Oatmeal Russian Imperial Stout Recipe Critique

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schach23

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Guys

On my third try for a stout. Hoping to get some help here.

Goal is a big thick stout, motor oil color and thickness. Roasty, chocolate, coffee, but not overly bitter. Will be putting in a 5 gallon balcones barrel.

Probably one of my favorite stouts to drink is BORIS from hoppin frog. I reached out to them, and they wouldn't even give some hints. So here is my best attempt.

Style: Imperial Stout
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 9.20 gal
Post Boil Volume: 6.20 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.25 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.122 SG
Estimated Color: 71.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 90.5 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 73.7 %
Boil Time: 120 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
18 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 64.9 %
2 lbs 12.0 oz Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 2 9.9 %
1 lbs 12.0 oz Chocolate (Briess) (350.0 SRM) Grain 3 6.3 %
1 lbs 12.0 oz Roasted Barley (Briess) (300.0 SRM) Grain 4 6.3 %
1 lbs Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) Grain 5 3.6 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 6 3.6 %
12.0 oz De-Bittered Black Malt (Dingemans) (550. Grain 7 2.7 %
12.0 oz Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 8 2.7 %
2.00 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Boil 75. Hop 9 71.7 IBUs
1.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 10 18.8 IBUs
1.00 oz Styrian Goldings [5.40 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 11 0.0 IBUs
2.0 pkg American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) [124.21 Yeast 12 -


Mash Schedule: 05 Full Body Profile (156F)
Total Grain Weight: 27 lbs 12.0 oz
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 27.34 gal of water at 159.9 F 156.0 F 60 min

Sparge: Fly sparge with -14.23 gal water at 168.0 F


Thanks for the thoughts

Scott
 
Recipe looks solid. Mash temp might be a tad high. What's your water profile and predicted mash pH? You may need some baking soda to raise it up with that much roasted grain.
 
Go with it. Youll need plenty of testers and youll need to brew it multiple times to get it dialed in...dont let folks tell you it wont work. It almost never works the first time, but youll get it nailed...
 
Recipe looks solid. Mash temp might be a tad high. What's your water profile and predicted mash pH? You may need some baking soda to raise it up with that much roasted grain.


Haven't done the water profile yet. I guess since I'm doing so much oatmeal I can lower the temp. Probably should add some rice hulls.
 
Nothing wrong with a 2 hour boil with RIS's. It's the easiest way to get better efficiency since you're using so much grain. Water still has to be wrong though. 27 gallons of mash water? That's a gallon per pound.

Not sure if you're seen this website "Building a Behemoth", but it fantastic and really helps when building a recipe for a RIS. Shows commercial example recipe grain percentages as well as NHC gold medal winners. Highly recommended.

http://tobrewabeer.com/index.php/2016/02/10/building-behemoth-grains/
 
It's a 2 hr boil and I've read than stouts like Ten Fidy and BCBC are brewed with a really long boil.

You'd have to boil for 7+ hours to get from about 20 gallons down to 5.5. Must be a typo.

http://www.brew365.com/mash_sparge_water_calculator.php

27lbs25gal.PNG
 
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
18 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 64.9 %
2 lbs 12.0 oz Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 2 9.9 %
1 lbs 12.0 oz Chocolate (Briess) (350.0 SRM) Grain 3 6.3 %
1 lbs 12.0 oz Roasted Barley (Briess) (300.0 SRM) Grain 4 6.3 %
1 lbs Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) Grain 5 3.6 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 6 3.6 %
12.0 oz De-Bittered Black Malt (Dingemans) (550. Grain 7 2.7 %
12.0 oz Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 8 2.7 %
2.00 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Boil 75. Hop 9 71.7 IBUs
1.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 10 18.8 IBUs
1.00 oz Styrian Goldings [5.40 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 11 0.0 IBUs
2.0 pkg American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) [124.21 Yeast 12 -

I'll add some feedback as well :) I'd reduce the chocolate to around a pound since the carafa will add smooth chocolate character and you have enough roasted character with the roasted barley. I like your choice of hops and I'd think that the IBUs are a little high, but will certainly age nicely. I like everything else.

I wonder if your previous attempts are close to this or a big change - posting your last recipe and notes about what you didn't like or wanted to improve would be interesting.

Cheers!
 
I'd add some c120 and ditch the victory you won't get any of the malt from victory in that big of a grain bill, c120 will add some color and sweetness and I'd drop the oats to just 2 lbs, I've had issues with lots of oats and it stripping head retention. Otherwise grain bill looks fine and I'd mash at 154-55 to keep the body thick. Really big beers like this you have to brew again and again cuz something always changes. I just did my RIS and did a mash in with 7 gal on 22lbs of grain and it stopped draining after 2+ gal so do a double sparge that'll help with extraction.
 
I'll add some feedback as well :) I'd reduce the chocolate to around a pound since the carafa will add smooth chocolate character and you have enough roasted character with the roasted barley. I like your choice of hops and I'd think that the IBUs are a little high, but will certainly age nicely. I like everything else.

I wonder if your previous attempts are close to this or a big change - posting your last recipe and notes about what you didn't like or wanted to improve would be interesting.

Cheers!

I first tried this recipe from homebrewtalk
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=238807

Thought it was thin, not much chocolate roast, and I thought dark fruit/raisin notes dominated.

I really like Jackie O's here in Ohio so didn't want to give up on special b malt so made my own small batch as a test batch that I experimented with powdered peanut butter and coffee. The recipe is below. Wasn't impressed again (dark fruits/raisins just not liking anymore). Did some more reading and came up with the original post.

5 lbs 3.3 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 58.2 %
1 lbs 7.1 oz Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 2 16.2 %
8.1 oz Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 3 5.7 %
5.4 oz Black Barley (Briess) (500.0 SRM) Grain 4 3.8 %
5.4 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 5 3.8 %
5.4 oz Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 6 3.8 %
5.4 oz Special B Malt (180.0 SRM) Grain 7 3.8 %
3.5 oz Oats, Flaked (0.8 SRM) Grain 8 2.4 %
3.5 oz Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) Grain 9 2.4 %
 
I'd add some c120 and ditch the victory you won't get any of the malt from victory in that big of a grain bill, c120 will add some color and sweetness and I'd drop the oats to just 2 lbs, I've had issues with lots of oats and it stripping head retention. Otherwise grain bill looks fine and I'd mash at 154-55 to keep the body thick. Really big beers like this you have to brew again and again cuz something always changes. I just did my RIS and did a mash in with 7 gal on 22lbs of grain and it stopped draining after 2+ gal so do a double sparge that'll help with extraction.

I actually added in some 120 last minute. In Yoopers oatmeal stout she specifically mentioned the Victory adding some toffee notes which I thought might be nice. I read in another article bout how much oats to add. The article mentioned up to 10% can be used without a special mash, more than 10% requires step mashing. I am aiming for a viscous huge body so went with 10%.

Scott
 
I actually added in some 120 last minute. In Yoopers oatmeal stout she specifically mentioned the Victory adding some toffee notes which I thought might be nice. I read in another article bout how much oats to add. The article mentioned up to 10% can be used without a special mash, more than 10% requires step mashing. I am aiming for a viscous huge body so went with 10%.

Scott

Sounds like u found your spot but also yoopers stout is not a RIS so she Prob got some of that toffee with a thinner beer but in an Ris and I used to use victory too it gets lost in all the big dark grains. If u want viscous just mash higher to leave a higher fg
 
I first tried this recipe from homebrewtalk
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=238807

Thought it was thin, not much chocolate roast, and I thought dark fruit/raisin notes dominated.

I really like Jackie O's here in Ohio so didn't want to give up on special b malt so made my own small batch as a test batch that I experimented with powdered peanut butter and coffee. The recipe is below. Wasn't impressed again (dark fruits/raisins just not liking anymore). Did some more reading and came up with the original post.

Have you brewed this yet?

Those provide some reference. I made the HBT 2011 RIS as a belgian stout, and I could see it being a little thin if mashed at 151. The second recipe seems like too much Munich, and the PB and coffee would maybe make the base recipe hard to evaluate. I still think the 1.75 lbs chocolate is a bit much, and maybe the 2.5 of oats, but should be a complex and thick RIS.

I have been buying and tasting every imperial stout i can buy this winter. Next brew will be the result of my findings :)
 
Ideally for a beer with that high a gravity your gonna want like pitch rates in the 400 billion cell range. If you can make a 4 liter starter for the two pacts you'll be good. If you can't go that big any size starter will help
 
I would say mash thinner and longer for such an intense grain bill also on the lower temperature range.
 
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