appreciate some help with an Innus & Gunn Clone

[Husher]

OK, so I discovered Innus & Gunn and want more. So I googled it and found a recipe on this site, and on beersmith (apparently the same author). Thing is, the guy was using all grain and I'm stuck with extract. So I pumped everything into brewtoad (liked it better when it was hopville) and tried to keep the gravity at the same level. And the numbers don't add up so I have to question if I'm doing this right or will have another learning experience.

The recipe I'm starting with is here;
http://beersmithrecipes.com/viewrecipe/60926/innis-and-gunn-clone

And my version using LME is below;
5 gallon batch
extra light LME (8.2 Lbs)
Roasted barley (2 oz)
Chocolate malt (4 oz)
Corn sugar for bottling (4 oz)
1.5 oz fuggles, 60 minutes of boil.
Secondary for a month or two with 50 grams (approx 1.5 oz) with medium French oak (I wanted the vanilla flavour).

That works out to 92% of the fermentables are just LME. Is that right? My other recipes are under 70-80%. Plus buddy was using 14 Lbs of grain versus my 8 Lbs of LME. That doesn't sound right. He had a slightly bigger batch (5.5 gallons), but I though the conversion was 80 %. Please lemme know if I missed something .Thanks

 

[mcmcnair]

I don't know about the math but I just made an innus & gunn clone based off that same recipe. I just took the all grain recipe to my local shop and they converted it all for me. I used hungarian oak (50grams) soaked in captain morgan private stock for a month during primary. I also added 3 vanilla pods during the last week of secondary. When tasting it just before bottling I found it was very very oaky. More so than the rum-oak aged scottish ale they make. I think I would put the rum soaked oak in for only the last 2 weeks of secondary. But the vanilla aroma and flavoring was dead on. I'll post pictures once it is finished carbonating. I think this is a beer that will really benefit from 6 months+ of bottle conditioning. Good luck!

 

[Husher]

My intention is to age in primary/secondary for 6 months or so. It's pretty much my standard practice as I'll make 3 batches in a day, and several months later bottle all three in a day. Though I've now decided to do it with darker beers (moose drool, honey porter and innus & gunn).

What was the ABV of your brew? If I used 80% LME for 14 lbs of grain, I should get 10.5 Lbs of LME, which in 5.5 gallons would be around 7.6%. Innus & gunn is 6.6% so I'm gonna scale back the fermentables to match the lower ABV.

Also, did you boil down the runnings as described in the other site? I'm wondering if that part is really worth it.

 

[mcmcnair]

My final abv was 7.38% I converted to an extract recipe so no I did not boil down my rubbings. I aged in primary for month and secondary for two months. It is wayyyy too oaky I think bottle conditioning for 6 months or more will help a lot with that.

 

[Husher]

My final abv was 7.38% I converted to an extract recipe so no I did not boil down my rubbings. I aged in primary for month and secondary for two months. It is wayyyy too oaky I think bottle conditioning for 6 months or more will help a lot with that.

Thanks. My plan was to secondary for a few months like they state on the label, but think 30 days with 50 grams of FRENCH medium toast may be better. I want that vanilla flavour! May try a vanilla bean porter in the future.