Imperial Stout

grain:
- 20 pounds Muntons Maris Otter Pale Ale malt
- 1 pound Briess roast malt
- 1 pound Briess crystal 60
- 9 ounces chocolate malt
- 13 ounces black patent

hop:
- 2 ounces Nugget (60 minutes)
- 1/2 ounce Amarillo (30 minutes)
- 1/2 ounce Amarillo (20 minutes)
- 1/4 ounce Amarillo dry hopped

yeast:
- White Labs California V (wort dumped onto Porter yeast)

comments:
Surprisingly few legitimate Imperial Stout recipes online. This one is based on Palmer's Mill Run Stout plus Imperial Stout recommendations from Ray Daniel's Designing Great Beers. Focus is on the malt with a touch of citrusy Amarillo hops.

Approach is simple. Use as much grain as I do for a 10 gallon batch but only collect the first sparge. That means this is only a 5 - 6 gallon batch. I expect a beer around 9 to 10 percent. Help me shovel snow and through the holidays.

mash notes:
- ( 9:50 AM) mash start @ 152 degrees
- (10:35 AM) @ 148 degrees
- (11:05 AM) @ 146 degrees
- (11:25 AM) sparge water added
- first sparge @ 20 Brix
- second sparge @ 18.5 Brix (estimated abv is 9 - 9.5%)

boil notes:
- (12:37 PM) boil start
- (12:42 PM) hot break
- ( 1:45 PM) flame out

notes:
- added second sparge due to low volume of first sparge. too much grain in the mash tun for a larger first sparge.
- a beautiful Fall day for brewing. Thanks to Uncle Mike for the custom built kettle in the photo.

Porter

grain:
- 20 pounds Muntons Maris Otter Pale Ale malt
- 1 pound chocolate malt
- 1 pound crystal 60 malt
- 1/2 pound black patent malt

hop:
- 1 3/4 ounces whole leaf Nugget (60 minutes)
- 1 1/2 ounces whole leaf Nugget (40 minutes)
- 1 ounce whole leaf Willamette (20 minutes)
- 1 ounce whole leaf Willamette (half in keg and half in secondary for bottling)

yeast:
- White Labs California V

comments:
This is John Palmer's "Port O Palmer" from his excellent book "How to Brew". The book was my first brew book and I still reference it more than any other. I took Palmer's recipe and cranked it up for a 10 gallon batch. I messed up on the second hop addition. It should have been Willamette.

mash notes:
- (12:30 PM) 148 - 150 degrees
- ( 1:00 PM) 148 degrees
- ( 1:45 PM) sparge water added ... added ice to bring the temperature back to about 170
- ( 2:00 PM) first sparge at 17.5 Brix
- ( 2:45 PM) second sparge at 12.5 Brix

boil notes:
- no water added to kettle
- ( 3:30 PM) boil start
- ( 3:36 PM) approximate time of apparent hot break
- ( 4:38 PM) flame out

notes:
- next day with fermenation well under way. Not a particularly strong fermentation but I believe everything is fine. Temperature at about 66 degrees.

- roasty with persistant hop flavor on tap ... quite good.

- update from tap: ease off the flavor hops next time ... can confuse.

Make a Yeast Starter

I always make a yeast starter.  Objective is to increase the amount of healthy yeast that you will pitch into cooled wort after the boil.  This gives you the best chance of a healthy fermentation.  Help your yeast help you.

Boil water and dry malt extract:

Cool the mixture and pour into a sanitized vessel. Add the yeast and put in the same environment where you will ferment your beer a few days later:

Healthy yeast makes good beer. Good beer makes you happy.