2018 Imperial Nut Brown Ale
October 2018 – I purchased this kit at a time when I wanted a high alcohol beer. It’s been sitting a long time as I changed my mind – 4.5% to 5.5% is sufficient. I may dilute the wort to 5.5 gallons to reduce the alcohol a bit.
I like Imperial beers … but can’t say I want 2 cases of high alcohol beer. If I do another, it may be a 3 gallon batch instead of 5.
Ingredients:
| Malt | 6.6 lbs liquid amber malt extract 2 lbs dry amber malt extract 8 oz maltodextrin |
| Steeping Grains | 4 oz caramel 80L 4 oz chocolate 8 oz victory |
| Hops | 1 oz Columbus (boiling) 1 oz Glacier (boiling) 1 oz Glacier (finishing) |
| Yeast | Safale US 05 |
| Priming | 3/4 cup priming sugar |
Method:
| Put steeping grains in mesh bag. Heated 3 gallons water to 165 F and steeped the grains for 20 minutes. Let bag drain for 10 minutes. I found that shutting the heat off at 165 F, the wort dropped to 150 F in 17 minutes. Had to turn the heat back on for the last couple of minutes.
Brought wort to rolling boil. Shut off heat. Reserved 1 quart boiling wort. Added maltodextrin, dry malt, and liquid malt – stirring well after each addition. Used reserved wort to rinse the canisters the liquid malt came in. Brought back to a boil, added, 1 oz Columbus hops. Boiled 40 minutes. Added 1 oz Glacier hops. Boiled 15 minutes. Added 1 oz Glacier hops. Boiled 5 minutes. Transferred to primary fermenter. Diluted to 5.25 gallons with cold water. Used ice bath in sink to reduce temperature to 70 F. Added yeast, sealed fermented, and place air lock. |
10/15/2018 SG 1.069 |
| Racked into carboy. | 10/19/2018 SG 1.022 |
| Bottled. | 11/11/2018 SG ? |
Notes:
| Yield | 51 bottles |
| Alcohol | Will have to check the SG when I open the first bottle. Forgot to do it before adding priming sugar. Based upon the recipe, I’m expecting 7% |
| Brewing Notes | Added all malt at the beginning of the boil and stirred it well. The last batch (chocolate-peanut butter porter) had me stir in half the dry malt at the end – it didn’t dissolve well. Not doing that again. |
| The instructions said the initial gravity would be 1.071 to 1.075, but I diluted a bit more, so my SG of 1.069 was good. I racked at 1.022 — the instructions say the final gravity will be 1.016 to 1.019, so that’s on target as well. I’ll let the carboy set for 1 to 2 weeks before bottling. | |
| I’m really pleased with this yeast — the lees compacted tightly. | |
| 11/11/2018 | Tasted a more bitter at bottling that I expected. Not bad, but more than I expected. |
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