Night Jump Imperial Stout

This stout is being brewed in the spirit of jumping into the unknown, much like a nighttime jump. As I have fond memories of the dim red glow inside a cramped C-130 and hear the commands to stand up, hook up, check equipment, sound off with equipment check, stand by and finally GO! On any given jump this dance has an elegance to it but night jumps were special. One of my favorites was at Juliette DZ in Italy. Normally you could see the mountains and farmer fields surrounding this DZ but this particular evening was pitch black. The winds were calm and there were no sounds to be heard. You felt as though you were truly by yourself for those few moments. Daytime jumps you have visual points of reference of when to lower your ruck sack and weapons case. This jump was so sereen that I was lost in time, when I realized I had been in the air for what felt like a lifetime I decided to get ready for landing. I untied my 1911 weapons case and pulled the release for my lowering line. I heard the lowering line unfurl then a sudden THUD on the ground......well shit! Yup, the ground snuck up on me and I rode my weapon in on my PLF! Gather your gear and move on.....

This stout was a challenge to brew and hit the numbers. It was my first attempt at a beer of this size. I had to fill both my mash tuns, a 5 and a 10 gallon cooler type, just for the volume of grains. I batch sparge so calculating on the fly for two vessels was a struggle. I'm sure I'll learn as I attempt other massive beers, or I'll just scale to a smaller bacth or buckle down and get a bigger mash tun. Anyway I slightly over sparged which I did not add to the kettle. I didn't feel like adding an extra hour or two to the boil. So I was left with about 2+ gallons of 1.050 wort with no extra propane tank to take advantage of. It would have made a great dry stout or porter. Instead I decided to try a no boil lacto Berliner Weisse style on this free wort. Who knows it may be great or it may be too roasty to go with the sour side of things.

The intent for this batch is to play around with secondary flavor treatments while leaving enough base beer as a base line. This is a 6 gallon batch and the current thoughts are as follows:

-1 gallon straight.

-1 gallon straight for future blending.

-1 gallon with coffee, bourbon, vanilla and oak.

-1 gallon with toasted coconut, cocoa nibs, vanilla, rum and oak.

-1 gallon with cinnamon, vanilla, cocoa nibs, peppers, apple brandy and oak.

-1 gallon with either bourbon or apple brandy and oak.

Recipe:

Style: Imperial Stout

OG: 1.100

Target FG: 1.030 or below

IBU's: 88

SRM: 76

Boil Size: 9 gallons

Batch Size: 6.5 gallons

Boil Time: 120 minutes

Mash: Full body single infusion at 158*F

18 pounds Marris Otter 51.99%

6 pounds Munich 17.33%

1 pound Simpsons Caramalt 2.89%

1 pound Rye Malt 2.89%

1 pound Roasted Barley 2.89%

1 pound Black Malt 2.89%

1 pound Chocolate Malt 2.89%

1 pound Carafa III 2.89%

8 ounces Special Roast 1.44%

1 pound Flaked Barley 2.89%

1 pound Flaked Oats 2.89%

1 pound Black Treacle 2.89%

1 pound Lactose 2.89%

3 ounces Magnum 90 minutes

Additions:

Whirlfloc

Yeast Nutrient

Yeast: Wyeast 1099

UPDATE: 15 Nov 13 Gravity reading is at 1.031
Tasted sample; smooth, viscous mouth feel with a nice bitterness on the back end. Warming notes from the roasted grains and alcohol. So far I'm pleased with how this is coming along, the only thing I can think of changing at this point is to scale back on the hop bitterness just a touch.