Feedback on RIS recipe

Ok, here's my planned recipe to start fermenting soon, I based it on the respect imperial stout recipe.

Fermentables

11 lbs Dark DME
1 lb honey
1/2 lb molasses


Steeping stuffs

1 lb Caramel malt (120L)
3/4 lb chocolate malt
1/4 lb roasted barley
1/4 lb flaked barley

Hops and licorice (cause you gotta boil licorice)
1 and 1/2 oz chinook and 1/4 oz chopped licorice stick for 60 minutes

1 oz chinook for 15 minutes

1/2 oz chinook for 5 minutes

Process

bring 3 gallons water to 155* steep steeping grains for 30 minutes

remove from heat and stir in fermentables, bring to a boil and add hops and licorice as scheduled.

Planning on pitching it on a cake of Wyeast #1084 from a just finishing batch of dry irish stout.

I was concerned about the alcohol levels killing off the yeast and considered adding some dry champagne yeast if the fermentation gets stuck at what seems like too high of a final gravity.

I would drop the flaked barley, it contains starches that need to be converted in a mash with enzymes from some base malt.

Even with the sugar I'd be worried about a too hgih FG. You are using a pretty low attenuating yeast, and all that dark extract is going to be tough to ferment out. I would swap some/most/all of it out for light extract and up the roasted barley to replace the color/flavor.

Otherwise it sounds tasty, good luck brewing.

I'm actually hoping for some residual sweetness.

Would it help if I put some two row in to steep with the grains?

If you did a mini-mash/partial mash with the flaked barley and 1 or 2 lbs two-row, that should work. But just steeping it with pale malt I'm not sure about, and definitely don't steep the flaked barley alone.

I would also bump up the roasted barley. That is what defines the stout right there. maybe 3/4 lb.

Babylon said:

I'm actually hoping for some residual sweetness.

Would it help if I put some two row in to steep with the grains?

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If you add some 2-row and keep the water to around 1-2 qrts per pound of grain, you'll be doing a mini-mash which is perfect.

Even with good attenuation an Imperial Stout will still have some sweetness because of the high starting gravity. Give it a taste when it stops fermenting, and consider adding a more attenuative strain (US-05 is great) to drop it down lower if it is too sweet for you.

Sounds like a plan. A couple of pounds of two row in early on, I looked at mini mashing and it looks like something I can do. Bump up the roasted barley. I also realized I should add the honey at the end of the boil if I want to add any honey character which I kind of do. I figure I'll check the FG and if it is too high I can add some s-05 or possible some champagne yeast, I figured I would need to do that for carbonation anyways.

Thank you folks for your feedback.

I really really REALLY recommend not using dark DME. Honestly I'd just use light DME and bump up your specialty malts, as stated above. I'm at work right now and so don't have access to BeerSmith, but you already have a lot of dark grains in there for color. I'd also recommend varying your caramel malts, even changing it to 1/2lb 60L and 1/2lb 120L will add some complexity.

Unfortunately dark DME is what I have access to. I ordered it before people started suggesting against it and my LHBS only has a limited supply of stuff, all at rather high prices. I don't mind going there for last minute additions, but buying the bulk of my fermentables there would bankrupt me.

Ordering light DME from the store I ordered the dark from would add about another week, and I want to have this in the bottle by late June so I can give some to my brother as a wedding present (I know it won't be drinkable yet at that point, but I figure it should be bottleable.)

Brewed this up today. I actually don't know what the OG is because my hydrometer only goes to 1.080 but guessing from the space between the lower divisions I'd say it is about 1.100 or so. I cut down the hops slightly because my dry Irish stout turned out to be hoppier than I wanted. I used 1 oz for 60 minutes and 1/2 oz each for 15 and 5 minutes. I upped the roast barley to 3/4 lb and added 1 lb of pale 2 row. I used Death Brewer's stove top partial mashing technique and it seemed to have worked well, I couldn't test conversion as I did not have any iodine. In any case it smelled wonderful, and turned nice and dark. I wanted to add 2 lbs of pale malt but 1 lb was all the LHBS had. I tasted the OG sample and it tasted really good, really sweet, but I figure that is a good thing as a lot of that is going to turn into alcohol. With this high of an OG I expect I will have to add a tougher strain of yeast, I have a couple of packs of champagne yeast that i can add, but I was thinking I would wait until the ale yeast had done all it could before I did that.

fermenting like mad. It stuck some stuff, dunno if it was yeast or hop bits or what, probably trub stuff from the previous batch, in the open airlock I had the blowoff tube attached to and painted the ceiling, and also broke the airlock. I covered the top with foil and put it in a bucket to catch the foam that is gonna keep coming. I have another airlock, but it is an S curve and I am not gonna put it on till it settles down.

This lost so much that I added some water with molasses boiled in it about halfway through the fermentation. It is now all bottled in 750 ml champagne bottles. I am doing my best to keep from drinking it all up, and have managed to restrain myself so far but it is really really good. Definitely very dark, fairly sweet with a pronounced molasses tone, but also some complex roast tastes and a definite contribution from the licorice. It has a lot of alcohol to it. I don't know exactly since I don't have a precise number for OG (due to later molasses addition) but it feels at least as strong as wine. I added champagne yeast with the molasses to let it finish everything off.