Recipe input desired

I am going to make a huge Imperial IPA roughly built around the ideas of our 777 brew. I am shooting for an OG over 1.100 and IBUs over 200. I also want to try Jaggery (Indian Palm Sugar) as an adjunct to add complexity and dry it out a bit. I have Amarillo hops.

What are your thoughts?

Imperial Sevens - 14-C Imperial IPA
Size: 20.0 gal
Efficiency: 75.0%
Original Gravity: 1.107 (1.075 - 1.090)
Terminal Gravity: 1.026 (1.012 - 1.020)
Color: 7.1 (8.0 - 15.0)
Alcohol: 10.49% (7.5% - 10.0%)
Bitterness: 207.99 (60.0 - 100.0)

Ingredients:
50.0 lbs American 2-row
20.0 lbs Pilsner Malt
7.0 lbs Jaggery (palm sugar)
4.0 lbs Rye Flaked
17.0 oz Amarillo (10.5%) - added during boil, boiled 90 min
6.0 oz Amarillo (10.5%) - added during boil, boiled 20 min
4.0 oz Amarillo (10.5%) - added during boil, boiled 5 min
10.0 oz Amarillo (10.5%) - added dry to secondary fermenter

Schedule:
Mash @ 146 F for 60 minutes
Jaggery added in the kettle
Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.0.25

Not sure, as I have never even heard of Jaggery (or rather didn't know Palm sugar was called Jaggery). Sounds interesting though. I do use invert sugar in some of my brews, you may safely be able to get away with more than the 8% ...but that would certainly take tweaking. Looks good as a base point though. The Rye looks about right imo, as it really seems to come through fairly easy in many recipes. I did a 146 mash on one of my recent brews, and it had about close to 10% invert sugar. Dried it out really nice.

Great response! Thanks for your thoughts. They reflect my hopes and assumptions. I have never used jaggery (which is just the Indian name for it) but hear it has some cool floral tones to it. I don't want to push it too much the first time out, but with the high gravity I did want to cut things a bit so as to have a drier finish. The residual malt and over 10% alcohol will make it plenty sweet. The 146 mash is one I use on my IIPAs to help keep them from going over the top on the sweet end.

One thing I thought of, was that the sugar I use (I do a stovetop inversion) is used up a lot easier than just raw sugars so your yeast will have a little more work, and I am only pointing it out because you have a huge OG to begin with.

What about adding the Jaggery after fermentation has already begun (instead of adding directly to the boil) so that you minimize stress on the yeast?

Is that little bit of rye going to get lost in that grain bill?

Unless you are using that in there for head retention properties...so then I ask why rye and not wheat?

I will also mention this--have you ever bittered with amarillo before? The reason I ask is that my experience with using amarillo as a bittering hop is that I always want "more". The bitterness is so soft (despite the higher AA%) that it kind of feels like it is mssing something, IMHO. Don't get me wrong, I love amarillo and I bitter my LWPA with it, but on future versions I am upping the bittering charge despite what the IBUs say in the recipe programs.

Just food for thought--love the recipe. If I could drink a beer that big I'd love to brew it. If you concoct a "Submissive Sevens" recipe I'd be more apt to brew that!

I have the rye where it is because that is what I have on hand, but I had tought the same thing in terms of possibly adding more. I can easily get more, but I am not sure how much I want. I want it to be a minor tone in the brew, so I will ponder and wait for your thoughts.

The fermenter sugar idea is one I considered as well, I have done it with honey ales with good success, but not ever having used palm sugar before I thought it best to kettle it and trust a big slurry to kick it down.

As for its less refined nature, that is part of what I am after. I have heard it discribed as "lilac" which I take as floral, in which case maybe the hops should be changed...

I think rye/peppery will go with floral, alcoholic brew. I will be using the same yeast I sent to you Dude in the double IPA. I find it to be clean and well attenuating, but would value your thoughts and recollections.

I had ~17% rye in my last rye pa and though it was palpable but wanted more. I would think it should be in the 10-15% range for just a background flavor in such a huge brew, but I'm just winging it.

Winging is better then guessing. I can see I have some adjusting to go.

And a question from me: are you mashing so low to get adequate attenuation from the super high OG? That's low! I haven't gone below 148F, but who knows how accurate my thermometer is.

I am. I do 146 on my IIPAs to balance the alcohol with the hops, as opposed to the malt and hops.

BP how did this turn out?