looking for help with imperial recipe

ok im feeling pretty good about the beers i have been brewing and want to move up to something big, over 10% abv. I want to make an imperial coffee oatmeal milk stout... but i need some help on where to start a recipe for something like this or if it even can be done. I love coffee flavor in stout beers, i figure some oats for good mouth feel, some milk sugar to give it a slightly sweeter aftertaste and body and with enough alcohol to keep me feeling warm next winter. Any help would be qreatly appreciated.

IMO, I'd slow down on all the flavors. Stick to either coffee, oatmeal, or milk. A big beer like this will be complex in its own right. I think adding that much extra will take away from the experience.

i hear what your saying, and i want the coffee to be the main highlight, but at the same time i want it to be smooth with an almost heavy mouth feel... like the feeling left behind after taking a drink of whole milk or cream. if there are better ways of achieving this with other ingredents, malts or brewing techniques i would like to hear about them so i dont ruin a beer that takes forever to make and age.

Neither oats nor lactose is an assertive flavor, so I don't see an issue with mixing them with the coffee. For a thick mouthfeel I really like flaked rye, I assume you are mashing? I’d hold off on the lactose and add it at bottling to taste, depending on what sort of attenuation you get you may not need/want to add it.

For coffee I like to soak the beans directly in the beer for 12-48 hours right before bottling. It seems to impart a longer lasting flavor than cold extraction, but it provides a similar smooth flavor.

I just had SSurly Four last night which sounds similar to what you are aiming for. It was a bit too sweet/coffee for my taste, so I'd just suggest going easy on the lactose (big beers have lots of sweetness just from the malt).

Good luck.

awesome thank you, i will try the flaked rye. i was planning on holding off on the lactose till bottling time anyways but i might just leave it out if its sweet enough befor bottling. i figure i'll use a giant heap of two row, chocolate and coffee malts, some flaked rye (10%of the bill maybe???), target hops (by far my favorite hop) and a starter of 2 nottingham yeast packs. sound decent?

SilentTitan said:

awesome thank you, i will try the flaked rye. i was planning on holding off on the lactose till bottling time anyways but i might just leave it out if its sweet enough befor bottling. i figure i'll use a giant heap of two row, chocolate and coffee malts, some flaked rye (10%of the bill maybe???), target hops (by far my favorite hop) and a starter of 2 nottingham yeast packs. sound decent?

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Sounds fine to me. A half pound of crystal malt would also be a nice addition to add some caramel sweetness to the beer if that is the direction you want to go.