Imp Stout Critique

I'd appreciate feedback on this tentative recipe. This is based on 65% efficiency and 5 gallon batch.

12.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 80.26 %
1.00 lb Black Barley (Stout) (500.0 SRM) Grain 6.58 %
1.00 lb Brown Malt (65.0 SRM) Grain 6.58 %
0.50 lb Oats, Malted (1.0 SRM) Grain 3.29 %
0.50 lb White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 3.29 %

2.00 oz Saaz [4.00 %] (60 min) Hops 22.9 IBU
1.00 oz Hallertauer [4.80 %] (60 min) Hops 13.7 IBU
1.00 oz Saaz [4.00 %] (30 min) Hops 8.8 IBU
0.50 oz Hallertauer [4.80 %] (20 min) Hops 4.2 IBU

I'm thinking of throwing some Chinook in there and upping the IBU. Will mash around 153 or so and likely use 1098.

I'm at work so I can't run it through my spreadsheet but if it were me, I would probably cut the roast barley and brown malt down to .75 lbs each and then make it up with .5 lbs of caramel malt for some sweetness. That's just my personal preference. I don't know what the expected IBU or BU:GU ratio is on this but it looks to me like it's probably already pretty high so I don't know if I would make it any more bitter. Hard to say though without being able to run the numbers.

mthelm85 said:

I'm at work so I can't run it through my spreadsheet but if it were me, I would probably cut the roast barley and brown malt down to .75 lbs each and then make it up with .5 lbs of caramel malt for some sweetness. That's just my personal preference. I don't know what the expected IBU or BU:GU ratio is on this but it looks to me like it's probably already pretty high so I don't know if I would make it any more bitter. Hard to say though without being able to run the numbers.

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Excellent. Thanks for the feedback. I think cutting the roasted barley is probably a good idea. I don't want the smoky character to play too much into the brew. And what advantages/differences would adding a crystal have over using brown malt flavor wise?

crystal and caramel malts will add more of a sweeter, caramel, toffee and even sometimes dark fruit flavor (depending on what you go with) while brown malt has more of a dark roasted and bitter flavor (similar to roast barley, just more subtle). In my opinion, some caramel/crystal malt is always good to balance out the bitter roasted flavors of the dark roasted malts.

mthelm85 said:

crystal and caramel malts will add more of a sweeter, caramel, toffee and even sometimes dark fruit flavor (depending on what you go with) while brown malt has more of a dark roasted and bitter flavor (similar to roast barley, just more subtle). In my opinion, some caramel/crystal malt is always good to balance out the bitter roasted flavors of the dark roasted malts.

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**** was my notion of brown malt off. Yeah, I'll be sure to drop that down (take out?) and add some crystal.

At 65% eff., this is just a good strong robust stout, not an Imp. Even at a higher eff. you would be hard pressed to enter the Imp. range. If you have the mash capacity, up your base malt to around 15-16 lbs. Otherwise, look at adding DME to supplement gravity.

Instead of dropping black barley to .75, I would recommend dropping it to .5 and adding .5 of caraffa III dehusked/special. This will give you could color and stout flavor with less harshness. Then, go with the above suggestion on the crystal. Maybe .5 c-60 and .5 c-120.

Bierliebhaber said:

At 65% eff., this is just a good strong robust stout, not an Imp. Even at a higher eff. you would be hard pressed to enter the Imp. range. If you have the mash capacity, up your base malt to around 15-16 lbs. Otherwise, look at adding DME to supplement gravity.

Instead of dropping black barley to .75, I would recommend dropping it to .5 and adding .5 of caraffa III dehusked/special. This will give you could color and stout flavor with less harshness. Then, go with the above suggestion on the crystal. Maybe .5 c-60 and .5 c-120.

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Yeah, I can up it to 15#, and noted on caraffa III. I like blending crystal malts. I've done 60 and 120 before to good results.