Imperial Stout with cold steeping

I've been planning a big stout and thought I'd give cold steeping a go for the dark grains. I want to try for a smoother, less bitter flavor. The recipe I'm working with is...

5.5 gallons
20 lbs 2 row
2 lbs flaked barley
1.5 lbs crystal 80L
1.5 lbs special B
1.5 lbs carafa III (dehusked)

2 oz nugget - 60 minutes
2 oz cascade - 30 min

Wyeast 1728 washed yeast cake from a recent SMaSH

I have no idea of what the OG is supposed to be with the cold steep so... I'm not worrying... it'll be what it is..!

Cold Steep...
From what I've read, when cold steeping, the amount of grains needs to be doubled so... step 1:

3 lbs crystal 80L
3 lbs special B
3 lbs dehusked carafa III
finely ground and mixed into 3 gallons room temp water, cover and let sit overnight...

Will keep posting as things progress...

Made a starter for the washed yeast cake. Since its been in the fridge for three weeks, thought I'd help them wake up and get ready to work... never had a starter blow-off before ..!

Strained the cold steeped grains and got 1.5 gallons of thick, black, chocolaty fluid that had a gravity of 1.064. No sparging or squeezing. Just strained through a kitchen sieve... top bucket is the steep, right is sieve and left is the spent grains.

Mashed the 2-row and flaked barley as usual at 154 F at 1.3 qt/lb and sparged with 1qt/lb at 170F.

Heating to a boil then will add the hops as stated... going to do a 90 min boil to get the volume down a bit.

Half the base wort and the cold steep liquid.. Aerated and waiting for the rest of the base and the yeast.... smells delicious..!

Ended with a OG of 1.087 ... its in a swamp cooler with a blow-off tube attached. Going to try to keep the temp in the mid 60's...