NB Imperial Stout

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Abrayton

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I am planning to brew the Northern Brewer imperial stout extract kit linked below:

http://www.northernbrewer.com/imperial-stout-extract-kit

I'm sure it's a great kit as have been all of the NB kits I've brewed, but I'm looking for suggestions of any other specialty grains I can/should add to make it that much better. I plan to age it with bourbon soaked oak chips.
 
It has 50 reviews, 45 of which are 5 stars. I think the oak chips are a nice touch, but I wouldn't mess with the grain bill the first time out. It's hard to make any adjustments without knowing how it comes out "as is."
 
I see they call for 2-3 months in a secondary carboy. I've done 3 RIS's amd just leave mine in the primary for like 2 months. Never had off flavors and the last one took a 2nd place in local competition.
 
I guess if it ain't broke, don't fix it! I generally don't secondary anymore unless I'm adding something like bourbon oak cubes in this case or dry hopping
 
I just made the all grain version I think. Fermented a week and 2 days and now it's in the keg and I'm drinking it and it's freakin delicious.
 
I Brewed a similar one and used some Special B. I oaked it with 4 ounces of Bourbon soaked oak chips. When I do it again I will only use 2 or 3 ounces. At a year and 4 months it is still great and still a bit on the "wood" side.
 
I just made the all grain version I think. Fermented a week and 2 days and now it's in the keg and I'm drinking it and it's freakin delicious.

That'a man! Screw 2-3 months fermentation! Drink it now!
 
I brewed the same kit and followed those instructions closely.

1) I used old/dead Wyeast 1728 + fresher White Labs WLP028 in a two step starter.
2) A half gallon was aged in a micro bourbon barrel of the same volume then cut with a half gallon of straight for a full gallon on bottling day. Left 4 gallons of straight to be bottled.

I still consider the beer to be the best I've ever made in my young career (around 20 batches?) It is fantastic. It aged beautifully - now 14 months out from brew day and is great now as it was then. The barrel-aged is just so f'ing good; expands on the base beer in a great way.
My recommendation would be to oak only a portion of it, if you have the capability to do so. This way you can compare the straight batch with the oaked batch. Cheers!
 
Now you got me thinking. I could split it but brewing two batches would definitely be more fun! Using harvested Notty instead of the recommended 04.
 
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