The Czar is Back RIS - Recipe/Thoughts?

[MVKTR2]

Ordered up a load of supplies and need to get brewing. My next attempt is a smoked ale, then I'm kicking it off with a hopefully good Russian Imperial Stout. Here's my recipe, any thoughts or corrections? My biggest concern is does my roasted grain bill look about right?

Russian Imperial Stout All-grain

Stats
OG 1.085
FG 1.020
IBU 103
ABV 8.4 %
SRM 47
Specifics
Boil Volume 6.33 gallons
Batch Size 4 gallons (note not a 5+ gallon batch due to size of MLT)
Yeast 77% AA
S
Fermentables
Weight (lbs) Grain
9.00 British Two-row Pale
1.00 British Crystal 135-165L
0.63 German Roasted Barley
0.25 American Black Patent
0.38 Pale Chocolate
0.75 Molasses
12.00

Hops
Weight Hop AA% Boil Time
1.00 Nugget 13.0 75
1.00 Glacier 5.5 15
1.00 Amarillo 7.0 15
1.00 Cluster 5.2 15
4.00 oz. total weight 102.8 Total IBUs

I plan to mash @ 148-150.

I'm not sure which yeast I want to use, I have several options including, Windsor, Notty, US-05, T-58, & S-33. I'm intrigued with the idea of using T-58 or Windsor. No matter what I'll be pitching onto a yeast cake.

Schlante,
Phillip

 

[Ketchepillar]

I've never used molasses or pale chocolate, but other than that it looks pretty good to me. I might go a little higher on the roasted malts, but that is not factoring in the molasses character and being unsure about the pale chocolate. I would use US-05 and mash around 154F to hit your 77% attenuation.

 

[MVKTR2]

I've never used molasses or pale chocolate, but other than that it looks pretty good to me. I might go a little higher on the roasted malts, but that is not factoring in the molasses character and being unsure about the pale chocolate. I would use US-05 and mash around 154F to hit your 77% attenuation.

Hadn't thought of it that way, but I may go ahead and mash @ 152 or so, my 'house/go to' mash temp. As for the pale chocolate, I've not used it either, was thinking of using 4 oz. each pale and regular chocolate. Do others think I need to bump the roasted grains? If so I think I'll do what I mentioned above with the choc./pale choc. As for Molasses I've brewed with it on 1 occasion with good results & have a friend who LOVES it and throws it into anything dark. Oddly enough it doesn't add much for color even though it's super dark. Thanks for the reply.

I've never made an imperial stout and have only made regular strength porters in the past with mixed results so I could use some guidance on this one guys! Are there any guidelines I could look at for proportions of the roasted grains. My fav. 2 RIS are TenFidy & Lagunitus, I like a nice malty RIS, I enjoy Yeti, but find it a bit unbalanced for my liking.

Schlante,
Phillip

 

[Parker36]

Is this supposed to be based off of Avery's Czar?

 

[MVKTR2]

Is this supposed to be based off of Avery's Czar?

No, but if it were that good I'd take it

 

[Ketchepillar]

For roasted grains on a RIS, I find 10% to be pretty good baseline. I just don't know how to work with that pale chocolate, also considering that Amer RB is probably 300L vs the 500L+ British stuff. I really doubt you'd be unreasonably low on roast character as is though.
I definitely hear you on the low mash temp, but since this isn't that big for an RIS, it doesn't need to be too low, especially considering US-05 could attenuate steel 80%+. It's just particularly that yeast where you really need to mash several degrees higher than normal.

 

[MVKTR2]

Thanks Ketchepillar... what's a ketchepillar anyway?

Your comments about Am. versus Brit. RB made me realize it's actually German Roasted Barley of which I'm not sure what the lovibond rating is!? I also corrected the base malt to British 2-row (MO) instead of Belgian... not sure where that came from, I was tired when I put it together!

As for your 10% roasted grain suggestion as a baseline... good news, my roasted content is 10.4% :rockin: Must be lucky!

Also my color is rated as 50 so I'm obviously getting enough lovibond power from the roasted grains. I am still considering doing .25 Pale Choc. & .25 Choc. This would probably bump the roast content up to 12% or so. That'll be okay... right??? I'll also probably add another pound of base malt as my 5 gal. MLT will hold it easy.

Oh yea I figured out I'll probably be dumping this onto a cake of Windsor yeast. This yeast should be good especially if I can keep temps down.

Schlante,
Phillip

Anyone else have any ideas to help me out?