Double Ingredients to make Imperial??

[hanuswalrus]

So I'm planning on brewing an imperial oatmeal stout in the next couple weeks. I want to base it (somewhat loosely) off of one of OldSock's recipes from his blog :

"Toasted Oat - Coffee Stout"
60.6% 7.50 lbs. Maris Otter
18.2% 2.25 lbs. Toasted Oatmeal
8.1% 1.00 lbs. Briess Roasted Barley (300 L)
6.1% 0.75 lbs. Briess Chocolate Malt
4.0% 0.50 lbs. CaraMunich Malt
3.0% 0.38 lbs. Crystal 90L

So if I want to make an imperial version of this beer, would I just double the amounts of all the grains, as long as all the percentages are in line? That seems like the obvious answer.. I just want to be sure before I brew this up.

 

[Hello]

You could do that. I would definitely double the base grain, but I would pay close attention to the speciality grains just to be sure you don't exceed the percentages he has there.

 

[JustLooking]

You could do that. I would definitely double the base grain, but I would pay close attention to the speciality grains just to be sure you don't exceed the percentages he has there.

 

[hanuswalrus]

Sooo, using Brewers Friend recipe calculator, I went through and adjusted the grain amounts to hit all the percentages and the target OG I'm looking for, assuming my typical efficiency. This is what I came up with for a 3.5 gallon batch :

10 lbs Golden Promise
3 lbs Toasted Oats
1.25 lb Roasted Barley
1 lb Chocolate malt
.65 lb CaraMunich
.5 lb Crystal 90L

It's pretty much dead on to all of his % points for each grain, however the SRM is showing 50, as opposed to his 40.9.

I think this might be what I end up going with.. Does this grain bill raise any red flags to anyone?

 

[Hello]

If the guy uses 5% roasted malt then he should continue that trend. Do you get it?

Sooo, using Brewers Friend recipe calculator, I went through and adjusted the grain amounts to hit all the percentages and the target OG I'm looking for, assuming my typical efficiency. This is what I came up with for a 3.5 gallon batch :

10 lbs Golden Promise
3 lbs Toasted Oats
1.25 lb Roasted Barley
1 lb Chocolate malt
.65 lb CaraMunich
.5 lb Crystal 90L

It's pretty much dead on to all of his % points for each grain, however the SRM is showing 50, as opposed to his 40.9.

I think this might be what I end up going with.. Does this grain bill raise any red flags to anyone?

May want to add some rice hulls with that oatmeal.

 

[m00ps]

You should listen to Hello's advice on the specialty grains. IME 1.25lb roasted barley + 1.0lb chocolate, even in a 5gal batch would be waaay to acrid and bitter. I usually stick to like 1.5lb roasted dark malts max, even for an imperial stout. I would do something like this
11lb golden promis
3lbs oats
12oz roasted barley
12oz chocolate
8oz caramunich
8oz crystal 90

also, are you toasting all 3 lbs of oats? That will cut down their fermentability and give you a large %age of non-"base" malts. I make a toasted oat stout where I use 3 lbs of oats, but only 12oz or so are toasted in my oven. I would advise you dont make a recipe with like 33% specialty malts

 

[hanuswalrus]

Hmm. What if I replace half of the Roasted barley with a debittered roasted malt like Perla Negra, or carafa special? Like this :

10 lbs Golden Promise
3 lbs Toasted Oats
.75 lb Roasted Barley
.75 lb Perla Negra
1 lb Chocolate malt
.65 lb CaraMunich
.5 lb Crystal 90L

That would cut down on the acrid-ness (or is acridity a word?), correct?

 

[m00ps]

yeah it would cut it down but its still a crapload of those darker malts. 1lb of roasted barley or a dark chocolate will get you a black body and plenty of roast, especially at 3.5gal. I wouldnt go too much higher than that to make something imperial. Id just up the base malts. thats why DIPAs dont have a pound of crystal or something in them

 

[Gavin C]

There was a very useful thread recently on this very topic. The author seems to have put a great deal of thiought into it.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=525104


Certainly seems more complex than doubling all the malts as doubling specialty grains when the batch size remains unchanged would not be a good thing. It's not like scaling a recipe for a large batch size in that respect.

 

[m00ps]

yeah I remember reading that when I first started out. The author puts it very nicely what I was trying to convey:
"Don’t let the percentage number scare you because the flavor contribution from the critical specialty grains is going to be the same as the regular beer simply because the weight is the same."

 

[hanuswalrus]

Thanks for all the input guys. After some thought, here's what I have for the grain bill at this point.. planning to brew this on Saturday :

12 lbs Golden Promise
1.75 lbs Flaked Oats (toast half of them)
.6 lbs Chocolate
.5 lbs Roasted Barley
.4 lbs CaraMunich
.3 lbs Crystal 90
.3 lbs Perla Negra

I basically scaled Mr. Tonsmeire's recipe down to my batch size, and then added a few lbs of Golden Promise to "imperialize" it.

 

[m00ps]

looks good. toasting oats in the oven is awesome. just be sure to flip them and redistribute them in the pan once or twice during it