I’ve never brewed one but I do like them on a rare occasion and I thought maybe I’d put the foresight into brewing one now that will be ready in a year or so to give as gifts to friends and family who enjoy beer. Opinions on recipe particulars? Length of secondary? When to bottle? What kind of mash efficiency should I expect? Yeast choices? Is a year generally too long? Not long enough?
Since I’m allowing myself a year to get this ready I’m all for trying some big bold flavors that’ll have time to mellow…
This is the last RIS I brewed. I’ve brewed some that were more in your face intense, but this one has a milder, more milk chocolate character. It’s nice. The grist is a little busier than most beers I brew, but I think it works :
50ish IBU Galena - 60 min
20 IBU Willamette - 20 min
Mash 148F / 90 mins @ 5.6 pH
O2 - 90 seconds
Pitched @ 62F, held @ 64F for 10 days, ramped up slowly to 74F. In primary for 1 month, FG verified.
To answer your questions, I feel it’s a good idea to leave it in primary until you hit FG. Resist the urge to transfer to secondary, because if you remove the beer from the yeast too early, you’ll end up with a stalled, overly sweet beer. Raising temp as I did is big in helping the beer attenuate down as mine did. As with any beer, verify that you’re at FG before you bottle - ie., 2-3 identical readings 2-3 days apart each. I got 65% efficiency on this beer - not uncommon for efficiency to go down a bit on big beers. I totally love WY1450 for this beer - it attenuates really well but leaves a full, malty mouthfeel. If you can’t find it, WY 1028 London works great for RIS, too. The beer would be great left for a year to age obviously, but this beer was dangerously good at 8-12 weeks old. Got better with time, of course. Good luck !
Wow, that’s a lot of insight. Thanks so
much Hoosierbrew. I think I’ll just follow this to a T.
One question. Do you think pure O2 is necessary for a beer like this or can I just increase time on the mix stir. I plan on building up a yeast with ‘SNS’ method that’s been through a few generations of lower gravity beers.
Actually, I used to use O2 on my big beers, but on this one I used my mix stir and got the attenuation as advertised. So you’ll do well with the mix stir.
Edit - I posted before I realized I’d stopped using O2 before brewing this one.
all personal preferences - the one I just made, i put some oats in. i prefer to use dark munich and use special B as the crystal malt to try and tease out some of the dark fruit character.
i use 001 because that’s what i usually have rolling, but i agree that 1028 and 1450 make phenomenal, if not better, RIS.
HoosierBrew helped me put this one together back towards the beginning of the year. It turned out great. I just brewed it again last weekend with Maris Otter instead of two-row and WLP 028 instead of 013.
Get ready for a little shameless bragging here, but there’s a nice recipe my buddies and I used that appears in the Zymurgy issue with the 2015 NHC winners. We brewed that beer in 2013 and make one every year in March. This year’s brew added oats (about 10%, replacing base malt to keep gravity the same) and switched to WLP 028. It’s still young now at about 8 months, but already very drinkable. I think I prefer it to 001 in this style. Just mash low, as you likely won’t get as much attenuation with 028.
Hope to get some quick advice before heading off to the LHBS. Looking over the recipe below (direct from HoosierBrew), my LHBS does not carry midnight/roasted wheat. They do carry a caramel wheat (40-50L). Ideas for substitution or rearranging this recipe a touch?
This is the last RIS I brewed. I’ve brewed some that were more in your face intense, but this one has a milder, more milk chocolate character. It’s nice. The grist is a little busier than most beers I brew, but I think it works :
Man, that recipe looks right up my alley for an in your face malty, coffee, chocolate, dark fruit roast bomb.
What does that recipe typically finish at gravity wise?
