For the last nine Christmases running, while visiting my parents in Massachusetts, I’ve opened a bottle of Courage Russian Imperial Stout clone stored in the closet off their garage (or bring one back with me to share). My friend James and I brewed it in 2007, and considering we split four gallons, I’m amazed it has lasted this long! Sadly, with two bottles remaining I needed a replacement to maintain the holiday traditional that has now spanned more than a quarter of my life!
I coordinated with my friend Scott to brew and split a 10 gallon batch, but at the last minute he had a family emergency… the result is a whole lot of strong/dark beer for me! Thankfully I had a second set of hands provided by Chris, an NYU grad student who was visiting to work on a profile of me for a class and potential magazine article.
The base beer was only slightly tweaked from that original batch: more brown malt, dropped the white sugar, and a couple convenience adjustments to base malt and hops. With five times as much beer as last time, I also decided to split the batch: half bottled clean, half with Brett prior to bottling.
I attempted to grow up the Wyeast Brettanomyces anomalus dregs in the last bottle of 100% Brett beer I brewed with the same pack that went into the original batch. Wyeast discontinued the strain soon after because it was miscategorized (likely B. bruxellensis). Sadly the nine-year-old dregs didn’t grow anything suggestive of Brett, just some mold(?) after a couple weeks. The beer itself was nearly as disappointing, oxidation was the primary flavor.
Then I got a Tweet from Ron Pattinson letting me know he’d sent an old bottle of Courage RIS to White Labs to have them attempt to isolate the original Brett! I checked with Kara Taylor, White Labs’ Analytical Lab Manager, but sadly all they got (oddly) was Saccharomyces. So, I opted for my final resort: White Labs Brett claussenii, which I enjoyed it in a similar role for my Funky Old Ale… nearly ten years ago!
I’ll be following the same process I used for that first batch of Courage: waiting until the beer reaches 1.020, then fining with gelatin, racking, and killing the Brett with potassium metabisulfite (campden tablets). The brewer’s yeast stopped at a higher gravity than the first batch’s 1.030, spot on the 1.040 Ron reported for Barclay Perkins 1924 IBS Ex in his recipe-dense The Homebrewer’s Guide to Vintage Beers. More on why that’s relevant, and the history and rebirth of this beer on his blog.
Rather than chemically-Pasteurize the whole batch, I may even leave a gallon with live Brett to see how far it will dry it out. I’ll be interested to taste the different between the two (or three) versions as they age for decades to come!
Courage Russian Imperial Stout #2
Recipe Specifics
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Batch Size (Gal): 11.50
Total Grain (Lbs): 45.25
Anticipated OG: 1.106
Anticipated SRM: 58.3
Anticipated IBU: 54.6
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75 %
Wort Boil Time: 80 Minutes
Grain/Sugar
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66.3% – 30.00 lbs. Thomas Fawcett Maris Otter
13.3% – 6.00 lbs. Crisp Amber Malt
6.1% – 2.75 lbs. Crisp Brown Malt
5.5% – 2.50 lbs. Simpsons Black Malt
4.4% – 2.00 lbs. Candi Syrup, Inc D-90
4.4% – 2.00 lbs. Candi Syrup, Inc D-180
Hops
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4.00 oz. Columbus (Pellet, 10.50% AA) @ 75 min.
Extras
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0.50 tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 15 min.
1.00 Whirlfloc @ 15 min.
Yeast
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WYeast 1028 London Ale
Water Profile
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Profile: Washington, DC
Mash Schedule
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Sacch Rest – 40 min @ 158F
Notes
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2/13/16 Made a 4.5L stir-plate starter with one three-month old pack of WY1028. Crash chilled after three days.
2/20/16 Brewed with Chris. Started with 16 gallons of filtered DC tap water. Mash pH 5.38. Added 4 grams of baking soda. Sparged with 3 gallons filtered DC tap.
Collected 14 gallons of 1.096 runnings, including candi syrup (D-90 and D-180) added to the kettle during run-off.
Chilled to 65F. 60 seconds each of pure O2, followed by pitching the decanted room temperature starter. Left at 58F ambient to begin fermentation.
2/25/16 Raised ambient temperature to 65F, fermentation visibly slowed.
3/23/16 Bottled 5.5 gallons with rehydrated Pasteur Blanc and 95 g of table sugar. FG 1.040 (8.8% ABV, 62% AA). Racked the other half to a keg, waiting on Brett.
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Source: The Mad Fermentationist
Courage Russian Imperial Stout: Second Attempt