Recipe: Swiss-Army Imperial Stout

Why Swiss-Army stout?  Because this basic imperial stout recipe can be used in a dozen different ways.

Raspberry, cherry, oak, vanilla, chocolate, maybe some funk?  The sky is pretty much the limit.  The best thing to do with it though is just to drink it!

Brewing Notes

If you only get one thing right with the beer, it has to be the fermentation.

Pitch plenty of yeast and lots of oxygen to start.  If you can, add another dose of oxygen after about 12-14 hours – before krausen really starts to form.

Be sure to keep the fermenter on the cool side, maybe 64-66ºF, at least for the first 3 to 4 days.  Towards the end of fermentation you can raise  the temperature into the low 70’s to dry the beer out.

You want to have strong beer that hides it’s alcohol well.  Keeping the yeast happy with pitch rate, oxygen and temperature is the key!

The base recipe is fairly heavy on the chocolate character and lighter on the roasted side.  If you like something more intense feel free to dial up the Roasted barley another 1/2-1 lb.

This much grain will be close to capacity on a 10 gallon mash tun.  So your mash efficiency is going to fall off a bit.  You might plan for an extra pound or two of base malt, or a longer boil time (giving you a slightly lower starting volume) – to make sure you hit that starting gravity.

All Grain Recipe

Batch Size: 6.00 gal
OG: 1.094 SG
FG: 1.026
Color: 51 SRM
IBU: 76.8 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
————
12.00 lb      Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM)
5.00 lb       Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
2.00 lb       Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM)
1.00 lb       Roasted Barley (460.0 SRM)
1.00 lb       Special B Malt (180.0 SRM)
0.50 lb       Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM)
0.50 lb       Pale Chocolate Malt (165.0 SRM)
0.25 lb       Coffee Malt (150.0 SRM)
1 oz (28.00 gm)      Warrior [15.80 %]  (60 min)
1 oz (28.00 gm)      Magnum [12.00 %]  (60 min)
1 oz (28.00 gm)      Centennial [9.00 %]  (10 min)
.5 oz (14.00 gm)      Cascade [5.50 %]  (10 min)
.5 oz (14.00 gm)      Centennial [9.00 %]  (1 min)
1 oz (28.00 gm)      Cascade [5.50 %]  (1 min)
2 Pkgs        US-05 (Safale #US-05) yeast

Directions:
————-
Mash at 154ºF for 60 minutes. Ferment at 68ºF.

Extract Recipe

Batch Size: 6.00 gal
OG: 1.093 SG
FG: 1.026 SG
Color: 50.4 SRM
IBU: 72.7 IBU
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
————
15.25 lb      Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM)
1.00 lb       Roasted Barley (460.0 SRM)
0.75 lb       Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM)
0.50 lb       Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM)
0.50 lb       Pale Chocolate Malt (165.0 SRM)
0.25 lb       Coffee Malt (150.0 SRM)
1 oz  (28.00 gm)      Magnum [12.00 %]  (60 min)
1 oz  ( 28.00 gm)      Warrior [15.80 %]  (60 min)
0.5 oz ( 14.00 gm)     Cascade [5.50 %]  (10 min)
1 oz  ( 28.00 gm)      Centennial [9.00 %]  (10 min)
1 oz  (28.00 gm)      Cascade [5.50 %]  (1 min)
0.5 oz  (14.00 gm)      Centennial [9.00 %]  (1 min)
2 Pkgs        US-05 (Safale #US-05)

Directions:
———–
Steep grains as desired (30-60 minutes). Ferment at 68ºF.

Imperial Stout

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