Recipe for the Barrel Aged Stout

[Ciderhead]

the style range is 50-90 140 to me is tooooo much

[Shane Phelan]

I don't think we will be anywhere near 140 as no one is taking into account hop age at all so we are most likely still in the low 100's.

[irish_goat]

Fired this into BeerSmith and it's given me this as an extract beer version. Reckon it looks alright anyway.

http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/2606/imperialstout.jpg

[Dr Jacoby]

There's very little sense to be made of IBU levels when they go beyond the 100 mark. The acids stop being soluble in water at concentrations above 120 or so (there seems to be some dispute about the exact figure - it depends on a few factors). In any case, IBU levels don't translate into perceived bitterness very closely, especially not at these high levels. I wouldn't get hung up on exact figures. The important thing is that if you are brewing a monster beer, you should probably aim for monstrous bitterness levels.

When we brewed our 11.5% Russian Imperial Stout we got a theoretical IBU prediction of 130 in Beertools. When we tasted the finished beer the bitterness wasn't in any way overpowering. I wouldn't have been able to guess that there were ridiculously large hop additions early in the boil.

The bigger threat is probably not bittering the beer enough. Imperial Stouts can easily resemble a BP oil slick if you don't throw in enough bittering hops.

[Cathal O D]

Hey guys. Im buying some speciality mslts for this barrel brew from The Homebrew Company. They only have roasted barley in whole form and i dont have a grinder yet. If I get it can one of you crush it for me next week?

[Shane Phelan]

I can crush it for you Cathal.

[Cathal O D]

Cheers shane. I will PM you

[Ciderhead]

Cathal if you are getting grain crushed do you want me to leave your hops with Shiny or go with the original plan with Padraic ?

[Shane Phelan]

That's no problem with me anyway.

Joey was just telling me about the Magnum he received today. Its 2011 harvest so they are approximately 20 months old at this stage. Its hard to know what way to calculate the current AA values as we have no idea what temperatures they have been stored at. By varying the temperature in BeerSmith it seems they only loose 1-2% at most despite being stored for 20 months. That's pretty impressive if true.

[Ciderhead]

All you ever need to know about hop storage and were afraid to ask
I just know all mine are frozen and I vac seal in heavy gauge bags. Aroma and even oil will migrate through PE bags over 12 months

http://morebeer.com/brewingtechniques/library/backissues/issue2.1/garetz.html

[Shane Phelan]

Cheers shane. I will PM you

Ciderhead has just dropped by. I also have your hops. 

[Cathal O D]

Ok sweet. I will give u a buzz tomorrow if thats ok

[Shane Phelan]

Yup thats grand.

[Cathal O D]

Im doing this brew tomorrow and I just want to check a few numbers. My software says 27L for the mash and 14L to sparge. Im aiming for 23L. Does this sound right to you guys?

Also how long did you mash for and what temp?

[Shane Phelan]

I mashed in with ~25L (that's all i had space for) then I sparged with 14L and then 2L. That ads to 41L which is the same as what you are getting so yeah it looks bang on to me for a final volume of 23L.

I mashed my capital brew for 2 hours at 150^oF but my overnight mash came out with the best numbers....