Double-Header Brew Day!

Believe it or not, it is already time to start the Christmas beer! This years brew - Imperium Brettania - is an inky-black 100% Brettanomyces lambicus fermented Russian Imperial Stout, aged on French oak. Yep, those of you on my xmas exchange list have something to look forward to!

As with my other all-brett dark beers I've made efforts to reduce the amount of grain-derived phenols, in order to limit the production of unpleasant levels of 4-ethylpheol (burnt plastic) and other potentially unpleasant phenols by replacing half of the dark malts with their de-husked equivalents (i.e. carafa special II and III in place of some of the black and chocolate malts). This is combined with a lower-end hop schedule (BU:GU of 0.66), which I hope will keep things balanced once the Brett drys out the beer. This is topped off with a cherry-flavour producing yeast (B. lambicus, Wyeast 5526). This is about as big a beer as I can brew - the 11kg of malt plus 28L of water fills my mash-tun to the lid!

The downside of brewing all-grain big beers like this is that your efficiency usually sucks - its not unheard of for 30% of the fermentables to remain trapped in the mash-tun. I'm fixing this by partigyling this batch - once I've collected the first runnings (Imperium Brettania), I'm doing a second sparge to gather the residual sugars, after which I'm going to hop the runnings with some Willamette hops left over from an older batch, and if needed I'll add a bit of sugar to up the gravity and dry the beer out. I'm not certain what this is going to yield - a sessionable stout, or perhaps a summer mild? Either way, its being named 50,002. Why you ask? That's how many views this blog has recieved as of this morning!

Recipe and notes below the fold.

Imperium Brettania

Imperial Stout

Type: All Grain	Date: 16 Aug 2014
Boil Size: 36.56 l	Boil Time: 90 min
Brewhouse Efficiency: 68.00 %	End of Boil Volume 27.56 l
Ingredients Amt Name Type # %/IBU 47.61 l London Ontario North Water 1 - 5.90 g Salt (Mash 60.0 mins) Salt 2 - 3.70 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 mins) Salt 3 - 2.20 g Baking Soda (Mash 60.0 mins) Salt 4 - 0.50 g Epsom Salt (MgSO4) (Mash 60.0 mins) Salt 5 - 6.50 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 6 60.3 % 2.00 kg Canadian 2 Row Pale Malt (2.0 SRM) Grain 7 18.6 % 0.45 kg Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM) Grain 8 4.2 % 0.40 kg Carafa Special III (Weyermann) (470.0 SRM) Grain 9 3.7 % 0.30 kg Carafa Special II (Weyermann) (415.0 SRM) Grain 10 2.8 % 0.30 kg Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 11 2.8 % 0.30 kg Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 12 2.8 % 0.30 kg Special W Malt (115.0 SRM) Grain 13 2.8 % 0.23 kg Wheat Malt, Pale (Weyermann) (2.0 SRM) Grain 14 2.1 % 45.00 g Warrior [14.00 %] - Boil 90.0 min Hop 15 55.5 IBUs 20.00 g East Kent Goldings [5.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 16 6.3 IBUs 1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 17 - 0.50 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 5.0 mins) Other 18 - 1.0 pkg Brettanomyces Lambucus (Wyeast Labs #5526) Yeast 19 - 1.50 oz Oak Cubes (Secondary 14.0 days) Flavor 20 -
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.092 SG	Measured Original Gravity: 1.046 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.028 SG	Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 8.5 %
Bitterness: 61.8 IBUs
Mash Profile
Mash Name: Single Infusion, Full Body, Batch Sparge	Total Grain Weight: 10.78 kg
Sparge Water: 19.25 l	Grain Temperature: 21.0 C
Sparge Temperature: 75.6 C	Tun Temperature: 20.0 C
Adjust Temp for Equipment: TRUE	Mash PH: 5.20
Mash Steps Name Description Step Temperature Step Time Mash In Add 28.36 l of water at 77.1 C 68.9 C 45 min
Sparge Step: Batch sparge with 2 steps (0.84l, 18.41l) of 75.6 C water
Mash Notes: Simple single infusion mash for use with most modern well modified grains (about 95% of the time).
Carbonation and Storage
Carbonation Type: Keg	Volumes of CO2: 2.3
Pressure/Weight: 12.54 PSI	Carbonation Used: Keg with 12.54 PSI
Keg/Bottling Temperature: 7.2 C	Age for: 30.00 days
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage	Storage Temperature: 18.3 C
Brewday Notes
Imperium Brettania: -mashed in, undershot by nearly 3 degrees (66C instead of 68C); decoted ~4L to raise temperature -conversion complete @ 30min! -undershot mash gravity by 6 points, so added 500g sugar to compensate 50,002:  -collected ~24L of wort at 1.016, added 500g sugar to increase OG to ~1.030 post-boil -added 12g (7.7 ibu) Willamette @ 60min -added  14g (5.4 IBU) Willamette@ 20min -added 14g (1.8 IBU) Willamette@ 5min
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