07/14/2012 – Brew day

Russian Imperial Stout with Chocolate and Peanut Butter

1 lb, 9 oz – Chocolate malt
1 lb – Rolled oats
1 lb – 6-row malt
0.5 lb – Roasted barley
0.5 lb – Caramel 120L
0.25 lb – Carapils
6 lb – Gold LME
3 lb – Extra light DME
1 oz – Chinook pellet hops (60 min)
0.75 oz – Spalt pellet hops (60 min)
0.5 oz – Spalt pellet hops (20 min)
1 tbsp – Irish moss (15 min)

Mashed grains in the pot with a towel around it to try to maintain the temp while turning the burner on less often.

Dumped about 2/3 of the yeast cake out of the primary fermenter for the Urca Vanilla Porter and dumped in the wort (unstrained).  Shook well for 1 min to mix.

O.G.: 1.080, 19 deg Brix

Aerated with pure O2 for 45 sec

Put in the fridge to bring the temp down to 68, then off to the fermentation chamber.

07/29/2012 – Rack to Secondary

I.G.: 1.019, 11.0 deg Brix.  Color is super-dark.  Has a strong flavor, with coffee and chocolate notes (and we hadn’t added any chocolate to it yet).

Racked onto 2 x 6.5 oz cans of PB2 (dry, pressed, nearly oil-free peanut butter powder) and 2 oz Belgian cocoa powder.  We researched a number of ways to add the peanut butter and get it mixed in well.  Some homebrewers had suggested mixing it with vodka to extract some flavor, but we saw reports that that simply created sludgy vodka.

We ended up adding the PB2 and the Belgian chocolate to the bottom of a carboy still wet from sanitizer, then capping it and rolling it around so that the powder coated the moist sides.  Perhaps that thin layer on the walls will integrate well.

Next, we’ll be adding cacao nibs.  we’re soaking them in vokda for a few days before adding them to the secondary.

07/31/2012 – Added cacao nib extract (vodka) after sitting 2 days.  Added another few ounces of vodka to the cacao nibs for a second extraction.

Stirring the whole mixture once a day to give the PB2 more exposure to the beer.

08/11/2012 – Racked to tertiary

Racked off of the PB2 and cocoa powder.   Poured in the secondary cacao infused vodka and covered the cacao nibs with more vodka for bottling time.

F.G.: 1.021, 10.9 % Brix
8.0% ABV

08/21/2012 – Bottled 18 and kegged the rest

Dumped the 3rd round of cacao vodka into the carboy before bottling.  Put the cacao nibs into a muslin bag and dropped it into the keg.  Hopefully the chocolate flavor will continue to develop.

Still tastes quite strongly of peanuts.  I’d say that the process with the PB2 was a great success.  Perhaps even too productive.  Hard to believe others are complaining of the peanut flavor being too subtle.  The chocolate is absent in the aroma (or possibly overwhelmed by peanuts), but noticeable in the flavor.

F.G.: 1.014, 10.8 % Brix

After adding the peanuts and the vodka, I’m not sure how much accuracy I can get out of the typical calculations.  Nonetheless, it is ABV: 8.65%