Chocolate Cherry Imperial Oatmeal Stout (first AG, critique please!)

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rxp

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I've done two extract batches and I'll be making the leap into all-grain next month. I would like to make some adjustments to my chocolate-cherry enhancement of Brewer's Best RIS; the cherry comes across well (a bit much, in fact), but I never obtained the level of chocolate character I wanted, despite 8 oz of baking cocoa in the last 15 minutes of boil and 4 oz of nibs in the secondary. My rationale for a imperial oatmeal stout recipe is that it might better support the chocolate notes while maintaining the warmth of a Russian imperial stout. Using hopville.com's calculator, here's what I come up with:


OG: 1.099
FG: 1.027
Color: 41° SRM / 81° EBC (Black)
Mash Efficiency: 75%
Batch size: 5.5 gallons
Bitterness: 63.3 IBU
BU/GU: 0.64
ABV: 9.6%

malt & fermentables
% LB OZ Malt or Fermentable ppg °L
74% 15 0 Pale Malt, 2 Row, UK info 36 3
10% 2 0 Flaked Oats info 33 2
5% 1 0 Chocolate Malt (UK) info 34 450
5% 1 0 Victory Malt info 34 25
5% 1 0 British Crystal 50-60L info 34 55
2% 0 6 Roasted Barley info 25 300
20 6

hops
use time oz variety form aa
boil 90 mins 2.0 Willamette pellet 5.5
boil 90 mins 2.0 East Kent Goldings pellet 5.0

yeast: Safale S-04

misc
use time amount ingredient
boil 20 min 4 ounces Chocolate, Baker's
boil 20 min 4 ounces Cocoa Powder
secondary 14 days 8 ounces Cocoa Nibs
secondary 14 days 5 pounds Cherry Puree
secondary 14 days 0.25 ounces Vanilla Bean

Any thoughts? Please feel free to tear it apart keeping in mind that I'm looking for a big, warm, winter dessert beer that supports and accentuates chocolate character while maintaining hints of cherry. I plan to let this bottle condition for six to nine months. Thanks!
 
If it's your first AG batch, consider making something simpler that you can drink sooner, just to verify every step in your process--it took 'till my third or fourth AG batch to get everything dialed in just right, but YMMV.
 
In my brews I've generally used about 8oz of coco powder per 5 gal. I've never used bakers chocolate or nibs in a beer. In order to keep it from clumping up treat it like corn starch, pull some wort from the kettle and whisk it in, otherwise it will get clumpy and fall out at cooling.

Also, i like using several types of chocolate malt. I'm a big fan of using light chocolate malt in conjunction with normal chocolate malt. I usually go about 50/50.
 
Thanks for the replies!

If it's your first AG batch, consider making something simpler that you can drink sooner, just to verify every step in your process--it took 'till my third or fourth AG batch to get everything dialed in just right, but YMMV.

I probably will; I just haven't decided what yet.

TBrosBrewing said:
In my brews I've generally used about 8oz of coco powder per 5 gal. I've never used bakers chocolate or nibs in a beer. In order to keep it from clumping up treat it like corn starch, pull some wort from the kettle and whisk it in, otherwise it will get clumpy and fall out at cooling.

Also, i like using several types of chocolate malt. I'm a big fan of using light chocolate malt in conjunction with normal chocolate malt. I usually go about 50/50.

I'll give that mixing approach a shot; when I added mine to the boil last time, I poured it in slowly under constant stirring and most of it fell out of suspension in primary within a week.

I've been reading good things about pale chocolate malt since your tip, so 1/2 lb each of pale chocolate and chocolate -- sounds good!
 
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