Yesterday I attempted to brew an imperial stout. I love imperial stouts and had too much beer to justify brewing a beer that would be ready in less than a month and a half. It, like many of the recipes I do were pulled directly from my ass. I essentially used beer alchemy so I stayed somewhat within the parameters of the style. The recipe is as follows.

6 lbs of US Pale Ale Malt 5 lbs of Flaked Barley 4 lbs of US 6-Row Malt 1 lb of Roasted Barley 3oz of Special B 1 oz of Chinook (60 minutes) 2 oz of Yakima Goldings (30 minutes) 1 packet of Wyeast Scottish Ale 1728

I chose this much Flaked Barley because I wanted an Imperial Stout that was a bit on the dry side since they have a tendency to be a bit syrupy. Unfortunately, due to the large level of flaked barley I ended up getting a stuck sparge. I was only able to collect about 7 gallons of wort. For this style it would have been better if I collected 10 and than boiled down to 5. The starting gravity ended up being 1.060. I mashed for 1.5 hours at 151 degrees. The next time I attempt this I probably will use 7 lbs of 6 row and 2 lbs of flaked barley to prevent the stuck sparge. Alternatively I could attempt to use rice hulls. Fortunately, the beer still falls into the parameters for an foreign extra stout.

Since I was planning on having a higher starting gravity, I decided to make a starter. I started it on thursday night hoping for it the reach full krausen by saturday. I smacked the pack on wednesday but think I probably should of smacked it thursday morning. I think it may have reached full krausen and dropped down while I was sleeping but since I did not use a clear bottle (I used your average growler), I could not tell. I will probably purchase a 2000ml beaker from Northern Brewer for the next time I do this. The beer started bubbling the day after I brewed it so I’m assuming I had a decent pitching level.