Advice on Bourbon-Oak Aged Coffee Oatmeal Imperial Stout

I want this beer to be delicious and over the top! I have never brewed a stout before, so I would like your thoughts on how this recipe will work out. Some thoughts on what I did:

-I chose the flaked wheat and oat at 7.5% each to add some nice body
-I wanted the Crystal 80 and Special B to add some middle flavors...sweetness, nuttiness, carmellyness to the beer (good idea? Increase/Decrease the amounts?)
-2.5% of Roasted Barley and Black Patent seemed fair, should I increase this to make it more intense?
-I chose the Yakima Magnum's because they look delicious and I'd like to give them a try
-I used Fuggles for finishing because I understand they finish stouts well and I do not have any other good ideas.
-I have like mixing yeast strains in the past to add some nice complex flavors, will London and Scottish work together? I was also considering Irish Ale, would that be a better replacement?

Recipe:
Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 8.18 gal
Boil Time: 120 min Equipment: My Equipment
Brewhouse Efficiency: 80.00

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
1.00 lb Rice Husk (0.0 SRM) Adjunct 5.00 %
14.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 70.00 %
1.50 lb Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 7.50 %
1.50 lb Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM) Grain 7.50 %
0.50 lb Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM) Grain 2.50 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 2.50 %
0.50 lb Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 2.50 %
0.50 lb Special B Malt (180.0 SRM) Grain 2.50 %
1.00 oz Yakima Magnum [13.50 %] (90 min) Hops 39.2 IBU
1.00 oz Yakima Magnum [13.50 %] (60 min) Hops 36.6 IBU
1.00 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] (10 min) Hops 4.4 IBU
1.00 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] (5 min) Hops 2.4 IBU
4.40 oz Bourbon Aged Oak Chips (Secondary 7.0 days) Misc
20.00 oz Cold Press Coffee (Primary 0.0 days) Misc
1 Pkgs London Ale (Wyeast Labs #1028) Yeast-Ale
1 Pkgs Scottish Ale (Wyeast Labs #1728) Yeast-Ale

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.098 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.023 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 9.88 %
Bitterness: 82.6 IBU
Est Color: 35.6 SRM


Mash Profile

Mash Name: My Mash Total Grain Weight: 20.00 lb
Sparge Water: 9.00 gal Grain Temperature: 72.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F TunTemperature: 72.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment: TRUE Mash PH: 5.4 PH

My Mash Step Time Name Description Step Temp
90 min Saccharification Add 25.00 qt of water at 165.1 F 150.0 F



Mash Notes:
Carbonation and Storage

Carbonation Type: Corn Sugar Volumes of CO2: 2.4
Pressure/Weight: 4.2 oz Carbonation Used:
Keg/Bottling Temperature: 60.0 F Age for: 28.0 days
Storage Temperature: 52.0 F

I started drooling at the title!!!

I'll let more experienced comment on the recipe, but I can tell you that with such a large grain bill, it is difficult to get 80% out of all of those.

Is there any way to add some cherry to it??

TheObsession said:

will London and Scottish work together?

Click to expand...

Not always....

Ummmmmmmmm! BOACOIS Ummmmmmmmmmm! forbidden BOACOIS

different yeast flavors in the same brew ?
Could you divide the wort pitch each yeast and then mix the two after the bulk of fermentation is over ?


-Jason

Cherry would be interesting, I will save that as a future addition though because this beer is already quite complex

I am not too worried about the extraction efficiency. My set up is built for 15 gallon batches, so 20# of grain is not too much for me to work with. I have had extraction efficiencies as high as 92% using the same amount of grain in a 10 gallon batch.

My last homebrew was a tripel where we added both the Wyeast Trappist High Grav and one other Wyeast Belgian yeast strain to the primary, together, and it worked out just fine. The beer actually smells and tastes strikingly like biscuits and honey. For this brew, I am not set on the idea of using 2 yeasts. If anyone has found in the past that one of the strains works well for a RIS, let me know and I could use just that.

Anyone have comments about the grain bill?

I don't think you'll get 77% attenuation with an Irish yeast. I'd stick with an American strain like 1056 or Nottingham to get it that low. Otherwise the bill looks delicious! It's hard to say just looking at it if one thing will come through more than another. But it looks good, so I say brew it and go from there.

You also might want to try brewing a regular stout first before attempting one with all the bells and whistles of coffee and bourbon aging etc. It's nice to start with a simple recipe you can knock out with your eyes closed and just tweak it by adding ingredients/flavors, it takes a lot of the guesswork and stress out of it.

An Imperial Stout should have about 10% roast/black malt, you are at 5% in your grainbill so this will be more of an Imperial Porter than an Imperial Stout. Not that there is anything wrong with that but from the title I'm guessing you want it to be stout-like. So I would add 5% chocolate malt (British chocolate, the 420-450L stuff, not the American 350L stuff) to get enough roast malt character in there.

Go with the 1028 London Ale. It ferments clean with good attenuation. Make sure you pitch a big starter and have a blowoff setup, that yeast will make a BIG mess.