Black Heart RIS

THE PLAN

Been wanting to brew a Russian Imperial Stout... I blogged about one recipe I was thinking about earlier this year - Bourbon "Barrel" RIS.  I've put it off for 2 reasons... 1.  I was afraid I wouldn't have enough room in my mash ton.  2. I couldn't decide on a recipe.  It's been long enough, this thing needs brewed, and I have some emotion behind it right now, so it's time.  Black Heart symbolizes exactly what you'd expect... the loss of love.  The label I'm working on is the three of swords from the tarot deck, another interest of mine.  I'm aiming to "release" this on Valentines Day 2012. 

THE RECIPE

Batch #35

22# Pale Malt
3# Munich
1# Crystal 90
1# Choc Malt
1# Roasted Barley
1/2# Crystal 60
1/2# Special B
1/2# Black Patent
2 oz Citra (60)
2 oz Tettnang (60)
1 oz Fuggles (10)
1 oz Willamette (10)
2 oz Willamette (0)
Wyeast 1028

Single Infusion mash, ~154, 90 minute boil.
Ferment at 67
Secondary for 6+ months

Just about maxed out my 48 qt mash tun

6/26 BREWDAY (acting as summer solstice)
- Have been putting this off for so long because I wasn't sure if my mash tun would handle it.  Had to go with a 1:1 ratio for grain:water.  12 gallon cooler, 7.5 gallons of water, 6+ "gallons" of grain... yikes.
- Heated 30 quarts to about 175, added to cooler, waited 5-10 minutes, temp down to about 170.
- Doughed in all of the grain... little by little, and holy shit, it fit!  Stoked.
- Starting temp was right around 152, but I saw things from 149 up to 158.  All good.
- At 15 minutes in, I decided to add another 2 quarts of boiling water just to make sure it was staying up.  The temp now was about 154.  Cool.
- Checked at 45 minutes, stirred a bit, temps still above 150, so I'm good.
- Heating 20 qts of sparge water to 180F.
- Going with a 75 minutes mash to account for sparge water time.
- First runnings:  4.5 gallons, 1.106

9 gallons of black love

- Pre-boil: 9 gallons, 1.074
- Boil down to 7.5 gallons, then add first addition hops... leaving a little more in there since I'm using 6 ounces of whole hops which will suck up quite a bit of the wort.
- Added 1 ox Fuggles, 1 oz Willamette, irish moss, and chiller with 10 miunutes left.
- Added 2 oz Willamette at flame out.
- Chilling... down to 9- degrees... and kaplooey.  1/4 gallon water in the kettle from the chiller.  Gonna have to fucking boil again.  God damn it.  I guess I can tell all the non beer geek peeps it was "double boiled".  One plus for having to do this was that I filtered out the hops.
- After 2nd boil (which was about 30 minutes), I chilled to 64.  Gonna wait until morning to pitch yeast, hoping it will have built up a little more by then.

6/27 -pitched 1000mL starter & leftover rinsed yeast from oatmeal brown around 8/9AM.
By midnight, noticed krausen was 2" high and bubbles off the big blowoff tube were about once every second and a half or so.

6/28 - 7AM - Krausen is out of the blow off tube and has filled the first bucket.    Wrapped some cold towels around it to try and bring the temp down a bit, was pushing 74.

6/29 - 1:30pm - things have slowed down, took a gravity reading... sitting about 1.058, so still a ways to go.  Might pitch some more yeast to help it finish out, but I may wait a bit.

6/30 - 5:30p - switched to a regular airlock last night... bubbling every 4 seconds right now.  Hoping that gravity gets to where it needs to be.

7/1 - 7pm - bubble every 8 seconds.

7/3 - 10:30 pm - bubble every 17 seconds.  Gravity at 1.042.  Still not where I want it, but it's getting there.  I have a feeling this probably is about finished though.  That's pretty high... but if I do remember correctly, Bourbon Co. Stout finishes at 1.043... wouldn't that be funny.  Taste is pretty... regular.  Everything seems pretty balanced at the moment... no fusels, not as much fruity flavor as I wanted.. but its there.  This has promise.

7/24 - had a good reason for drinking some of this tonight, checked the gravity too.  1.040, boo.

9/3 - built up the blow off yeast, pitched in at high krausen.  No activity at first, but definitely got some bubbles.

9/21 - gravity check - 1.035!  Wuhoo!

9/27 - took a liter out to carb w/ new carbonater tool to take in to work for the stout ice cream.  The flat beer was kind of bland.  Just tasted like stout without much else.

9/29 - took it in, had a tasting and it tasted amazing.  That blandness was gone.  It was very rich.

9/30 - withdrew 2 more liters to take to work for the ice cream.  Noticed the

10/1 - transferred about 4.5 gallons to another carboy.  Going to decide if I want to oak/bourbon it or just go with it by itself.  If the latter of the two, then I'll keg it and throw it in the fridge.

10/3 - The micros test passed, so we will officially be scooping this imperial stout ice cream this Thursday!  http://ow.ly/6MeYy