Need quick critique, ordering grains tomorrow. Smoked imperial stout

I had bcbs early this year and loved the subtle smoke and char in it. Want to brew something like it but with more char and smoke so I'm modifying a ris recipe from brewing classic styles

I substituted the base grain with smoked malt, thinking cherrywood for its subtlety and sweetness. I decreased the roasted barley and chocolate from 2.5 lbs to 2 lbs each then I substituted half of the chocolate with 1 lb black malt Thinking the black malt will give me some of that char I also decreased the c120. Recipe had a finishing gravity of 1.037, that just seems way too high for me so I'm hoping by decreasing the specialty grains and by using an American yeast it would dry out the beer more

Shooting for 60% efficiency. I've only brewed 2 big beers, one hit 66% efficiency while the other was 60%

Post boil volume 5 gallons

Pre boil volume 6.5 gallons

1.5 hr boil and 1 hr mash. Mashing at 149

51% Maris otter 12.75 lbs

22% smoked malt 5.5 lbs

8% roasted barley 2 lbs

8% wheat malt 2 lbs

4% chocolate malt 1 lb

4% black malt 1 lb

3% c120 12 oz

Hop schedule will just be whatever I have in my freezer. Chinook and Kent goldings probably

Yeast will be us05

Looks to me like a very very roasty smokey stout. I would cut back your specialty grain by one half. What does everyone else think?

Crazy thing is the original recipe from bcs has 13.4% roasted barley, 13.4% chocolate malt, and 4.6% c120

Well, in that case, carry on then.

Original recipe also has a fg of 1.037. I definitely don't want that

Put some priming sugar in there to dry it out, mash low. To dry it out you will need one to two lbs of priming sugar.

That's a lot of smoked malt! Mash temp of 149 is really low for this style and will produce a very thin stout. look at mashing at 154-6f for a RIS
cut the wheat out and add amber malt.
I'd also switch out the smoked malt and just add 2oz of Peat smoked malt.

Yikes - 16% dark roasted malts. That recipe is definitely NOT for me. I keep mine around 7-10% but have indeed seen folks go high like you.

SpeedYellow said:

Yikes - 16% dark roasted malts. That recipe is definitely NOT for me. I keep mine around 7-10% but have indeed seen folks go high like you.

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I changed it up since I originally posted. I changed it once by decreasing the roast and black patent thinking it might be too much when coupled with the smoked malt. I then increased chocolate malt thinking I'll need more sweetness to balance out the beer

Then I got to my lhbs and they didn't have cherry wood smoked malt which I was banking on for its sweetness and mellow smoke. They had some type of smoked malt that was strong and taste like bacon. So i made a last minute decision to drop 2lbs from the smoked malt and increase the Marris otter by two pounds

jturkish said:

...Then I got to my lhbs and they didn't have cherry wood smoked malt which I was banking on for its sweetness and mellow smoke. They had some type of smoked malt that was strong and taste like bacon. So i made a last minute decision to drop 2lbs from the smoked malt and increase the Marris otter by two pounds

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What brand smoked malt was it? I've used it all, but never found one to taste like bacon (except *maybe* Weyermann), so I'm curious.

Best malz rauch malt

Interesting -- I haven't seen Best at my LHB shops. But you can assume it would be similar to the very mildly-smoked Weyermann, and not suprisingly, Best says it can be used up to 100% of grist just like Weyermann. I've used ~100% Weyermann and it's not smoky at all. So don't expect perceptible smoke from 14% of grist.

Briess cherry smoked can be used up to perhaps 30%-50%. I always home-smoke my malt and have to keep it below 10-12% because it's insanely strong unlike anything you can buy.