Motherland Imperial Stout

I brewed up my first Russian Imperial Stout bier this past December, 12-10-09 to be exact. I brewed up about 4.5 gallons including the yeast cake I dumped the bier onto. When it was all said and done the brew yielded about 3.5 gallons of finished bier. I let the bier sit in primary for 8 weeks, no worries about autolysis here! At the 8 week mark I bottled 1/3rd of the batch as 'standard'. I moved the other 2-2.5 gallons to secondary where they sat for 4-5 weeks on whiskey soaked hickory chips. That's not a misprint, I used Hickory! Screw French oak... I'm southern give me the hickory! Maybe I'll run through that process on here sometime, but for now all you need to know is that I hand selected the wood, gave it a quick dip in boiling water, rinsed, toasted, & soaked in whiskey!

That brings me to this past weekend where I bottled the 'wood aged' RIS. Since the bier was extremely clear I decided to re-pitch a little yeast, about 1/4 pack. Also of note is that I bottled half of the 'wood aged' bier and added about 12 oz. of strongly brewed Kona coffee to the remaining 1+ gallon and bottled it. Thus I got 3 different biers out of this one brew which is always exciting!

Here is the recipe with accurate numbers etc.

Malt & Fermentables
% LB OZ MALT OR FERMENTABLE PPG °L
71% 9 8 British Pale (Maris Otter) 37 3
8% 1 0 Molasses 36 80 (Note I used 12 oz. Molasses & 4 oz. Steens Pure Cane Syrup)
7% 0 14 British Crystal 95-115L 33 105 (Actually used my homemade crystal malt)
5% 0 10 Roasted Barley (Thomas Fawcett) 34 559
3% 0 6 Pale Chocolate Malt 34 165
2% 0 4 Flaked Wheat 34 2
2% 0 4 American Black Patent 26 500
2% 0 4 American Crystal 60L 34 60
1% 0 3 American Chocolate 34 127
Total 13 5

Batch size: 4.5 gallons
Boil: 6.25 avg gallons for 90 minutes
Original Gravity 1.090 (1.082 to 1.095)
Final Gravity 1.021 (1.023 to 1.029)
Color 46° SRM (Black)
Mash Efficiency 84%

Hops
USE TIME OZ VARIETY FORM AA
Boil 90/FWH 0.6 Nugget pellet 13.0
Boil 20 mins 1.5 Cluster pellet 5.9
Boil 20 mins 1.0 Amarillo pellet 7.5

Bitterness 73.5 IBU
BU:GU - 0.80

Yeast - Windsor Ale Dry Yeast

Alcohol 9 % A.B.V.
Calories 302 per 12 oz.

Miscellaneous
USE TIME AMOUNT INGREDIENT
boil 15 min 1 Whirlfloc Tablet

My mash schedule was along the lines of 146 degrees farenheit for 75 minutes and 155 for 30 minutes with a standard mash-out. The early tasting results are that the bier is substantially malty sweet, fairly strong bitter/dark chocolate tones, mild coffee, hints of caramel & toffee, with black currant & stone fruit perhaps a bit of fig. While it is yet young it is showing substantial promise for my first 'big' bier.

As always I enjoy building labels for my brews, particularly those that have some meaning or significance to me as a brewer. Obviously crafting a bier that I plan on having bottles of around for 2-4 years is an occasion to celebrate. Below is the finalized label for Motherland. Note the boxes in the bottom right hand corner. I will check the appropriate box denoting which version of the bier each bottle is.