Barrel Aged Raining Russian – Russian Imperial Stout Recipe
My Barrel Aged Raining Russian is hands down my favorite beer I’ve brewed so far. I’d made many stouts before but this was my first jump into the barrel aged game. It tasted great right out of primary fermentation so I’d expect it would be great even without the barrel. That said I would still encourage you to pick up a Balcones barrel or even better source one from a local distiller like I did. The grain bill should be fairly easy to acquire aside from the Pilot Malt House PB Toast but a sub of more Marris Otter should work. I’ll update this post when I get around to a non-barrel aged version. Cheers, and let me know how your batch turns out!
Flavor / Color / Aroma:
The liquid is dark brown to black with a fingertip of tan head. Aroma is of sweet vanilla oak with strong hints of toffee. The taste is sweet vanilla on the front with toffee oak and some rye bite on the backend. The booze is obviously there but it has a nice smooth mouthfeel overall.
Barrel Aged Raining Russian Russian Imperial Stout Recipe
- Batch Size: 5 gallons
- BH Efficiency: 80%
- SG: 1.092 Actual: 1.092
- FG: 1.023 Actual: 1.024
- Calculated ABV: 9% (Plus whatever the barrel added)
- IBU’S: 59.9
- Color: 37.7 SRM
Ingredients
Fermentables
- 8.5 Pounds Canada Malting 2 Row
- 6 Pounds Muntons Marris Otter
- 1.5 Pounds Pilot Malt PB Toast
- 1.5 Pounds Breiss 80L Crystal
- .5 Pounds UK Chocolate
- .5 Pounds Briess Chocolate Malt
Hops
- 2 oz Willamette
- 1.75 oz Nugget
Yeast
- 2 Packs Safale US-05
- 1 Pack Safale S-04
Instructions
Mash
- 90 Minutes at 155F
Boil
- 90 Minutes
Hop Schedule
- 2 oz Willamette At 90 Minutes
- 1.75 oz Nugget At 15 Minutes
Fermentation
- 17 Days at 70F – 75F
Barrel Aging (Optional)
- 3 Weeks in a freshly dumped West Fork rye whiskey barrel
Carbonation
- 2 volumes CO2
