Wernerherzog
Well-Known Member
I'm working on a recipe for a bourbon county clone and was wondering if I could get some critiques from people here. I want to do a pretty good job with it but am not used to making finely tuned RIS recipes. Usually I just throw in a bunch of the usual suspects. I'm working from three sources to construct this first draft, one is the tally floating around here supposedly sourced from Goose Island that states their OG at 1.129, the second is the website for the specific grain types, and third is Designing Great Beer's section on the NHC 2nd round winners that gives a percentage of the malt bill of each ingredient in the average winner's recipe. I thought I'd start from these averages and fine-tune as others and myself thought fit. I have also sourced Daniels' numbers for the potential yield of grain types, taking roughly the median of each range he gives for every grain type I've used in the recipe. The latter being said, you might tell by now that I don't use brewing calculators for recipes... That said, here's what I have so far.
Efficiency- 70%
Pale----60%------------15.38 lbs.
C60-----9%-------------2.44 lbs.
Munich--13%-------------3.42 lbs.
Roast----8%-------------2.84 lbs.
Choc-----5%-------------1.7 lbs.
Debit Bl.--5%-------------1.84 lbs.
OG- 1.129 Total lbs: 27.62
Of course, the first thing that really strikes the eye is the grain total, so I have to ask whether or not people have any suggestions for hitting the high OG with less grains? Can I expect better numbers by splitting the grains up 50/50 into two different mash tuns and then emptying the mash together into one boil? Then I could bump up my expected efficiency.
The second question I have primarily is, as it stands, my percentage of base malt to specialty is 60/40 if you don't consider munich base, and 73/27 if you do. Is that too much specialty? Even for a giant RIS? If there were more base and less specialty I would certainly be able to hit the OG quicker with less grain. But would it taste as good?
The third question: What do you think of the grist in general? I want this to be BC stout, not Ray Daniels' statistical average of NHC 2nd round Stouts. What can I do to adjust to taste?
I'm hoping some people who have done some pretty monstrous RISs can chime in here and at least people who are familiar with doing big beers. My last 4-5 beers have been 1.110-1.120 but they've been closer to 20 lbs grain because the recipe called for more base than specialty given the beer type (Barleywine and Old Ale). Also, I've been boiling off something like 6 gallons total to get to those numbers, mashing in with 8 gallons and rinsing with an additional 6. I can't even imagine what I nightmare this will be.
Help!
Efficiency- 70%
Pale----60%------------15.38 lbs.
C60-----9%-------------2.44 lbs.
Munich--13%-------------3.42 lbs.
Roast----8%-------------2.84 lbs.
Choc-----5%-------------1.7 lbs.
Debit Bl.--5%-------------1.84 lbs.
OG- 1.129 Total lbs: 27.62
Of course, the first thing that really strikes the eye is the grain total, so I have to ask whether or not people have any suggestions for hitting the high OG with less grains? Can I expect better numbers by splitting the grains up 50/50 into two different mash tuns and then emptying the mash together into one boil? Then I could bump up my expected efficiency.
The second question I have primarily is, as it stands, my percentage of base malt to specialty is 60/40 if you don't consider munich base, and 73/27 if you do. Is that too much specialty? Even for a giant RIS? If there were more base and less specialty I would certainly be able to hit the OG quicker with less grain. But would it taste as good?
The third question: What do you think of the grist in general? I want this to be BC stout, not Ray Daniels' statistical average of NHC 2nd round Stouts. What can I do to adjust to taste?
I'm hoping some people who have done some pretty monstrous RISs can chime in here and at least people who are familiar with doing big beers. My last 4-5 beers have been 1.110-1.120 but they've been closer to 20 lbs grain because the recipe called for more base than specialty given the beer type (Barleywine and Old Ale). Also, I've been boiling off something like 6 gallons total to get to those numbers, mashing in with 8 gallons and rinsing with an additional 6. I can't even imagine what I nightmare this will be.
Help!
