As featured in CAMRA’s – The Modern Homebrewer – Andy Parker & Jamil Zainasheff and sponsored by ourselves The Malt Miller.

We would highly recommend purchasing and reading this book as it feature not only a wide selection of recipes but some great knowledge and techniques from Andy and Jamil on how to brew the best beer possible at home.

This recipe was provided for the book from a professional brewer, all of the recipes were scaled by the writers to a 20ltr batch size using 75% efficiency.

Where ever possible we have matched the exact ingredients, however in some recipes slight changes may be required and volume adjustments based on ingredient available to homebrewers. Be sure to fully read the below details before purchasing so you are fully confident in the process and aware of the ingredients which are not included with this kit that you will need to source.

Weights are removed on this page due to publishing agreements but will be provided on the bags when the recipe is purchased or are present in the book for those who purchase it.

 

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Ingredients Included

Rice Hulls
Dingemans Special B
Simpsons Malt – Chocolate Malt
Crisp – Roasted Barley
Simpsons Malt – Crystal Medium
Crisp Low Colour Chocolate Malt
TMM Jumbo Oat Flakes 26
Crisp Extra Pale Malt
Hallertauer Magnum – BarthHaas® Pure Hop Pellet (25 grams)
LALBREW NOTTINGHAM™ – High Performance Ale Yeast – 11g (2 packs)
Mangrove Jacks New World Strong Ale M42 Yeast (2 packs)
Fermentis SafAle US-05 11.5g (2 packs)

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Method

Beer Style (main): American Ales
Beer Style (sub): American-Style Imperial Stout
Batch Size: 20
Original Gravity: 1.129 (1.149 including Maple Syrup)
Final Gravity: 1.045
ABV %: 14.2
IBU: 42
Mash efficiency: 75

THE MASH
Temperature °C (Step 1): 43
Length (mins) (Step 1): 20
Temperature °C (Step 2): 67
Length (mins) (Step 2): 60
Temperature °C (Step 3): 78
Length (mins) (Step 3): 10

Mash notes: Water: East Midlands water treated with 2.1g sodium chloride, 10.1g calcium chloride with a target of 117.5ppm calcium and 262ppm chloride

THE BOIL
Boil time (mins): 80

Hop / kettle additions and timing:

Magnum 25g/0.9oz @ 60 min
NOT INCLUDED – Honey 1.36kg/3lb @ 10 min
NOT INCLUDED – Dark Sugar 500g/1.1lb @ 10 min

 

Yeast: Pitch two packs (23g) Fermentis SafAle™ US-05, two packs (23g) Mangrove Jacks M42 and two packs (22g) Lallemand LalBrew Nottingham™.
Fermentation temperature/steps: Ferment at 18°C/64°F for 2 days, then add 2 litres/70fl oz of Maple Syrup (NOT INCLUDED). Ferment for a further 7 days, allowing the temperature to slowly raise to 22°C/72°F until final gravity is reached.

 

Maturation
Transfer to secondary onto 1kg/2.2lb of toasted coconut (NOT INCLUDED) for 1 week then transfer to tertiary onto 500g/1.1lb of roasted cacao nibs (NOT INCLUDED) and and one quarter of a tonka bean (NOT INCLUDED) for 2 weeks (both previously sanitised in 300ml/10.5fl oz Spiced Rum for 2 weeks).

Finally transfer to a corny keg or bottle and allow a further 12 weeks maturation.

Comments:

Emperor’s Brewery – Master of Evil – Chocolate, Tonka, Coconut & Maple Imperial Stout

I first met Damian Doherty online a few years ago and then in person at The Nags Head Pub in Reading around 2018, where a few of us excitedly gathered around to try some of his notoriously fantastic home brewed Imperial Stouts. The stouts Damian poured that night were up there with the very best I’d ever tried and I recall comparing them to the beers coming out of California from the likes of The Bruery. The ‘thickness’ and body Damian was able to load underneath the judiciously utilised adjuncts showed incredible skill. Damian eventually registered Emperor’s Brewery as a commercial brewery and continued to brew on a small scale before purchasing a 10HL fermenter and locating it within another brewery. Eventually Emperor’s reached 1000 check-ins on beer rating application Untappd and at that stage it was the highest rated brewery in the world! Yes, Imperial Stouts do generally garner higher scores due to a natural style bias from those submitting ratings but this was an incredible achievement for someone mostly brewing from his kitchen in the Leicestershire countryside.

Master of Evil is a complex beer that has a deep and intense flavour profile. The base stout is thick and creamy but this one’s all about the adjuncts. Coconut sits front and centre but it is certainly not dominant as the maple, tonka and a hint of rum sit nicely alongside. The tonka presents a delicate almond like character which plays really nicely with the coconut. The base recipe presented here is a fantastic Imperial Stout, so feel free to play around adding your own adjuncts to make the recipe your own.

Be sure to check out our YouTube channel where you will be able to find lots of great content featuring other breweries.

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