for about 2 vol co2, should I prime for 1.5 or less or more? Any advice would be appreciated as LHBS guy and 2 fb homebrew groups have not given me an answer. Thank you !
Sorry to hear your brew day went sideways, I'm sure it will still work out fine. Its highly dependent on whether your final gravity is way too high or not. Sometimes they do continue to ferment slowly but its usually not something that bottles can't handle, unless your FG is significantly higher than expected. If your yeast is a strain that is known to continue fermentation I would approach with caution and underprime OR just commit to letting it bulk age in a glass carboy or keg for a few months. If you choose to bottle, I would encourage storing this in the fridge or at lager temperature after its carbonated so that you can force the yeast to become dormant and guarantee there won't be any bottle bombs if youre worried.
@@TheApartmentBrewer Thank you so much, SG was 1.075 and I pitched US-05 at 4 times the amount needed (9g for 1 gallon). What would you consider a ‘safe’ FG to proceed with normal priming? I’m hoping for 1.010-1.015 max. Anyways thanks again for the help, much appreciated !! Cheers.
@@Frameshaft anything under 1.025-1.030 is a normal FG for an imperial stout, but just check it a few times to be sure that its done. More than happy to help!
@@TheApartmentBrewer So I finally bottled, fg was 1.016 !? (From 1.075). 79% attenuation out of 80% for US-05. I primed for 1.8 vol co2 and hope for the best! Bottles are stored in a latching lid plastic bin for protection !
I thought I was amusingly going to comment on the fact that I felt hard done by leaving the garage doors open whilst brewing in a 'harsh' English winter. However more importantly kudos for honesty and commiserations (if you have to dump it) on a failed by no means cheap brew. Been there, it stings.
By harsh do you mean it snowed once? Haha I'm kidding, I do appreciate the kind words though. Hopefully I don't need to dump it or we'll have to hold a memorial service
Cool and honest review. I was worried when I saw your first mash ph. The second part would drop that ph even more though? You are adding more grains/ dark grains. I personally like my stouts on the higher end (5.4-5.6).
Nothing wrong with admitting to a failure. I've put a few down the drain for sure. Do you think it's also down to the sugar addition that has thinned out the beer?
I don't think so necessarily. It was such a small amount relative to the rest of the beer, I think it needs more protein. It's also possible my temp controller needed calibration. This was like the 3rd beer I did on the clawhammer system and hadn't run a calibration on it yet
Nice job! It’s always good to be honest with the reviews, definitely appreciate that! Also a good remind for me to clean my kegs really well as I’m kegging today. Nothing worse than spending a long brew day only to end up having a spoiled batch from infection. Let us know what happens in another month!
Thanks! It's a bit of a bummer given the amount of work I put into the beer. I plan on pinning my own comment in a month or two to describe any changes
sorry to hear about the potential infection. Great advice on the double mash though! I didn't know this was an option and was resigning myself to having to make a half batch. Really galls me to put all that effort and time in and only get 2.5gals out of it so this is a real game changer for me! Thanks dude.
Great job mate! Love the honesty! I've been fortunate enough not to come across infection yet, but one day it will hit. Your G2G videos are the best on RUclips.
DUDE!!!!! When I saw this pop up I couldn’t wait to get home and watch, I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time except I want to do a Goose Island Bourbon County clone, HUGE grain bill and this would be the only way I can brew it. AWESOME VIDEO MAN!!!!!!! 👍🏻👍🏻🍺🍺 cheers
@@TheApartmentBrewer yeah I’ve been looking into this for a while now, very cool man! Ya gotta let us know how it comes out, if it was infected or not.
The funk actually sounds kinda interesting... but yeah. Probably not what I'd reach for on the regular. I'm planning to do some double mashing in my Foundry. Should be fun!
@@TheApartmentBrewer I've been working on a wheatwine recipe, so I want to try that first. Also have a barleywine that I made with my BIAB system that was excellent, so I want to lay that down so I can drink it next winter. Run out of space to put bottles for now, so it will need to wait a bit. ;D
However, that would be accurate for the 18th century. Wooden casks were used over and over again. They would replace the head of the barrel, scald It with boiling hot water, let cool, and pack it full of beer again. So they sort of cleaned them, but funk and barrel aged was the order of the day.
Hey man I love the hard work you do to make awesome beer!! I was curious if you would be willing to make my take on a unusual style IPA. My family loved what I made but I need another option. My 7 year old daughter helped me and I was quite blown away when I tasted the finished product
I used uk pale malt. Cara pils. Honey malt. Flaked wheat. Flaked oats. Hops I used. El dorado. Azacca. Amarillo. Mosaic. And citra. If you're interested in all what I did let me know. My daughter thought it would be cool to watch someone taste my beer
@@Christos_HomeBrewer close! Litochoro/Mt Olympus, Athens, Paros and Naxos. I'll be back to some of the other places you mentioned. My favorite spots are a tie between Paros and Litochoro to be honest
@@TheApartmentBrewer Check also mt Pelion. Mykonos island for the parties. And Samos island for the unique beauty. Meteora and Delphoi for a taste of the ancient Greece.
@@TheApartmentBrewer Awesome! Just got this system and was looking for an easy video to help with cleaning. While there is info out there on what to do your videos are some of my favorites because of how you present information. Straight forward, step by step, showing when you make mistakes, and clearly you have a passion for brewing . Love the channel, keep up the good work!
Thanks for the support man! In short to clean it,, I recirculate PBW through the system, bring to a boil and then recirculate water to rinse. Sometimes crud can stick to the element. You really want to avoid using a steel wool type of abrasive on it so try to use a scotch Brite pad or similar tough sponge material instead.
![[NHC BRONZE] IRISH STOUT | BREWING IN A BLIZZARD AGAIN | How to Get NITRO EFFECT WITH CO2](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/R-1YCL3aqMA/mqdefault.jpg)
![NOSFERATU - Official Trailer [HD] - Only In Theaters December 25](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/nulvWqYUM8k/mqdefault.jpg)
Just to follow up, turns out I'm just as impatient as the rest of them. This beer wasn't infected, its just that three months was woefully too short of an aging time and that flavor was a combination of the kveik, the pH and the roasted malts. This has started to taste MUCH better after yet another month of aging and is continuing to improve. I just jumped the gun prematurely on it, but thank goodness I didn't dump it. Go ahead, brew the beer, but be more patient than I was!
How about the body of the beer? Does it continue to thin out? How long do you think you should let it mature, as i know some people let it chill in the fridge for a year or so...
Waiting for a followup tasting Video. Now it should be drinkable?
I might do something like that, bottled a bunch off and not planning on opening one until the end of the year
@@TheApartmentBrewer nice. I also have an Imperial Stout sitting for Christmas.
It's been a few months, what's the flavor look like now? Still thinning out?
"Fail" videos are always better than others because they require more analysis. It creates a situation where you get to present signs of a problem, how you know it's a problem, how you can try to fix it or prevent it in the future, and generally shows an aspect of brewing rarely seen in other videos.
BTW, I've made MANY beers, and have had 3 infections. Two were back to back, and were essentially one infection that ruined two beers. One was an infection creating butyric acid that I was able to save by adding brett, which metabolized the butyric acid as well as created additional pleasant character and became a big success. Considering your infection, I tried aging out one of mine when it was mild. It only gets worse. I suggest drinking it while it is still drinkable rather than dumping it when it almost certainly gets vinegary. It's disappointing, but the sooner you drink that thing, the sooner you can put it behind you and try again.
Thanks for that! Yeah, I think there is value added by still cataloguing the process and people can still learn something (including myself). Butyric acid is probably the worst kind of flavor - thankfully didn't end up with that. Working on getting it down now, its on the cusp of developing a cider vinegar character - still mild.
Quickly drinking an imperial stout, even when it's not the best? That sounds like a duty some of your friends could help with! I mean my friend asked me to help him move. I would have much rather be invited over to drink beer! LOL
Thanks for your honesty - happens to all experienced brewers at some point.
love the honesty and its exactly why I keep watching your content (very first video was your original RIS) Keep up the good work lad
Glad you're enjoying it!
Good timing for the video, just about to start my first attempt of brewing russian imperial stout. Long time fan of the channel, keep up the good work! Greeting from Finland!
Best of luck! Check out the potential improvements section so you know what to expect, and be patient with the aging! Its gonna taste like crap for a while
As someone looking to brew an impy in a 7gal electric mash tun soon, this couldn't have come at a better time.
Awesome! Good luck!
I've been watching your videos for a good while since getting into this hobby (learning a lot from them by the way) and got a good chuckle from the trombone in the background. I'm a professional trombonist and I know quite a few fellow trombonists and other musicians who are homebrewers, many who are good at it. If not, they love to drink beer and are good at that too. Anyway thought I'd reach out since you are a clearly part of the trombone community as well and we are basically family. Haha.
I brewed your Irish Red Ale for my first all-grain brew. Great recipe! I did it twice, the second time improving my mash efficiency by insulating my brew kettle and dialing in roasted barley for color. Definitely saw an improvement. If anything it's nice not having to constantly adjust my burner. I have an English IPA fermenting in my temperature controlled chest freezer setup and am excited to continue brewing and share with my bandmates/family/friends. Thanks for the excellent resource!
I bet a couple of those SNOWFLAKES got in their! They ruin everything!🤣
Great vid! A friend sent me an imperial stout recipe he brewed a few years back, seeing your vid made me decide to try it out and let it age ‘till fall !
Recipe is less complexe than yours but targets a OG of 1.093 that turned out to be 1.080 and he mashed at 150F for 90 min, there is no mention of double mash but would you still recommend it at a lower volume, I’m gonna scale down from 5G to 1G as I am literally an apartment brewer ! Recipe calls for S-04 but from what you said should look to another strain? Thanks a bunch my friend !
FYI, kveiks in general drop the pH more than any other ale yeast. Also, Hornindal is slower than other yeasts to metabolize maltotriose and it will do so by very slowly fermenting the leftover sugars. Even if the yeast dropped at the bottom and it appear to be clear. Lars Marius (the kveik guru) talked and wrote about it.
Man I've been stuck with a upper respiratory infection so every single homebrew of mine is on pause till im better. Can't wait to get back into it.
You should take seriously the fact that kveik yeast eat all the unfermentable.That's
why the low FG
That new intro music is 🔥🔥🔥
Came straight from the gym and started editing haha
@@TheApartmentBrewer And I watched while doing cardio. Good cardio material, as it keeps my mind going, and I can keep my cadence steady.
I keep using the hydrometer just for the fun of using it, refractometer seems nice but not as fun.
You rock! Gladly subscribed can't wait to binge watch all your videos 😅😅🍻
Cheers! Hope you enjoy them!
Great film... Did you batch sparge
How you gonna throw that trombone in the background and not give us some brass action? Oddly enough, the only major infection I've had in many years was a super hoppy dark beer that blew the lid off the fermenter, which is where I thought the infection came from but who knows. Turned out interesting though. If the infection continues you could bottle it and say its a The Bruery Sour Stout lol. I wonder if the problem came from the yeast, either a contaminated kveik or just the kveik kept going. I use Hornindal and Espy at work for NEIPAs and they chew threw everything down to like 1.7 plato (thank god for chloride and low bitterness). Hornindal always gives very tropical flavors for me but some other kveiks (Voss in particular) give a very weird flavor to me. I wonder if your "infection" is actually just the kveik. It seems reiterative mashing is the best way for BIABers to do high grav. I did that 6 hour boil stout on the home level and pro level we do two back to back no-sparge half capacity brews. Seems like a double mash is a real time saver.... but I think I may (gasp) think of adding DME next time I want to go super high grav. Anyways, this video inspired me to crack open one of my year old stouts and I agree with you on your malt bill analysis. Going for smooth and chocolatey isn't as good as a good ol' roasty boi. I blame the stout for this freaking dissertation I've written.
Stout based dissertations are the best kind. I'm not going to throw out the possibility of the yeast lending this type of character just yet, because it may be true! At some point I will be doing some sort of super high gravity stout where DME will have to be an ingredient! Also definitely bringing back the roasted barley. Glad you enjoyed the video, keep the dissertations coming!
Love the honesty in the review! Thanks for what you do man.
🤘🤘
wondering if aging improved the flavour
Making one my self 40 literes. To night... Long nigth, Aheed... :-) sleepy at work tomorrow. Beer.. Voss kveik. And demera and muskovado. And som champagne yeast later. Nøgne ø style high abv.. Norway here :-)
Sounds strong! Good luck!
I'm glad I found this video because I don't want to get a 20 gal system but I don't want to miss out on these high gravity brew opportunities either. A double mash was something I never considered and just solidified my decision to get a 10 gal BIAB! Keep up the good work.
Excellent!! Glad I could save you some money!
Just read your edit. Lol glad it turned out well.
Keeping the Christmas decorations until March is such an Alpha move lmao
I make sure to look my neighbors in the eye every day
That was a good list of potential improvements. Also haven't heard of a double mash before, so that was pretty cool.
David Heath Homebrew has a few videos on it. He calls it a re-iterated mash. It seems like an awesome technique to squeeze gravity points out of these systems.
Thanks! Yeah there is for sure plenty that could be better about this one. Glad I could introduce you to the technique!
@@Vykk_Draygo Yes, it certainly is!
Your description of flavor sounds like how I would describe Dragon's Milk. My reference Russian imperial stout of choice is Bell's Expedition Stout.
Would you recommend only putting the dark grains in the second mash?
Yes
Is your Russian Imperial Stout 2019 still your best?
Most definitely
Most definitely
@@TheApartmentBrewer I have a Bourbon barrel where I think I will make your Heart of Darkness and age it in the barrel.
That sounds awesome! Be sure to let me know how it ends up!
@@TheApartmentBrewer I will
Did you split the salt addition or did you add only in the first mash? And what about the sparge salts?
I added to the strike water for the first mash, no sparge
That's more snow than I have seen in my entire life. It's blowing off the roof. Crazy!
I had a few processing questions. I have done a few double mashes before and had varying results (definitely my errors). I recently got an anvil 6.5 gal brewing system, and can't seem to get the water volume right for the double mash. How did you go about setting the water volume used for the first and second mash? Do you use more for the first and sparge to optimum level, or do you sparge a little at the end? I've tried to do my own calculations and screw it every time. Thanks for the help!
I would use as much water as possible for the mash, then sparge to get your volumes up at the end of the second mash. You could also add some mash temp water in between your first and second mashes if you account for the dilution
@@TheApartmentBrewer thanks so much! I will try these options!
When doing a double mash, is there any advantage/disadvantage to doing a quick sparge on the grain from the first mash? I brew in a brewzilla and am planning on a RIS next month. Trying to find the best way to do the double mash.
I would advise against it unless you are using sparge water that is at or below your mash temp. You do not want to denature the enzyme that will be needed for conversion in the second mash stage. Sparge away after your second mash though!
@@TheApartmentBrewer thanks for the response. Definitely will keep that in mind!
Wow, intro blew me away :D
Perfect! Ive rewatched your other RIS video a few times. I'm preparing to do one in a couple of weeks with a smaller system. This is the exact process I'll have to do!
It really helps avoid half batches and seems to work like a charm!
@@TheApartmentBrewer Hopefully! I enjoy big beers like this but never tried brewing them because I could only make half batches. Now that the weather warming up, I'm finally going to go for it and age until roughly November. I recently upgraded to a 240v Brewzilla and I'm still getting used to it.
did you find the kveik finished with a lower ph than you would have gotten with us05 or English ale yeast?
I usually don't measure pH after fermentation, but I'm not sure. Maybe?
@@TheApartmentBrewer i don't either but the times I've used kveik it comes through in the taste - like a neipa can become a lemon juice ipa very quickly with kveik - ive stopped using it for that reason. love your videos - thanks for sharing again
Is that a trombone?! Love it!
Yeah! I used to play in college
I was going to say the same thing. Except I played in middle school (had to give it up before high school). Between my wife and I we have... too many instruments. Trombone is next on my list to re-add.
@@Vykk_Draygo Nice! I played actively for 11 years. Occasionally I still do but I'm waiting to move to a place without neighbors so I can actually play unmuted. It's such a great instrument
@@TheApartmentBrewer Yeah, I sold my amps when moving into this apartment. My neighbors don't seem to understand that drums aren't an appropriate apartment instrument... but it is what it is. But yeah, trombone was my first, so it holds a special place. Love it!
You were doing very weloo the part about RIS being oppy to survive the journey. Ron Pattinson who has researched this topic ong and hoppy because the Russians
Not quite sure what you're saying here, but thanks for watching!
What does the Russian imperial stout ingredients cost start to finish
I think this ended up being around $80-$100 for the whole batch, comes out to about $2 a beer
I'm subscribbed but YT didn't show me this video! Weird, I'm glad I looked for it, great video!
Thank you again for posting videos that show the hits and misses! Anyone who does any sort of crafting knows it doesn't always work and people can learn a lot when it does, but only if people like you are generous enough to show them! That's awesome!
I appreciate that! I'm really glad you enjoyed the video and thanks for watching!
I would've never thought to use that technique!! How awesome!!
braj! all 4 seasons in one video!?! That's nuts!
Sometimes I wish it was sunny San Diego but winter had other plans!
I’ve been subscribed for about a month. Enjoy the thoroughness of the vids. But I’m commenting because of the trombone. I too, am a brass playing brewer. “Did we just become best friends?!” - Step brothers
Also, any time you can quote BrewingTV (it was a thing when I started brewing) I’m an instant fan.
Cheers!! Yeah I played through high school and college, stopped after that but I'm keeping the horn for later. Hoping to get back into it!
Bummer if that's bacteria
My last brew was a big (also 1.100) stout with oatmeal on the last day of 2020. I am bulk aging, planning to bottle in October maybe? I don't know we'll see how my patience holds up. But I want to brew it every year and keep some bottles for year-to-year tasting.
It's difficult to keep your hands off long aging beers like that, trust me I know!
At this point, what percent chance do you think it’s actually an infection? And is it safe to say any infection didn’t happen when dry hopping? With that high an abv and the blanket of co2 that would be covering your beer at that point I would think you could have pitched actual bacteria and nothing would have been able to take off.
I brew makgeolli and we have to get in there with barehands to mix cooled steamed rice into a fermented starter (10+%abv) before leaving it to ferment and I’ve never had any kind of infection - which I would think attributable to the protection you get from a high abv...
Well, you really can't rely on ABV to actually help you kill off bugs until its in much higher concentration, more like 30-40%. But I'm still fairly sure its external.
Really enjoying your videos. I’m having a hard time figuring you out though: I’ve seen an UCP MOLLE ruck sack (hooah), and a trombone with real mutes (so not a casual “Will Riker” kind of player), and finally you have a beard. What do you do, man?
Keep it up!
So I do a bunch of things haha. In short, brewing and youtube aren't my only hobbies and I have multiple jobs. I'll probably end up doing some sort of off the cuff video on that sort of thing in a bit.
Not sure what the purpose of dry hopping a RIS would be. With that high ABV you don't need the hops as a preservative and you aren't likely going to taste it over the dark malt. Personally I'd axe the dry hop all together. I use Wyeast 1728 for my RIS's.
Its actually more common with RIS than you might think. It all depends on the type of hop though, you cant do it with just any standard hop because it will be either out of place or like you said will get lost in the roast. It's not going to be analogous to typical dry-hopped beers like IPAs at all. Northern brewer is really unique among hops though in that it gives a really nice complimentary woody/minty flavor and aroma, but I still think I overdid it here. Earthy hops like most English varieties would be good options as well.
'it will go fast at first but it's gonna take some time to clean everything up at the end' -> is there any objective way to measure when this is done? Once the SG is stable for X days that's one thing but the clean-up phase thereafter, I'm just doing guesswork..?
Literally when it tastes good to you. Stable gravity measurements tell you that sugar fermentation and alcohol production is complete. However for a longer period after that yeast will metabolize other byproducts of fermentation (ex. acetyldehyde, sulfur compounds, fusel alcohols) and improve the flavor of the beer. That's what I mean by "cleanup phase" but in some beers like this one, a much longer aging period with slow oxidation and esterification will have positive effects, mellowing the harsh flavors from the roasted malts and high alcohol levels.
Hey at 8:01 what is that device you have on top of your kettle with the glass window to see the beer? What is the purpose of that, is it just to see the beer through a clear glass window or is there another use for it?
That's an NPT inline sight glass. I use it to gage the color of the wort and to observe clarity after mashout. Also it's useful to see if you're recirculating excessive amounts of grain or hop particles, especially when going to the chiller later on in the brew day
@@TheApartmentBrewer ahh thank you i figured that was what it was for.
Just goes to show you can't win them all. Chalk it up to lessons learned and hopefully you can pinpoint what went wrong and where. My advice - brew another RIS now and age it till winter! 🍻 🤘
I love them so much I may just have to! Thanks for watching!
Question- How would one adjust their water profile if I'm only mashing with 4.5 gallons of distilled water and sparging with the other 3? Heat it all at one time and add the total amount of brewing salts? Add it all to the 4.5? Never understood that part of it
You can either add it all the the mash water or split it evenly between mash and sparge water. Either works fine.
Ok so I brewed my Imp Stout but buggered up the water levels and boil off was less than I expected (stupid stove). Plan on bottling it saturday after 1 month in primary. I’ll start taking gravity readings on Thursday until Saturday to check fermentation, I expect a 6-7% abv. Gonna bottle age until October and guy at LHBS said that high gravity beers can continue slowly fermenting in that long ageing period. How should I approach priming? Should I underprime to be sure? Aiming for about 2 vol co2, should I prime for 1.5 or less or more? Any advice would be appreciated as LHBS guy and 2 fb homebrew groups have not given me an answer. Thank you !
Sorry to hear your brew day went sideways, I'm sure it will still work out fine. Its highly dependent on whether your final gravity is way too high or not. Sometimes they do continue to ferment slowly but its usually not something that bottles can't handle, unless your FG is significantly higher than expected. If your yeast is a strain that is known to continue fermentation I would approach with caution and underprime OR just commit to letting it bulk age in a glass carboy or keg for a few months. If you choose to bottle, I would encourage storing this in the fridge or at lager temperature after its carbonated so that you can force the yeast to become dormant and guarantee there won't be any bottle bombs if youre worried.
@@TheApartmentBrewer Thank you so much, SG was 1.075 and I pitched US-05 at 4 times the amount needed (9g for 1 gallon). What would you consider a ‘safe’ FG to proceed with normal priming? I’m hoping for 1.010-1.015 max. Anyways thanks again for the help, much appreciated !! Cheers.
@@Frameshaft anything under 1.025-1.030 is a normal FG for an imperial stout, but just check it a few times to be sure that its done. More than happy to help!
@@TheApartmentBrewer So I finally bottled, fg was 1.016 !? (From 1.075). 79% attenuation out of 80% for US-05. I primed for 1.8 vol co2 and hope for the best! Bottles are stored in a latching lid plastic bin for protection !
I thought I was amusingly going to comment on the fact that I felt hard done by leaving the garage doors open whilst brewing in a 'harsh' English winter. However more importantly kudos for honesty and commiserations (if you have to dump it) on a failed by no means cheap brew. Been there, it stings.
By harsh do you mean it snowed once? Haha I'm kidding, I do appreciate the kind words though. Hopefully I don't need to dump it or we'll have to hold a memorial service
Cool and honest review. I was worried when I saw your first mash ph. The second part would drop that ph even more though? You are adding more grains/ dark grains. I personally like my stouts on the higher end (5.4-5.6).
Yeah you're not the first person to point out that the mash pH was a bit off, should definitely have been higher. Thanks for watching!
Great video..... stinks your brew may have an infection.
Cheers Steve
Yeah its kind of a bummer. Thanks for watching and cheers Jesse!
Nothing wrong with admitting to a failure. I've put a few down the drain for sure. Do you think it's also down to the sugar addition that has thinned out the beer?
I don't think so necessarily. It was such a small amount relative to the rest of the beer, I think it needs more protein. It's also possible my temp controller needed calibration. This was like the 3rd beer I did on the clawhammer system and hadn't run a calibration on it yet
Dude! Love your knowledge of brewing. You should start teaching a class$$$ on how too. I will attend. Good luck 👍
Thanks man!
Do you adjust the mash ph for each mash?
Only if it needs adjustment, if it's 5.1-5.5 I'll usually let it be.
Nice job! It’s always good to be honest with the reviews, definitely appreciate that! Also a good remind for me to clean my kegs really well as I’m kegging today. Nothing worse than spending a long brew day only to end up having a spoiled batch from infection. Let us know what happens in another month!
Thanks! It's a bit of a bummer given the amount of work I put into the beer. I plan on pinning my own comment in a month or two to describe any changes
Could it be that you have a hop creep?
Doubt it. That would be a diacetyl like taste, not a sour taste
sorry to hear about the potential infection. Great advice on the double mash though! I didn't know this was an option and was resigning myself to having to make a half batch. Really galls me to put all that effort and time in and only get 2.5gals out of it so this is a real game changer for me! Thanks dude.
Glad you enjoyed the video and learned something! It really does help a ton!
SOUR your ph was way to low as well. For stouts you should be aiming for 5.6
Yeah it probably was a bit low, thanks for watching!
Great job mate! Love the honesty! I've been fortunate enough not to come across infection yet, but one day it will hit. Your G2G videos are the best on RUclips.
I appreciate that man! Glad you enjoyed the video!
Kveik is pretty thin and dry in my experience, that may be where your mouth feel and sweetness was missing out, it can be acidic too
Its possible. It attenuated like crazy.
those missing plum/fruit flavors can come from a little oxidation while aging
That's entirely possible
To bad on the infection! But I'm sure this is a one time deal....keep at it and I'll see you at the next video
It better be a one time deal!!
DUDE!!!!! When I saw this pop up I couldn’t wait to get home and watch, I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time except I want to do a Goose Island Bourbon County clone, HUGE grain bill and this would be the only way I can brew it.
AWESOME VIDEO MAN!!!!!!!
👍🏻👍🏻🍺🍺 cheers
Cheers Tom!! This is a great way to brew something like that, sounds like a massive undertaking!
@@TheApartmentBrewer yeah I’ve been looking into this for a while now, very cool man! Ya gotta let us know how it comes out, if it was infected or not.
I will, I'll revisit in a month or so and pin a comment on how it ends up
The funk actually sounds kinda interesting... but yeah. Probably not what I'd reach for on the regular.
I'm planning to do some double mashing in my Foundry. Should be fun!
Yeah, definitely would have been better without. We'll see what the future holds! What are you planning on making?
@@TheApartmentBrewer I've been working on a wheatwine recipe, so I want to try that first. Also have a barleywine that I made with my BIAB system that was excellent, so I want to lay that down so I can drink it next winter. Run out of space to put bottles for now, so it will need to wait a bit. ;D
However, that would be accurate for the 18th century. Wooden casks were used over and over again. They would replace the head of the barrel, scald It with boiling hot water, let cool, and pack it full of beer again. So they sort of cleaned them, but funk and barrel aged was the order of the day.
KA Vike pronounced there is no W in it
Lol nobody can agree on the pronunciation...I just picked one finally and stuck with it
@@TheApartmentBrewer Fair enough man. Keep up the good work i love your videos!
Is that a Bach trombone there?
Yup! A 42B
Great horn!
Also, I never realized you were in the Army! I’m currently a SGT up in Fort Drum with the band.
Love your content Sir!
Hey man I love the hard work you do to make awesome beer!! I was curious if you would be willing to make my take on a unusual style IPA. My family loved what I made but I need another option. My 7 year old daughter helped me and I was quite blown away when I tasted the finished product
Thanks! I'm interested. What makes it unusual?
I used uk pale malt. Cara pils. Honey malt. Flaked wheat. Flaked oats. Hops I used. El dorado. Azacca. Amarillo. Mosaic. And citra. If you're interested in all what I did let me know. My daughter thought it would be cool to watch someone taste my beer
Nice! I'm not actually seeing anything too "unusual" about that haha. But yeah I can try to work that in over the next few months!
@@TheApartmentBrewer ok no worries
I Just discover your channel mate. Great work. Greetings from a Greek Homebrewer.
Glad you enjoyed it! I actually visited Greece in 2019 for a few weeks and it was a beautiful country!
@@TheApartmentBrewer Let me guess. Athens, Meteora, Delphoi, Mykonos and Santorini. What was your favourite place and what do you remember the most?
@@Christos_HomeBrewer close! Litochoro/Mt Olympus, Athens, Paros and Naxos. I'll be back to some of the other places you mentioned. My favorite spots are a tie between Paros and Litochoro to be honest
@@TheApartmentBrewer Check also mt Pelion. Mykonos island for the parties. And Samos island for the unique beauty. Meteora and Delphoi for a taste of the ancient Greece.
Definitely will improve the longer it ages. Kind of depends on what you are looking for though.
I hope it does, it might get worse though if it is infected as I think it may be
@@TheApartmentBrewer I wonder if that is part of the flavor profile of the Kveik yeast.
Yeah, definitely not. I've used the Hornindal kveik in many different beers and usually its just fruity or slightly dank
I would love to see how you do your cleaning on that system. Especially after a brew day like that.
A video is in the works!
@@TheApartmentBrewer Awesome! Just got this system and was looking for an easy video to help with cleaning. While there is info out there on what to do your videos are some of my favorites because of how you present information. Straight forward, step by step, showing when you make mistakes, and clearly you have a passion for brewing . Love the channel, keep up the good work!
Thanks for the support man! In short to clean it,, I recirculate PBW through the system, bring to a boil and then recirculate water to rinse. Sometimes crud can stick to the element. You really want to avoid using a steel wool type of abrasive on it so try to use a scotch Brite pad or similar tough sponge material instead.
Nice climate buddy
I used to hate the winter but now I love it! New England climate is the best.
@@TheApartmentBrewer I have never seen such a show in my life.. so just wish to be .
Watching this for research for un upcoming imperial stout. Sorry for your infection. . .Buuut your fermentation notes helped a lot!
No infection actually, turns out I'm just impatient and it needed another three months to age lol. Glad I could help though, have fun with the brew!