Imperial Stout - Black Roasted Barley question

[Matteo57]

So, I am going to brew a BIG stout today... oak and bourbon it hopefully down the road. I ran to morebeer yesterday and they didn't have a few different ingredients I would have prefered to use so here's my recipe I changed it to. Any thoughts?

ESPECIALLY IN REGARDS TO THE ROASTED BLACK BARLEY (500L)... Too much?

Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 6.00 gal
Efficiency: 52.00 %
Est. OG: 127
Est. FG: 1.030 or probably higher
Boil Time 120 minutes
IBUs: 100
18 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) 45.3 %
10 lbs Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) 26.6 %
3 lbs Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) 8.0 %
3 lbs Roasted Barley (500.0 SRM) 8.0 %
2 lbs Crystal Dark - 77L (Crisp) (75.0 SRM) 5.3 %
1 lbs Extra Special (Briess) (130.0 SRM) 2.7 %
5.8 oz Carafa II (412.0 SRM) 1.0 %
3.0 oz Acid Malt (3.0 SRM) 0.5 %
1.5lb Brown Sugar 3.8%
3.00 oz Warrior [16.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 11 90.0 IBUs
2.50 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 12 10.1 IBUs

 

[joyceman]

3.25 lbs of dark malts borders on ash tray to me. Ive only done one RIS but I capped out a little more than 2 lbs.

Id drop the carafa, youre going to be black as midnight anyway. Id also cut down the roasted barley to no more than 2.5 lbs.

 

[blizz81]

For reference, I did a RIS with 3lb chocolate (300 or 350, can't remember) and 2lb black (500) in a grain bill that was 24.25lb total and loved the result (I was going for more chocolately than roastey/coffee-ey, but take what you will from it), so I personally don't think you're going all that overboard for as large of a bill this is.

 

[solbes]

+1 to joyceman.

Agreed you have too much RB, Carafa, and Crystal in there. It will borderline sharp with roast even after it mellows with aging. Not to mention having a really hard time approaching a 1.030 FG with all of those unfermentables in the dark malts.

I would suggest 1.5-2 lbs of RB. No carafa.

2lbs of 77L crystal may be a tad heavy but okay. I might suggest dropping to 1 lb and adding .5 lbs of Special B. Adds some depth to your crystal flavors.

3 lbs of flaked oats may also be a lot. Stuck sparge possibility? I do BIAB, so not a problem. But 3 lbs of oats will give a lot of mouthfeel to a beer that has a ton to begin with. Maybe 1.5-2 lbs would be better.

I used the same hops you did. It seems like 3 oz of Warrior @ 60 minutes is high. Might want to doublecheck that amount. I used 2 oz Warrior 60 min with late Fuggle and ended up with 90 IBU (estimated).

Your bourbon and oak plan sounds perfect. I did both to mine (1.5 oz of US med oak, 7 weeks in carboy near end of long secondary). I really liked the end result.

 

[JKaranka]

I'd simplify to 28lbs pale malt, 4lbs brown malt, 3lbs black malt, 1lb brown sugar (inverted). If you have access to 6-row, put a couple of pounds in the pale malt mix.

 

[Matteo57]

I cut it down to 2.5 RBB. I definitely like RB (300L) better. Next time I do something like this I will go for that. I think 3 or even 4 pounds of RB (300L) would have been OK, but the (500L) I don't like as much except in smaller amounts. Oh well. I cut the oats to 2lbs too, we shall see. Might cut those next version as it might be too much in a big beer like this but we'll see.
Thanks everyone for the suggestions and help! Much appreciated!
now just to wait a long while to see how it comes out when completed