Imperial stout help

TheBrewFather · 01-28-2012, 02:05 PM

I've never made a stout before (as I'm a die hard I/IPA fan...), but I'm working on a recipe while my IIPA conditions. So far I have:

Wlp007 yeast from starter

-10 lbs Pale Malt Extract - 3 lbs Honey (to primary) - 2 lbs Roasted Barley - 1 lbs Chocolate Malt - 1 lbs Crystal malt 60L - 8 oz Black Patent

- 5 oz Galena Hops (60 mins) - 1 oz East Kent Goldings Hops (5 mins)

- 3 tsp Gypsum (60 mins) - 1 tsp Yeast Nutrient (to primary) - 2 oz Oak Chips (in secondary)

I was going to call it Drauger's Kiss (Drauger roughly being a viking zombie) So I thought the oaked antiquey flavor mixed with slight mead-like honey notes would be great. I want it to be a super roasty, warming ale.

I was going to use 1oz of bittering hops but beersmith said I needed more ibus.

1.096 og, 86 ibu, 10% abv Please give me any tips, hints, criticisms, or recipe ideas you can. Ideas on possible flavor profiles it may have would be great too.

**jester5120** · 01-28-2012, 03:30 PM

looks pretty good. maybe a little heavy on the specialty grains. I'd cut back on the roasted barley atleast. I always brewed ipas and had a hard time finding balance on malt forward stouts when i started brewing those. it won't be terrible if you do it as is it'll just be a little heavy

**steelersrbrun** · 01-28-2012, 03:53 PM

The roasted grain does seem a little heavy. If you already have all the grain...Try doing a cold steep with 50% of your roasted grains and just do a regular steep with the balance....it should mellow it out a bit. Love the name of the beer. Post an update on how this come out and what you go with. Cheers!

g-star · 01-28-2012, 05:24 PM

Way too much roasted barley IMO. With all that + chocolate/black patent it will taste ashy.

I would knock the roasted grains back to a total of 1.5lbs, and add some dark crystal (120L+) or special B for dark fruit/raisiny flavor

TheBrewFather · 01-28-2012, 06:44 PM

I'll cut the roasted barley to about 1 then. It seems like there are wayyy to many hops in the recipe, is this normal for a stout to balance the huge body? Also, should i take out the hony and use 4 oz of honey malts instead?

**jester5120** · 01-28-2012, 10:52 PM

I did a similar sized stout recently and just did 1 first wort hop addition with high alpha hops to give me about 70 ibus. It's a malt forward style so id just get higher alpha hops and just throw less in if I were you. More cost effective that way