"Imperializing" a stout recipe

So I made this stout I love and I want to make it bigger.

What I am wondering is, should I just up the recipe straight based on percentages, or should I up the base malt a lot and then up the rest just a bit?

How would you go about this? (And I know, post a recipe, n00b! It is at home and I am thinking about it now, and I am sure you have done this before!)

The easiest way to do that, while keeping it balanced, is to first calculate the BU:GU ratio. Increasing all the grains by the same percentage is probably going to throw it a little out of whack. Increase the base grain by the greatest percentage to achieve something close to the OG you want, then slightly increase the specialty grains. Once you get the grain bill hammered out, increase the hops to achieve the same BU:GU ratio as the original recipe had.

If that's too complicated, post the recipe, and we'll help.

Well, I wouldn't just blindly double the amount of roasted and crystal malts. Take a look at some Russian Imperial Stout recipes and compare those to the one you made that you like. They'll usually have more crystal and roasted malts, but it's not a simple percentage increase. You'll likely want to increase the base malts by a larger percentage than the speciality malts.

I believe shipping some to the Tsar of Russia would also imperialize it.

Seriously though, I'm with the_bird, just increasing the base malt will end up in an unbalanced beer that you probably won't be happy with. Check out a bunch of RIS recipes and tweak yours as required.

Alright. I looked around and this is kind of what I came up with. I know, it is a little odd, but so am I.

20 lb pale 2 row
2 lb belgian chocolate
1.5 lb munich
1.5 lb white wheat
1.0 lb special b
1.0 lb roasted barley

1.25 columbus @90
2.00 goldings @ 10

White Labs Abbey IV yeast

interesting. Another option you can consider, in addition to upping your base malt and specialty grains, is to choose a yeast strain which closely matches the flavor profile you want, but is more attenuative. That way you maximize the conversion of all those delicious grains to alcohol.

GeoXP said:

interesting. Another option you can consider, in addition to upping your base malt and specialty grains, is to choose a yeast strain which closely matches the flavor profile you want, but is more attenuative. That way you maximize the conversion of all those delicious grains to alcohol.

Click to expand...

the Abbey IV should be able to get it down to 1.020 (from my apparent start of 1.107). I love the yeast flavor and it is what I am looking for with this beer. The grain bill is what I am less certain of.