Chocolate Imperial Stout question

I've been a lurker here for quite some time and finally got started brewing myself a couple months ago with the Mr Beer kit.

After reading a ton of info on this site, I went directly from the Mr Beer kit to an all grain with my second brew. (an Irish Red Ale)

My third batch, just done today, is a chocolate stout that I pieced together from a couple of different recipes that I saw. I was hoping to get a critique and see how you all thought this might turn out.

4.5lbs 2-Row
1.5lbs American Chocolate
.75lbs Crystal 120
.25lbs Flaked Barley

Mashed at 157*

.4oz Norther Brewer at 60 minutes
.5 tsp Irish Moss at 15 minutes

I also removed a half cup of wort with 5 minutes left in the boil. I added 1.5c of brown sugar, 1.5c table sugar and 4oz cocoa powder to make a syrup , brought it to a boil and added back to the wort at flameout.

Pitched with wyeast European Ale 1338

What do you think? Does this look like it might be a decent brew?

Thanks in advance!

How many gallons is this for? Without beersmith infront of me looks like a really weak beer from the grain bill

JeepDiver said:

How many gallons is this for? Without beersmith infront of me looks like a really weak beer from the grain bill

Click to expand...

Yeah that might have helped. I'm still doing 2.5 gallon batches in the Mr. Beer fermentor.

My estimation is that you will have a difficult time getting the finishing gravity down below 1.026 or so. That grain bill has a lot of unfermentable sugars in it from the chocolate malt and crystal 120. I would have probably mashed that at 150° instead of 157°. My first experience with brewing a big imperial stout was similar to what you are doing here. I wanted a heavier body on the beer and I mashed at 158°. I wasn't thinking clearly when I did that with all the highly kilned malts and had a very difficult time getting the finishing gravity down to a reasonable point. With that much unfermentable sugar, the lower mashing temp will help with that.

The higher temp was actually done on purpose. I was hoping to retain some unfermentables to add some residual sweetness. I know its not in style, but I figured I'd give it a shot. I haven't looked at gravities just yet as I don't even have a hydrometere yet. I wanted to try my hand at an all grain to see what was possible before investing in a complete kit. At this point I'll take tasty.

tasty is always a good goal.