Russian Imperial Stout | French Oak Red Wine Barrel

My club is starting to brew beers for our four(4) French Oak Red Wine barrels that we acquired from a dude who brought them back from Lodi, CA!   Currently all of the barrels are at another dudes cellar filled with an acid wash waiting the day when 30 brewers in the Nordeast Brewers Alliance gather with primary fermented beers to fill them all up.  That time is nearing and this post is about on of the first installments of this series that I brewed recently.  The Russian Imperial Stout...to be aged in a French Oak - Merlot Barrel!!!  We smelled all of the barrels and tried to come up with beers that would complement the characteristics in the nose.    The barrel that we chose for the RIS had notes of dark berries, vanilla, and cocoa and so we though that would complement a RIS very nicely.   We plan to let this age in the barrel for 6-9 months, but completely dependent on what the beer is telling us.  If it gets too oaky we will pull it out immediately.

Here's my portion of the recipe.  There are 13 or 14 of us brewing 5 gallon batch's.  The recipe designers actually created two similar yet different recipes that we will be blending together when we fill up the barrel.  I chose the recipe that did not include adding cacao nibs.  I also didn't follow the recipe as close as I maybe should have.   I couldn't find any Warrior hops for bittering and I couldn't find the Northern Brewer hops for flavor.   So, I went Nugget through and through.   I also mixed in a little Scottish yeast for good measure.

I ended up collecting a ton of wort pre-boil, almost 9 gallons and then boiled it down over a long period to get almost 6 gallons.  This allowed me to achieve a respectable efficiency as well as additional caramel flavors!

Batch Size: 5.75 gallons
Mash Efficiency: 70 %
Specific Gravity: 1.104 OG

Final Gravity: 1.028 FG

Color: 45° SRM Black

Bitterness: 60.9 IBU

Mash Temp: 152 degrees for 90 Minutes

Boil: 2 hours

Ferm Temp: 65 degrees

Alcohol: 10.1% ABV

Calories: 344 per 12 oz.

Malt & Fermentables

	%	LB	OZ			°L	PPG
	72%	16	~	Pale Malt, 2 Row, US	Mash	2°	37
	4%	1	~	Briess Roasted Barley	Mash	300°	34
	4%	1	~	Belgian Chocolate Malt	Mash	5°	34
	4%	1	~	Brown Sugar, Dark	Boil	50°	46
	4%	1	~	Brown Sugar, Light	Boil	8°	46
	2%	~	8	American Crystal 120L	Mash	120°	34
	2%	~	8	Flaked Oats	Mash	2°	33
	2%	~	8	Belgian Special B	Mash	220°	30
	2%	~	8	British Black Patent	Mash	550°	25
	1%	~	4	Flaked Wheat	Mash	2°	34
		22	4

Hops

	Usage	Time	OZ			AA » IBU
	boil	90 min	1	Nugget ~ pellet		13.0 » 32.1
	boil	60 min	½	Nugget ~ pellet		13.0 » 15.0
	boil	45 min	½	Nugget ~ pellet		13.0 » 13.8

Yeast

Burton Ale (WLP023) yeast in liquid form with medium flocculation and 72% attenuation

Edinburgh Scottish Ale (WLP028) yeast in liquid form with medium flocculation and 73% attenuation

****I'm a little nervous because I've never had a Red Wine Barrel aged RIS before and figure that if it is a good marriage, then someone would have done it before.
****I'm also a little nervous that the barrel will have some bugs in it and it won't turn out to be a clean beer like we want it to be.  The wineries that we got these barrels from employ "native fermentation", essentially letting the grape juice ferment naturally from the yeast that has gathered on the skins of the fruit.  Could there be Brett?  Yes.  Could there be other critters? Yes.  We shall soon find out.
****Sampled this 2 months into the barrel aging process.  It's actually very dry, and not juice and thick like I expected.  A little hot and definitely some vanilla coming through in the nose from the oak.