Please critique my Chocolate Russian Imperial stout recipe

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mighty_moe

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I'm looking for some critique on a russian imperial stout recipe I'm trying to put together. Have a look:

6.6 lbs. Dark LME
2 lbs. light DME
4 oz. black patent
4 oz. Crystal 60L
4 oz. roasted barley
2 oz. aromatic
8 oz. flaked oats
1 oz. fuggles uk @ 60min
1 oz. fuggles uk @ 15 min
1 oz. simcoe @15 min
.5 oz irish moss @ 15 min
2 vials of WLP002 or a starter (recommendations please...)
2.5 or 3 gal boil.

The plan is to add bourbon-soaked oak blocks/chips to secondary. This is the 4th brew I'd be making, but my first original(ish..I'm sure it's been done before) recipe.


Thanks!!
 
It looks good. The only thing I'd suggest for your grain/extract bill would be to go with all pilsen/extra light malt extract. Dark malt extract has a higher percentage of unfermentable sugars and with the oats and C60 you won't be lacking mouthfeel. You don't want it to be too sweet or flabby. Make the color up with some more roasted barley.

I don't know how Simcoe would fit in this beer. Simcoe's got a citrusy+woodsy thing going on that I love in pale ales and IPAs, but I don't think it'd meld well with a RIS. I'd go with more Fuggles and move some hops to 5 minutes.

It looks like you're going to have an OG of around 1.065, so with that I'd do two packs and maybe even make a small (1L) starter with those to ensure proper pitching rates.
 
I replaced the amber and dark with 6.6 of light LME and 4.5 of Pilsen DME, added another 1/2 LB of roasted barley.

Thanks!!!
Mario
 
OK, 6.6 lbs LME = 238 points. 4.5 lbs DME = 180 points. Total = 418 points or a gravity of 1.084 for 5 gallons before anything the specialty malts give. Probably want about 60 to 80 IBU. I don't think you will get anywhere near that with 1 ozs of fuggle's; maybe 5 ozs.

Since you have ditched the dark, up the crystal to at least 1/2 lb.

If you are not mashing, the aromatic and oats are not doing anything for you.

Simcoe ??????? Not sure it's worth saying more.

Yeast. 1 vial, use a starter. Make it big. 1 vial in a decent starter is worth 4X (+) a vial.
 
Thanks all for the advice. The sarcasm regarding hop choice is niether necessary nor welcome. How do we think beer styles developed and evolved? The Simcoe was for an added pine-iness/citrusiness. Experimentation. Who knows? It could be the best brew one has ever created. If we stopped creating, what's the sense in brewing? Might as well keep making clones of stuff we could buy for half the cost and relabel as our own.
 

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