I posted elsewhere this morning that I really need to work on my Russian Imperial Stout. It is one of my personal favorite styles. So I would be very pleased to entertain your succesful recipe suggestions here.
I think I have tried too hard for complexity in the past, and am at this point convinced that simplicity produces a better beer… but that is just theory right now. It is just that the commercial examples that I love seem very clean and straight-forward.
Thanks
I’ve got a recipe that’s won me several medals, a BOS and runner up BOS in the past. its on my list to rebrew this year. will post from home later today.
it is not simple though :-\
Looking forward to it. I forgot to mention in the OP that I’m also interested in tips / brewing techniques that may help.
I brewed Saints Go Marching In RIS from Zymurgy. It was/is great and it’s pretty simple. Loads of roasted barley, flaked barley, and base malt I think (maybe). I used 2 packs of rehydrated S-04 per 5/gallons so there was plenty of yeast without needing to fuss with an enormous starter (I made 10 gallons). It was nearly an entire bag of Marris Otter. Out of 20 kegs we brought to club night last year, it’s the only one that kicked.
I’ve seen some RIS recipes that have so many specialty grains in it at small amounts it looks like the author went into the LHBS and just said, “I’ll take one of everything.” I don’t think that’s a good recipe for anything other than a big beer that tastes “brown” or perhaps “black”.
It is a bigger beer so it can handle more ingredients than a smaller beer but you can find a lot of complexity by mixing a few specialty malts in a suitable blend. You may want to strip down your recipe to the bare essentials and then tweak one thing at a time to get to your desired outcome.
Yes, this is what I was thinking.
@ Jimmy: Thanks, I’ll look that up.