Heart Full of Black Russian Imperial Stout

Brew day: Feb. 14, 2015

#36 - 5.5 gal

I picked a damn cold day to brew this one -- single digits, blustery. It wreaked havoc on my mashing temperatures: One minute I'm reading a solid 153F for my sac rest, I walk away for 10-15 minutes and it's plummeted to 135F. Lots of tweaking all afternoon. And given the mash thickness, heating the kettle was also hard to gauge. I would get temperature spikes up to 170F if I wasn't constantly stirring during heating. Regardless of all this work, my efficiency was still WAY off.

I also recently saw this post about tips for brewing big beers, which recommends accounting for a lower original gravity once you start getting north of 1.080... Shit. I wish I had known all of this during the planning stages of this batch.

Ingredients:
15.25 lb Maris Otter (Muntons)
1 lb Roasted Barley (Briess)
1 lb Caramel 120L (Briess)
1 lb Chocolate malt (Briess)
0.75 lb Caramel 40L (Briess)
0.5 lb Flaked Oats (Briess)
0.25 lb Black malt (Briess)
1 oz Northern brewer (10.6%, pellet) (60)
0.5 oz Columbus (15.2%, pellet) (60)
0.5 oz East Kent Goldings (5.0%, pellet) (15)
1 t Irish moss (15)
1.5 L starter 2 pk Wyeast 1028 London Ale

Water:

5 gal RO water
5 gal filtered water
5 g gypsum
5 g baking soda
4 g calcium chloride

Schedule:

Mash in 6 gal at 166F
Sac rest @ 153F (60)
Mash out @ 168F (5)
Batch sparge 4 gal (10)
Boil (60)
Chill to 60F

Target:

OG: 1.094
FG: 1.023
ABV: 9.3%
IBU: 66

Observations:

1st runnings: 3.5 gal @ 1.093

2nd runnings: 1.040

Pre-boil: 6.5 gal @ 1.070

OG: 5 gal @ 1.081

Fermentation:

Pitch @ 57F
Allow to rise 8 hrs and heat to 64F in furnace room
Peak fermentation temp hit 70-72F over 24 hrs
Chill to 60F for 12 hrs in laundry room
Warm to 63-65F and move to furnace room