Critique on first Imperial Stout recipe

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eonsend

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I'm putting together my first AG Imperial Stout I would love if the knowledgeable and experienced homebrew community would give me some tips and critiques!

AG Imperial Stout

Batch size: 5.00 gal
ABV: 11.43%
OG: 1.103 est FG: 1.024
IBU: 73.4
SRM: 62.7

Grain bill: 20 lbs total
10 lb Maris Otter (50%)
4 lb Munich Malt (20%)
2 lb Roasted Barley (10%)
1 lb Chocolate Malt (5 %)
1 lb Crystal 120L (5%)
1 lb Flaked Oats (5%)
0.5 lb Crystal 20L (2.5%)
0.5 lb Special B (2.5%)

Hops:
1.5 oz Warrior @ 60
0.5 oz Warrior @ 30
1 oz Willamette @ 15
1 oz Willamette @ 5

White Labs WLP007 Dry English Ale

Planning at mashing around 149-150 for 90 minutes since there'll be so many unfermentables anyways.

Month long primary and then bottle conditioning for as long as necessary.

Let me know what you think!
 
That is a crap load of roasted Barley. All of my favorite stouts (including imperials) have less than 5%.
 
Sounds nice...

Almost all my Imperial Stouts are above 10% roasted Barley, almost seems to be the magic number IMO.

FG seems a little low. could use some more sweetness to back the acidity of all that roastyness and burned choco malt.

Maybee i would go with a 1084 instead, haven't tried 007 though.

Make sure your water is hard enough for all those dark malts.

Make sure you bottle condition for a loooong time. I made one close to this some years ago, recently popped the last bottle.... WoW. it's worth alot of waiting :)
 
I don't think it'd taste great with that much attenuation. I like stouts, but they need a little maltyness imo.

Check out this recipe, just for comparison.

Just my opinion, I don't really know what I'm talking about.
 
The FG is just what beersmith estimated, I imagine that it would come out somewhat higher than that. I thought that having 2 lbs of crystal malts would balance out the roast barley. If you guys think it wouldn't, would mashing higher, like 152-153 contribute enough complex sugars to balance it?

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Your recipe isn't THAT far off of the one I just brewed on New Years. Yes, you do in fact have what I'd call a crap ton of roasted barley, but in one of these beers, that may not be too much. My suggestion would be to cut it back a bit though.

Outside of that we both have surprisingly similar percentages of Maris Otter and Munich. I just tasted a gravity sample of mine tonight at 1.033 (down from 1.111) that, for my tastes, was almost spot on as far as the malt profile I was looking for, perhaps minus a bit of the dried fruit that I was hoping for from the Special B. In 23 pounds, I had 3.3% Special B, so if you're looking for that character from it, you might consider going higher. Maybe drop the Crystal 20L (I suspect the lighter crystal malt will just get lost in there anyways) and double the Special B.

I don't really understand 30 minute hop additions - if it were me (it's not, it's your beer so do as you prefer :) ) I'd toss in half that 30 minute addition with your 60 minute addition and forget about the rest, cause you're basically just getting bittering from it, especially in a beer with this much complexity.

I'd shoot a bit higher in mash temp, but again you're on to something - there's already going to be a lot of unfermentables.

Don't discount temp control for your fermentation, and as I learned, use a blowoff, even if you've never needed one before. I hadn't needed one ever before either, used one just to be safe, and NEEDED it. Otherwise, good luck! Perhaps we can trade bottles in like, oh 9 months to a year? ;)
 
Ok so the plan for now is I'm going to keep the grain bill the same but change the hops to a 2 oz addition of warrior at 60 minutes and a 1 oz addition of fuggles at 30 minutes. I'll do a 90 minute mash @ 151 and a 90 minute boil to get lots of caramelization of the wort. Probably gonna be brewing this this weekend :)

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Well I got sick so brewing is gonna be delayed

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Well this weekend I finally got around to brewing this recipe. My HBS was out of Maris Otter and Warrior, so they subbed in 2-row for the base malt and columbus for the bittering addition. Aimed for a 90 minute mash at 150 but temp got away from me a little bit so it ended up around 153-151 and did a 90 minute boil. Chilled to 70 and pitched S-04 instead of 007. Now it's into primary for a month then bottle conditioning for however long is necessary!

Hope it comes out!
 
ok, time for an update on progress.

The stout has been in primary for about a week and a half now and visible fermentation has pretty much subsided. I drew a hydrometer and small tasting sample to see where we are. The hydrometer showed that the beer is down to about 1.027, which I found rather surprising considering the S-04 and the accidental high mash temps. I gave it a gentle stir with a sanitized spoon to rouse the yeast to finish out whatever points left and to clean up. I'll probably leave it in primary for another 3 weeks then bottle.

Taste was pretty good, tho still a little sweet with a distinct alcohol warmth at the end. Surprisingly it didn't taste super roasty or bitter, especially considering that the bill included 10% roasted barley. Hopefully that'll come out a little more as it ages. All in all it seems to be going well and I'm excited to see how it comes out!
 
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