Imperial Stout recipe critique?

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Rottnme

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I'm planning my first all grain imperial can I get your thoughts.

Batch Size: 5.25 gal
Boil Size: 6.43 gal
Boil Time: 60 min

Ingredients

15.00 lb Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 71.43 %
2.00 lb Caramel Malt - 60L (Briess) (60.0 SRM) Grain 9.52 %
2.00 lb Munich 20L (Briess) (20.0 SRM) Grain 9.52 %
1.00 lb Chocolate (Briess) (350.0 SRM) Grain 4.76 %
1.00 lb Roasted Barley (Briess) (300.0 SRM) Grain 4.76 %

3.00 oz Northern Brewer [8.50 %] (60 min) Hops 61.6 IBU
2.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (15 min) Hops 12.0 IBU
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (10 min) Hops 4.4 IBU
1.00 oz Williamette [5.50 %] (5 min) Hops 2.6 IBU

2 Pkgs American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) Yeast-Ale

Est Original Gravity: 1.103 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.024
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 10.43 %
Bitterness: 82.4
Est Color: 35.4 SRM

I'm figuring 70% efficiency on this though I have been running between 75-78% and I'm going to try to get yeast from my local microbrewery for this and plan on adding some yeast nutrient just in case. I also thought I'd ferment at around 65F andplan on a long secondary of 8-12 weeks for a start on bulk aging prior to bottling.

Any thoughts are appreciated, thanks.
 
I too am soon to brew my first AG RIS. I posted up a recipe earlier, not exactly like yours but there are similarities. Mine comes in under 9% abv., wanting it to age slightly quicker. I'm also combining english yeast character with american hop flair, wish me luck!

I've got 2 thoughts:
1) Mash low, maybe 145-147 for a bier with an OG of 1.100+ You can always raise the mash temp at the end to 155-158 to help with dextrins for head retention etc. You probably know all of this and have thought it out but didn't want to be as long keyboarded... it's a lot like long winded but in a forum kind of way ;). I know the disease I suffer from it!
2) Possibly look at using 5-10% simple sugars in your fermentables. I don't think you'd get down to 1.025 FG with 1056 otherwise.
3) Okay so I have 3 ideas... Make a starter, with or without the 2 packs of yeast! Not sure if you're doing it or not, but had to mention it.

Your recipe looks tasty too me. Some would wonder where the black patent/black malt is, if you're so inclined use dehusked carafa III in lieu of black malt.

Schlante,
Phillip
 
I too am soon to brew my first AG RIS. I posted up a recipe earlier, not exactly like yours but there are similarities. Mine comes in under 9% abv., wanting it to age slightly quicker. I'm also combining english yeast character with american hop flair, wish me luck!

I've got 2 thoughts:
1) Mash low, maybe 145-147 for a bier with an OG of 1.100+ You can always raise the mash temp at the end to 155-158 to help with dextrins for head retention etc. You probably know all of this and have thought it out but didn't want to be as long keyboarded... it's a lot like long winded but in a forum kind of way ;). I know the disease I suffer from it!
2) Possibly look at using 5-10% simple sugars in your fermentables. I don't think you'd get down to 1.025 FG with 1056 otherwise.
3) Okay so I have 3 ideas... Make a starter, with or without the 2 packs of yeast! Not sure if you're doing it or not, but had to mention it.

Your recipe looks tasty too me. Some would wonder where the black patent/black malt is, if you're so inclined use dehusked carafa III in lieu of black malt.

Schlante,
Phillip

+1. I agree on everything here.
 
I too am soon to brew my first AG RIS. I posted up a recipe earlier, not exactly like yours but there are similarities. Mine comes in under 9% abv., wanting it to age slightly quicker. I'm also combining english yeast character with american hop flair, wish me luck!

I've got 2 thoughts:
1) Mash low, maybe 145-147 for a bier with an OG of 1.100+ You can always raise the mash temp at the end to 155-158 to help with dextrins for head retention etc. You probably know all of this and have thought it out but didn't want to be as long keyboarded... it's a lot like long winded but in a forum kind of way ;). I know the disease I suffer from it!
2) Possibly look at using 5-10% simple sugars in your fermentables. I don't think you'd get down to 1.025 FG with 1056 otherwise.
3) Okay so I have 3 ideas... Make a starter, with or without the 2 packs of yeast! Not sure if you're doing it or not, but had to mention it.

Your recipe looks tasty too me. Some would wonder where the black patent/black malt is, if you're so inclined use dehusked carafa III in lieu of black malt.

Schlante,
Phillip

1) Indeed have not heard of this before. My question is how would one go about doing that with the mash temps using a cooler setup and still have enough space/volume left over to do a batch sparge, and at what point during the mash would one raise the temp? I was planning on mashing for 60 at 154F. I'm intriged by the idea of a lower temp mash for more fermentables but I don't understand your theory behind the rest. I'm assuming that this would be the equivalent of a step mash and that the timing is the important part?
2) Could I just use sugars as an addition if I stall out? I don't want to if I don't have to but I was concerned with the FG as well.
3) Using a starter for sure but I'm waiting until I talk with the local brewmaster and nail down my yeast before getting too excited about it.
4) As for the black/patent, I'm already at 9.5% between the roasted barley (300) and the chocolate (350) and I didn't want to get too much higher than this in order to shoot for the sweeter chocolatey/coffee end of the spectrum rather than going to the burnt super dark end. Is my thinking flawed? This was also my reasoning behind the munich.

Thoughts?
 
Okay gang, I am not accustomed to big beers likethis so I could use a little advice as to how to finish this bad boy out.

My OG was 1.105, I tested after 7 days in the primary and the SG was 1.036. Today after 17 days I am only down to 1.035. That is a drop of only .001 in 10 days. MVKTR2 appears to be right about this not wanting to go down all the way.

Would it be a bad idea at this point to swirl and stir everything up to try to get things going a little faster again or would one advise to pitch a little more yeast? I am quite a bit off of my anticipated final of 1.024 and would like to know that I got out of it what I could. I am still showing some activity in the airlock though it is slow and I have quite a way to go to hit the anticipaited.

I am leaning toward a swirl and leaving it sit for up to 28 days in the primary before racking and I'm planning on an 8 wk secondary. Would a swirl at this point be ill advised? Would a yeast addition into such an alcoholic environment not get me the intended results? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Oh, and this thing tastes AWESOME!!!! It's very young but man its good!
 
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