Imperial Stout

Okay, I'm officially hooked on home brewing! I just can't seem to stop myself ... I made a batch of Imperial Stout over the weekend. Recipe is:

12 lbs Light LME
12oz Crystal Malt 120L
16oz Chocolate Malt
8 oz Black Patent
8oz Roasted Barley
2oz Galena (60 min.)
1.5 oz Willamette (60 min.)
.05 oz East Kent Goldings (5 min.)
WLP013 London Ale Yeast

O.G. - 1.083

First off, I made a nice starter with 2 pints of water and 3/4 LME. Brought them to a boil, held for 15 minutes, cooled and transferred to a beaker. Pitched the yeast and let it sit, and within 12 hours has a very nice, VERY active starter going. This was Thursday night.

Friday night I made up the wort ... I put the malts in a muslin bag, and put that into 2 gallons of cold water in my pot. Brought that up to 160 degrees and held it there for 30 minutes so the grains could steep. My oh my, but it was dark! Wonderful smell from the chocolate and Black Patent, and the wort was darker than night!

After that, I brought the water to a boil, added the LME and brought back to a boil, then added the Galena and Willamette hops. Added in the E.K. Goldings at 55 minutes into the boil, kept it going for another 5 minutes and turned off the heat.

I had a hard time getting this wort to cool, for some reason. I put the boil pot into a sink full of ice and water, and what normally takes about 15 minutes just didn't happen. After about 30 minutes, I strained the cooling wort into 3 gallons of cool water, thinking that would finish the job, then topped off with a little more cool water to get to just over the 5 gallon mark.

Still over 80 degrees.

Hmmm ... put the carboy in a sink full of cool water and stepped away for a bit. I couldn't tell if the little thermometer stuck to the glass was reading the wort temp or the external water temp (or a combination off the two), but I'd been colling this sucker for over 4 hours and the thermometer said 78 degrees, so I decided to pitch the yeast and let the carboy sit in the sink full of water over night. Did that, woke up in the more to not much activity in the tank.

Left for a couple of hours and returned home to a potential mess! Oh my, the beer was going crazy! Even in the 6.5 gallon carboy, the foam and kraeusen were about to come out of the fermentation lock. I quickly changed the lock to a blow off tube, and that's how it's sitting right now. Once things slow down, I'll put the normal lock back on and let it sit for a week or so before racking to secondary.

I'm going to really take my time on this batch. It's going to be a really big beer, so I'm in no hurry to drink it during the summer months. I figure I'll get it bottled by mid to late July, and let it sit until november or so. Yes, I'll probably have one or two along the way, but I don't anticipate this being more than a "now and then" kind of beer. I love Imperial Stout, just not in huge quantities. Going to be a wonderful winter with this on hand!