My Birthday RIS!

So my Birthday is coming up this week and I've decided to brew a Russian Imperial Stout that I can age until Winter. Let me know what you guys think of this recipe. I'll be brewing it this coming Sunday (the 19th). I'll be making a starter for this as well, so pay no attention to the quantity of yeast in the recipe below.

Russian Imperial Stout - AG - Russian Imperial Stout
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Batch Size: 5.000 gal
Boil Size: 6.000 gal
Boil Time: 1.000 hr
Efficiency: 70%%
OG: 1.099
FG: 1.023
ABV: 9.8%%
Bitterness: 60.5 IBUs (Tinseth)
Color: 52 SRM (Morey)

Fermentables
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Name Type Amount Mashed Late Yield Color
Pale Malt (2 Row) US Grain 16.000 lb Yes No 79%% 2 L
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 120L Grain 8.000 oz Yes No 72%% 120 L
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L Grain 8.000 oz Yes No 74%% 60 L
Chocolate Malt (US) Grain 16.000 oz Yes No 60%% 350 L
Molasses Sugar 8.000 oz No Yes 78%% 80 L
Rice Hulls Adjunct 8.000 oz Yes No 0%% 0 L
Roasted Barley Grain 1.500 lb Yes No 55%% 300 L
Oats, Flaked Grain 1.500 lb Yes No 80%% 1 L
Total grain: 22.000 lb

Hops
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Name Alpha Amount Use Time Form IBU
Columbus/Tomahawk/Zeus 15.5%% 1.500 oz Boil 1.000 hr Pellet 52.1
Northern Brewer 9.0%% 0.500 oz Boil 15.000 min Pellet 5.0
Cascade 6.0%% 0.500 oz Boil 15.000 min Pellet 3.3

Yeast
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Name Type Form Amount Stage
WLP001 - California Ale Ale Liquid 0.528 cup Primary

Mash
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Name Type Amount Temp Target Time
Conversion Infusion 4.036 gal 180.518 F 158.000 F 1.000 hr
Sparge 1 Infusion 3.001 gal 208.066 F 170.000 F 15.000 min
Sparge 2 Infusion 1.837 gal 208.758 F 170.000 F 15.000 min

my only concern is 2.5lbs of dark roasted malt vs 1lb of crystal. From what ive seen, the closer they are the more balanced the flavor is. Not too sweet, but not too roasty it becomes acrid. Thats my worry with yours. Too much roasted malts and it can become overly roasty and astringent. But at the same time, maybe thats the flavor you want.

Do you think the Molasses would make up for that at all? I'm planning on adding it at 10 minutes or flameout. I also was hoping the oats would smooth it out and kind of mellow the roast a little as well. If the general consensus is reduce roast/add caramel, that's what I'll do. I don't want this one to be acrid, but I want it to be nice and roasty.

Edit: I just remembered, I can't remove anything because I've already ordered the grains from Austin Homebrew and they will come all mixed together. I can still add to it though.

I also have a question about mash temp. Should I mash it low to try and get it as dry as possible, or should I leave the mash pretty high where I have it currently?

Well, I brewed this up as written (except I forgot the molasses, let this be a lesson: don't start drinking before you start brewing). OG came out to 1.080, so it will still pack a punch. One other thing was I over estimated the temp of the strike water and ended up mashing at about 158 so I expect this one to finish pretty sweet. I hope the hop bitterness and the roasted malts will even that out, but we'll see!

Just checked the gravity on this one and after a week, its sitting at 1.030. I was kinqd of hoping it would be a little lower. I'm now debating what to do next. Thinking I might add some champagne yeast, but i dont know if it will make a difference. Anyone have some insight on this?

Chill, it's only been a week. Give it another 3-4 weeks then rack and check. It's a big beer and it needs time!

My only concern so far is that there hasn't been any blow off since Monday (two days after brewing). I know airlock/blowoff activity isn't the only sign of fermentation, and I had planned on leaving it a couple more weeks anyhow since it's such a big beer. I'll just RDWHAHB and let it sit a while.

Give it a gentle swirl every once in a while to wake them puppies up...

Do you think adding the molasses now would dry it out any? My only concern would be the possibility of infection, but I don't think the molasses will harbor any baddies. Is there a way to sanitize it before adding?

Your call. You could pasteurize then cool if infection is a concern. I doubt that it is. Might be hard to mix it up without aerating the wort though. Dark brown sugar might be easier...

I think I'm just going to leave it and see how it comes out . Maybe it will be a nice dessert beer. Lessons learned: mash lower next time, and possibly make a bigger starter

Just checked this one again, still at 1.030 after three weeks now. I can't make up my mind if I want to do anything about it or not. The apparent attenuation of this batch so far is pretty low for this yeast, so I'm not sure pitching more yeast will help at this point.

your only option to get a low FG is amylase enzyme, but that is unpredictable and might dry it out too much. I had the same trouble mashing an IPA at 158, finished early and at a very high FG. Lesson learned, but might be OK with an RIS.

I had a similar situation with a barleywine. I boiled about a gallon of water added about a lb of dextrose to the fermenter, I cooled the solution and pitched it in, and gave a gentle stir. The Next week the gravity lowered a couple points. So you might try that with the some brown sugar.

I tasted it last night, and I think I'm just going to bottle it this weekend. It's not overly sweet, and the roastiness comes through pretty good. Lesson learned, and now I can start tweaking the recipe for next year!

just remember, bitterness will fade so if its too sweet for you now, it may just get worse. on the other hand, also remember that the bite from CO2 can also reduce apparent sweetness so it may not be that bad. if you're worried, id add amylase, it'll probably bring you down another 10 pts or so. in the few times ive used it, its never dried it out too much for me, but if it dries it too much for you, you can always add malto-dextrine or lactose to bring it back up

I just bottled it over the weekend to be done with it. I think it will be ok, but we'll see in a couple weeks. Thanks for all the suggestions!

This one has carbed up, and it came out very nice all things considered. I let a few friends try it and none of them could believe the FG was so high. The carbonation really brought out the roast notes and bitterness, so I think that's what kept the sweetness from overwhelming it.