All-Grain: Oblivion Russian Imperial Stout

This is my first attempt at this style. I've been working on this recipe for a bit, and me and a buddy are planning on brewing it soon. I usually keg, but I plan to bottle condition this batch so that I can age it easier and possibly give some away as gifts if it turns out well.

Oblivion
Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Fermentis US-05 (2 packets)
Yeast Starter: None
Additional Yeast or Yeast Starter: None
Batch Size (Gallons): 5
Original Gravity: 1.100
Final Gravity:1.023
IBU: 76.7
Boiling Time (Minutes): 90
Color: 51.3 SRM
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 14 days at 68 F

Grain Bill:
17 # UK Pale (Marris Otter)
3 # US Caramel 80
1 # US Chocolate
.5 # Roasted Barley
.5 # Black Malt

Hops:
1.5 oz Chinook 13.5% AA 60 Min
.75 oz Columbus 13.9% AA 30 Min
.75 oz Columbus 13.9% AA 15 Min
.5 oz Chinook 13.5% AA 5 Min

Water Treatment:
Start with 11 gals distilled water and add:
-- Chalk - 5g (~2.75 tsp)
-- Baking Soda - 1g (~.25 tsp)
-- Gypsum - 2g (~.5 tsp)
-- Calcium Chloride - 2g (~.5 tsp)

Single Step Infusion at 154 F

Fly Sparge to 7.5 gallons.

Boil for 90 minutes down to 6 gallons. Expect to lost .5 gal to wort shrinkage

Cool to 68 degrees and pitch.

Changing the recipe a bit. I'm lucky enough that me and a buddy are brewing this at a local commercial brewery for his homebrew club's meeting. The brewery is supplying everyone's base malt and yeast. So, that 17 lbs Marris Otter will probably become Rahr 2-Row. The yeast will most likely be an American Ale yeast. Also, the Chinooks I bought are only 11.1% AA so that drops the IBUs to about 65. Expected OG is 1.106 given 80% mash efficiency which is what my buddy usually gets with his mash tun. Also, going from marris otter to rahr changes the color to 50.6, not that it's really noticeable that dark.

edit: local water is perfect for a stout so no water treatment as listed above.

Brewed this today. Had some mash temp problems. It was a bit low. Not to worried about it though. OG came in about 1.103, so we were pretty close on our efficiency. All-in-all it was a pretty good brewday. I expect this one to turn out really well.

Here's an update. Talked to my buddy that's holding on to the fermenter right now. I was wrong. OG was 1.104. As of a few days ago SG was sitting at 1.026. That's probably about where it's going to finish putting it around 10.5%. We're bottling this on Wednesday. I'm pretty stoked to taste how it turned out!

So, me and my buddy bottled this today. Holy crap it turned out fantastic! I would drink this beer flat until I fall on my face (which wouldn't take much given the alcohol content). i can't wait for it to be carbonated and aged a bit. Here's a pic of one of our bottles.

This is going to be my next batch! The recipe looks great. Any suggestions on modifications you would make?

That bottle looks great. Nice, clean label and the wax is a great touch. Any update on the beer after some aging?

Figured I'd throw in an update. I've continued to do this beer once a year since this first batch. Here's pics of last years and this years (just bottled a week ago). The first batch tasted great with a year on it. Still have a few bottles of it left for verticals each year. Second year was solid, but not quite as good. It does continue to get better as it ages though. This years was fantastic going into the bottle, but the alcohol was a little low.