Opinion on my Aztec Imperial Stout Recipe (2nd version)

20.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 74.07 %
2.00 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 7.41 %
1.00 lb Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM) Grain 3.70 %
1.00 lb Black Barley (Stout) (500.0 SRM) Grain 3.70 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 3.70 %
2.00 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [12.20 %] (90 min) Hops 51.9 IBU
2.00 lb Molasses (80.0 SRM) Sugar 7.41 %
2.00 lb hershey's cocoa powder
1.5 tsp cayanne powder
2 tbsp ancho powder


I will mash at 148 for 2 hours. The molasses will not go into the boil, I will use it to step up the gravity.The plan Is to pitch it onto a US-05 yeast cake, and add one pound of mollasses just when the fermentation starts to calm down I will warm the first pound of molasses and slowly mix it into the fermentor, rousing the yeast in the process. When it starts to calm down again, I will add the second pound. Hopefully this will end up quite dry, if it gets stuck I will cold crash it and rack it onto a champagne yeast starter.

Im hoping for 65% efficiency on this one due to the massive grain bill. What do you guys think?

looks pretty tasty, I've never tried any type of hot spice in a beer, whats it taste like?
? what is "ancho" please tell me it doesn't have anything to do with anchovies. I'd like to try something out like the recipe you have here, but don't know if I'll have the patience to wait out the aging.

Ancho = poblano. It's a pepper. Not terribly spicy, but very flavorful.

Edited: My bad, anchos are dried poblanos. Just to clear that up.

The last batch ended up too sweet, but the spicyness is pleasent, not something you want a pint of though.

did you up the hops in your new version? seems like a lot of malt to balance with 51.9 IBU. I made a shakespeare stout clone yesterday that was aiming for 69 IBU (with a lot less malt) didn't get the boil off I expected and ended up with 6 gallons instead of 5
for 57 IBU per beersmith I'm hoping this batch will hit close to the orginal, but only some time will tell. I'm going to punch your grain bill into beersmith and save it for a future brew, but I want to wait and see how the bitterness on my shakespeare pans out before I make a decision on hop schedule

This sounds great. May have to try something similar (with extracts).
How do you handle the cocoa powder?

I actualy lowerd the hops because it somehow managed to be both cloying and unpleasently bitter. Im banking on dryness.

I added the cocoa 5 minutes before flame out.

Do you worry that there will be too much roasted flavor with 4 lbs of serious roasted malts? It seems like a lot, especially both the pound of black patent and black barley.

Perhaps there are 4 pounds but it's less than an eighth of the total grain. I am not worried about that.