I need feedback on my idea for Southern Tier Choklat clone

So I've been searching around HBT for a Southern Tier Choklat clone and it seems there was never a conclusion.

I am looking to do an extract clone and here is what I've come up with so far:

FERMENTABLES
12 lbs Dark LME
2 lbs chocolate malt
1.5 lbs crystal 60 L
1 lbs flaked barley
8 oz roasted barley

8 oz cocoa powder in boil for 10 mins
or
1 lb bittersweet belgian chocolate (http://www.bulkbarn.ca/en-ca/products.html?product=3264)

HOPS
2 oz chinook 60 min boil
1 oz wilamette 30 min boil
1 ox wilamette 10 min boil

OTHER ADDITIONS
8 oz chocolate extract mix in at bottling

YEAST
What do you guys think?

According to hopville.com I get the following numbers:

OG 1.097
FG 1.024
ABV 9.7%
SRM 78*

What would be a good yeast to use? I'm open to making a starter using liquid yeast, but I would need to buy an Erlenmeyer.

Once I have something feasible I think I'll email it to southern tier and ask for hints, if it's close or not. Hopefully they can shed some light on the process they use for getting that intense, but not bitter, chocolate taste.

Tough beer to clone using Extract... I would recommend at least bumping up to Partial Mash. The problem with using Dark LME is that it usually contains a decent, usually undisclosed, amount of crystal, munich, black, amber, and/or chocolate malts already in the dark extract. So if you top on more specialty grains, you might overdo it. I would advise starting with an extra light base of DME and build from there with other mashing and specialty grains. A Partial Mash recipe will also help a little more with more attenuation/fermentability if the proper steps are followed.

Some facts and rumors:

Ranged anywhere from 10 - 11% abv over the years. Search here for a compatible yeast strain: http://www.wyeastlab.com/hb_yeaststrain.cfm

2-row barley
Flaked barley
Crystal 60
Chocolate malt
Small amount of debittered black malt?
8 oz. Cocoa powder + unknown amount of Bittersweet Belgian chocolate (added at end of boil)
8 oz. Chocolate extract (added when bottling)
Lactose/Milk sugar
Cocoa nibs in secondary

Kettle hops: chinook & willamette (I imagine a very simple 90/30 schedule or something similar)

Creamy/heavier bodied
3 months bottle conditioning

Seems like I could go for either WLP004 or Wyeast London Ale. Both high alcohol tolerance, not sure which one would be best suited for an imperial stout. Maybe the Wyeast since it explicitly states up to 11% tolerance?

ercousin said:

Seems like I could go for either WLP004 or Wyeast London Ale. Both high alcohol tolerance, not sure which one would be best suited for an imperial stout. Maybe the Wyeast since it explicitly states up to 11% tolerance?

Click to expand...

Yeah, who knows... 1056 and 1728 also seem like candidates if fermented cool. WLP004 is not equivalent to 1028. WLP004 has an abv tolerance of 5-10%. I think you're looking for a big attenuator, low in ester formation, something like WLP090, but possibly allowing more of the malt character to shine. A high attenuating yeast will still stall quite high in an extract or partial mash beer like this with a lot of specialty grains. The milk sugar should help some.