When my wife and I decided that we wanted to have a child, I was sure that I needed to make a beer that would be ready when he was born. There were a few other factors that needed to be considered other than just the length though.
1) Something the wife would drink. That will make it that much nicer once she can have a drink after those 9 months.
2) It had to be a recipe I could trust. I didn’t want to have something this significant ending up being “just OK.”
3) The aforementioned length of time. That means nothing overly reliant on hops.
A Russian Imperial Stout fit perfectly. Specifically a clone of Stone’s RIS. As of now it has been in the bottle for nearly 5 months. 1 gallon was bottled as is. The other 2 gallons were bottled after 2 weeks and 1 month, each, on oak cubes.
Stone (Baby) RIS
3 Gallon Recipe
OG= 1.086
FG= 1.015
IBU= 100+
Mash @ 150 F.
Grain Bill –
2-Row = 16 lbs. 8 oz.
Victory = 2 lbs.
Black Patent = 1 lb. 8 oz.
Roasted Barley = 1 lb. 8 oz.
Hops –
Summit = 0.75 oz. @ 60
Yeast –
S-04 @ 68 F.
RO Water + –
Gypsum = 0.5 tsp.
Calcium Chloride = 0.5 tsp.
If you’re wondering about my efficiency here, no it is not that low. I went ahead and did a partigyle to get about 5 gallons of Smoked Porter.
RIS Tasting Notes to come sometime in November.
