Old Rasputin - A clone

Where do I start.....
I love this beer. It is by far one of my favorite Russian imperial stouts. I kept mentioning that I wanted to try a clone of it to friends of mine and they kept telling me they wanted to taste what I tried so here I am. Sitting on 5 gallons of pure awesomeness. It's not quite Old Raspy. Mine is a little bit more chocolaty and has a bit less bite than Northcoast's masterpiece. I will say that this was drinkable almost as soon as it was done fermenting. Very well balanced. Now onward to the recipe!!!


Old Rasputin Imperial Stout (clone)

5 gallons, extract with grains
OG = 1.090 FG = 1.022 IBUs = 85-95 ABV =9%

Ingredients
9.9 lbs. Coopers Light malt extract syrup
1.0 lb. Hugh Baird Carastan malt
0.5 lb. Hugh Baird Brown malt
0.5 lb. chocolate malt
1.0 lb. crystal malt (120° L)
0.25 lb. roasted black barley
22.7 AAU Cluster hops (bittering)
(3.25 oz. of 7% alpha acid)
9.0 AAU Northern Brewer hops
(aroma hops) (1 oz. of 9% alpha acid)
8.8 AAU Centennial hops (aroma)
(1 oz. of 8.8% alpha acid)
1 tsp Irish moss
White Labs WLPOO1 (California Ale)yeast or Wyeast 1056 (American Ale) yeast
0.75 cup of corn sugar for priming (If bottling)
6 gallons preboil water

1. Steep the crushed malts in 6 gallons of water at 150° F for 30 minutes.

2. Remove the grains from the wort, add malt syrup and bring to a boil.

3. Add the Cluster (bittering) hops and Irish moss and boil for 60 minutes.

4. Add the aroma hops (Northern Brewer and Centennial) for the last two minutes of the boil.

5. When you are done boiling, strain out the hops .

6. Cool the wort to 70-75° F using a chiller or cold water bath.

7. Pitch beer into carboy or bucket aerate the beer and pitch your yeast. Fill up to 5 gallon mark with sanitary water if you under in wort.

8. Ferment for 10 to 14 days or until your reach your FG.

9. Bottle/keg your beer, age for two to three weeks for the best flavor.



So I am really happy with how this beast turned out. My OG was huge - 1.100!!! That made this my biggest beer yet. I had huge blowoff on this batch, making me realize the need for at least three lengths of blow off tube at all times when fermenting multiple batches at the same time. It has turned out to be a little bit lighter in color (SRM) and it is a bit more chocolaty than normal Raspy. I'll post up pint pics later today. The bottom line: It's super freaking tasty.
Cheers!!!