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.