Recipe Critque

I'm planning on brewing an Imperial Stout this weekend. Hoping for a recipe critique.

5 gal batch
OG: 1.093
FG: ~1.020
ABV: 9.6

2 Lb crystal 60
8 oz Black Patent
1 Lb roasted barley

5 Lb extra light LME
5 Lb light DME

1.75 nugget (12%) 60 min
.25 willamette (5%) 10 min
.25 willamette (5%) 5 min
.25 willamette (5%) 1 min

WLP001 (1.5L starter)

Seems like an awfull lot of roasted barely. If it was me I would probably cut the crystal down to 1 lb and use a darker crystal (~120L). Also I would want some chocolate malt in there and keep the total amount of roasted malts (roasted barely+black patent+chocolate malt) to around 1 lb.

I would do something like:
1 lb. crystal 120L (or british dark crystal would be good too)
8 oz. chocolate malt
4 oz. black patent
4 oz. roasted barely

But then, it's not my beer so do whatever you like.

Thanks for the reply!

Why use 120L and not 60L?

I dont think either amount is out of the question for an imp stout. if it were me id cut the crystal back 0.5lb and split the black patent with choc malt, but I think its good as is

I would probably use some Crystal 120, but this recipe looks pretty good. Thats more black patent than i normally like to see, but it should be fine.
A bit of chocolate malt wouldn't hurt, but there are plenty of amazing stouts that don't use it.

Go for it!

Crystal 120L will add a more complex malt flavor profile than you would get from crystal 60L. Also, 2 lbs of crystal malt in a beer will leave your beer very sweet especially since you are using 10 lbs of extract. I think 1 lb of a darker crystal is a good compromise between adding enough crystal malt flavors and not adding too much sweetness.

Pivovar_Koucky said:

Crystal 120L will add a more complex malt flavor profile than you would get from crystal 60L.

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perhaps, but it really depends which flavor the OP wants in the brew. C120 is more roasty and like burnt sugar & raisens, while C60 is more like a caramel sweetness

dcp27 said:

perhaps, but it really depends which flavor the OP wants in the brew. C120 is more roasty and like burnt sugar & raisens, while C60 is more like a caramel sweetness

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True enough. I think that the C120 fits better with the imperial stout style, but as I said before it's not my beer.

Cuique suum.