[Review] Gozdawa Imperial Stout

[armedcor]

To even call this an imperial is ridiculous. I don't think this needs to age much more. So far nearly all these kits seen to have been rubbish.

It's 4%...i think it's pretty fair to judge at this stage.

[Leann ull]

The instructions also call for a sugar/glucose "refermentation" which i've never heard of before. Maybe it means add sugar into secondary?anybody got clarification on this.

I assume they mean priming sugar for carbonation?

Ok I missed this bit,
No they don't this is nothing to do with carbonation in bottles and here lies the problem.
The yeast supplied is not big enough to handle a big fermentation OG initially and Nigel was right you missed a step, what you do is after initial fermentation say 24-48 hours in you chuck a prescribed amount of sugar in to hit your desired big OG!!
Think of it like a slingshot where you get the yeast to start off and then you chuck in some sugar, I'd probably go brewing sugar but ordinary would probably do.
To be fair to yourselves the kit should have explained the principle of what they were asking and the method along with recommended levels for say 6,7,8% final.
I am also thinking it was formulated to overcome the normal thinning you get with adding sugar to recipes, so could have been a little more treacly as a result
Fact remains sorry guys instructions weren't followed and we need to be more considered in criticism

[armedcor]

Does it say in the instructions what amount of sugar to do the "refermentation" with? If it doesn't and there's no mention of what the gravity should be I would say instructions followed. I'd like to see a proper look at the instructions.

[danger_zone]

Guys to judge how an imperial stout tastes which is only 2 months old is a bit unfair, I'd not touch it for 6 months to allow the dominant flavours to round off. Our GCB barrel aged stout only started winning competitions after 18 months and was judged to be to green before that.
There is something else we are missing there as OG is very low for an imperial
Coming back to the taste it sounds like a sort of phenol which can sometimes reflect contamination from wild yeast or more likely strong chlorine in water used to start, was there any treatment for chlorine used?
It may indeed be a poor kit but best to rule out other elements to help us all before we stone
Any chance to get a bottle to the RDS this week end as there is a panel of prospective BJCP judges in training and they can give you their expert opinion?

I agree its still very green. I'll forget about for another couple of months and give it another go. I didn't use any kind of treatment for it so the chlorine could be a possibility. Unfortunately I won't be at the RDS this week but maybe I'll give a bottle to one of the lads to take down to get a BJCP opinion

If you had an OG of 1.048 and there was mention of extra sugar, you messed up and didn't add the sugar. An imperial stout should have an OG of MIN 1.075 by BJCP standards.
A 7 gram pack should be sufficient for a 1.058 beer and would grow up enough yeast for plow through the missing sugar edition.
That would be my thinking of it. I don't do kits but just trying to figure it out.

I don't normally do kits either but there was no mention of how much sugar to add and at what stage so I guess its just a case of poor instructions

Does it say in the instructions what amount of sugar to do the "refermentation" with? If it doesn't and there's no mention of what the gravity should be I would say instructions followed. I'd like to see a proper look at the instructions.

no mention of amounts or what the gravity should be. I posted pics of the full instructions in my OP. That's all that came with it

[armedcor]

Well then I think it's fair to say instructions were followed.

[johnrm]

The Instructions are rubbish.
I will start a fresh thread on the Imperial IPA (OG 1.042)