Imperial Stout kit hack

[benji]

So I bought a few bottles of Porterhouse Celebration Brew- its an imperial stout with a abv of 7%, just wondering if anyone could recommend a kit hack that would be similar , I know of the coopers recipe
http://www.coopers.com.au/the-brewers-guild/how-to-brew/strong/russian-imperial-stout
but this seems a bit much and expensive to make, anyone got any ideas

[LordEoin]

You could substitute ou rthe lager and dark ale kits for cheaper finlandia kits.
They're a lot cheaper

http://www.homebrewwest.ie//finlandia-dark-ale-10-kg-kit-less-than-40-pints-1342-p.asp
http://www.homebrewwest.ie//finlandia-lager-15-kg-kit-1343-p.asp

[benji]

I was think more down the line like brewing a coopers stout kit to say 14 litres then adding chocolate grain and 1kg of dark spray malt and 500g of brown sugar, I've only just started to hack kits so I'm not really sure what to do , how do you think this recipe would go and what can I add/remove . I would like a abv of around 7-8%

[LordEoin]

You could half the volume, yes.
1 can cooper's irish stout + 1 can 1.5kg LME + 150g chocolate + 150 crystal +250g sugar + dryhop - made to 14L would make it a little over 8%.
Maybe use the kit yeast + a sachet of danstar nottingham.

[benji]

When you say dry hop what should I do here, I understand the rest, sorry I'm still a bit of a noob

[LordEoin]

TO keep it simple, use one of these: http://www.homebrewwest.ie/bb-east-kent-goldings-1457-p.asp
they're only 12grams, but that'll be fine at 14L

[Drzava]

You could half the volume, yes.
1 can cooper's irish stout + 1 can 1.5kg LME + 150g chocolate + 150 crystal +250g sugar + dryhop - made to 14L would make it a little over 8%.
Maybe use the kit yeast + a sachet of danstar nottingham.

Zombie thread alert!

Eoin, I'm planning of doing an imperial stout per your recipe above. Do you think it would help / harm / make no difference if I also boiled 20g EKG for 10 mins with the grain steeping liquid (as well as dry hopping with the tea bag)? Cheers.

[Drzava]

Well, put this baby on last night! Brewmaker 1.8kg stout kit (best before Sept 15) + 1.5kg LME (BB Sept 15) + 275g dextrose + 160g dermera sugar + 15g EKG boiled 12 mins, to ~12.5L. OG 1.092. Also 150g Crystal 30, 150g chocolate malt and 50g roasted barley steeped as well. Yeast from kit creamed with Coopers wheat yeast (actually a neutral ale yeast) and added. Some slow bubbling this morning so hopefully should take off ok!.

[LordEoin]

Zombie thread alert!
Eoin, I'm planning of doing an imperial stout per your recipe above. Do you think it would help / harm / make no difference if I also boiled 20g EKG for 10 mins with the grain steeping liquid (as well as dry hopping with the tea bag)? Cheers.

I think it would help alright, definitely wouldn't hurt

[Drzava]

Going good and bad at the moment I think. SG 1.034 as of day 4 (two days ago) - so my yeast did a great job of ripping through 58 points in 4 days (7.6% ABV - although the airlock never went ballistic and the Krausen wasn't THAT big). However, bubbling has now slowed to a crawl so I reckon my FG is on course to be too high, which seems to be a problem with high gravity brews. Aim was about 1.020, but I'd be happy with getting it down 10 more points to 1.024. Racked it to secondary last night in anticipation of an extended period in the FV.

[Drzava]

Bottled this up at the weekend. Couldn't get lower than 1.028 FG (8.5% ABV), even after adding some used Notty from another brew. I primed low (1.7 Vol CO2 - 40g sugar) just in case the yeast decides to wake up and finish the job! Dry hopped with EKG. Taste is very sweet and boozy - I should really wait until Christmas before sampling but I imagine I won't last beyond early summer.

[Philsner]

Thinking of doing LE's hack to 14 litres. want to add 2 vanilla pods in secondary. looking for subtle vanilla flavour. is 2 too many? should I add to primary instead?