It’s always a good idea to think ahead, especially when brewing beer, as many styles require several months (even up to a year) of maturing, before they reach their prime. This is especially the case with darker beers and/or beers with a high alcohol content. During maturation, hot and alcoholic tones typically decrease, astringent roasted tones typically become milder, and the flavours as a whole typically blend together better. So what I’m trying to introduce with this post is our next brewday (hopefully tomorrow), during which we will brew an Imperial Stout for next winter. By brewing it now, it will have around 6 months to mature before the first snow falls (hopefully).

The recipe will be pretty much based on the Black Panther Imperial Stout I brewed up in November 2011. Only this time we are brewing up a normal size batch (20 liters) and hopefully won’t have to add any DME to get to the correct original gravity.

Recipe: Black Panther
Style: Russian Imperial Stout

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 27.5 l
Post Boil Volume: 23 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 18.00 l   
Bottling Volume: 16.00 l
Estimated OG: 1.102 SG
Estimated Color: 107.5 EBC
Estimated IBU: 78.4 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 55.00 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt         Name                                     Type     #   %/IBU         
5.00 g      Calcium Chloride (Mash 60.0 mins)        Water Ag 1   -             
3.70 g      Baking Soda (Mash 60.0 mins)             Water Ag 2   -             
2.10 g      Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 mins Water Ag 3   -             

5.800 kg    Pilsner (4.5 EBC)                        Grain    4   52.3 %        
2.800 kg    Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC)         Grain    5   25.3 %        
0.750 kg    Crystal Malt - 60L (Thomas Fawcett) (118 Grain    6   6.8 %         
0.750 kg    Rye, Flaked (3.9 EBC)                    Grain    7   6.8 %         
0.340 kg    Black (Patent) Malt (985.0 EBC)          Grain    8   3.1 %         
0.340 kg    Chocolate Malt (Thomas Fawcett) (1000.8  Grain    9   3.1 %         
0.300 kg    Roasted Barley (591.0 EBC)               Grain    10  2.7 %         
45.00 g     Chinook [12.40 %] - Boil 60.0 min        Hop      11  48.1 IBUs     
45.00 g     Chinook [12.40 %] - Boil 15.0 min        Hop      12  23.9 IBUs     
30.00 g     Chinook [12.40 %] - Boil 5.0 min         Hop      13  6.4 IBUs      
1.0 pkg     Safale American  (DCL/Fermentis #US-05)  Yeast    14  -