RIS Recipe critique

Hey all -

Hoped to get some feedback on a Russian Imperial Stout recipe.

8 lbs. Extra Light DME
.75 lbs. Pale Malt
.25 lbs. Roasted Barley
1.5 lbs. American Chocolate Malt
.60 lbs. Crystal 120
.75 lbs. Special B
.15 lbs. Black Patent

2.00 oz. Chinook (60 min)
1.00 oz. Cascade (10 min)

Vanilla (still to be determined if its going into the brew. Any thoughts on beans vs. extract would be appreciated.)

Wyeast 1056

OG: 1.088
FG: 1.021
IBUs: 80ish

Thanks,

Looks good except, why the .75# pale malt. It looks like an extract recipe and pale malt requires mashing, however .75# is really too small of an amount for a partial mash.
Drop the pale malt, otherwise looks great.
Craig

In my opinion you will need more roasted barley. At least half a pound, but I wouldn't hesitate to take it up to 0.75. You're going to have a lot of sweetness from the high grain bill and will want a sufficient amount of malt roastiness to balance that out. If you raise the roasted barley, then I'd drop the chocolate to around 0.75 pounds as well.

I'd also drop the cascade and go with a neutral hop. You don't really want any hop flavor in an RIS.

CBBaron said:

Looks good except, why the .75# pale malt. It looks like an extract recipe and pale malt requires mashing, however .75# is really too small of an amount for a partial mash.
Drop the pale malt, otherwise looks great.
Craig

Click to expand...

No, it is a PM recipe. I use a 2 gallon MLT with 4 lbs. of grain total a la BYO's article. I had to fill it in with something.

PseudoChef -

As for upping the Roasted Barley, I"m not sold on the flavor of it for a stout. I don't want this to be too roasty and mask the other flavors. I like the lighter roasted/coffee flavor from the choc malt, a touch more subtle.

I definitely see your point about the cascade hops, though. I thought i'd throw it out there and see what response I get. I may keep a small amount in there, just for a touch of hop flavor, but the oz. is probably a bit much.

Cheers,

I don't see anything wrong with the .25# Roasted Barley and 1.5# chocolate. Makes it more like a really strong Porter than a traditional RIS but I think it would work great.

Good luck and keep us updated.
Craig