Imperial Stout Recipe

[rhinoceroceros]

First crack at a RIS, I think I'm pretty much ready to go, but wanted to get some feedback on the recipe.

19# Marris Otter
.75# Chocolate Malt
.75# Flaked Oats
.66# Midnight Wheat
.5# C-120
.33# Roasted Barley
.25# C-40
.1# Black Patent

1 oz Columbus @ 60
1 oz Columbus @ 20
.5 oz Cascade @ 20
.5 oz Columbus @ 10
.5 oz Cascade @ 10
.5 oz Columbus @ 5
1 oz Cascade @ 5

OG: 1.097 IBU: 84

I'm thinking I might have a bit too much going on in the malt bill, I know I'm on the high end with IBU, but I don't mind some hop character in a big stout, and if it's too much I'm sure it will age nicely.

 

[Alan Reginato]

Malt bill is too high, probably the efficiency will suffer from that and you won't hit the og. For a recipe like that, use sugar to hit the desired og, better add after high krausen. I would use a neutral profile yeast, to avoid fusel alcohols and esters.
BTW what SRM it should be? Be careful with roasted stuff, specially if they aren't huskless, or it could be overwhelming harsh. Many comercial beers use low bitter extract to add colour.
And for this kind of beer, a British hop would be more suitable. Or even warrior and Chinook. Fruit and floral flavours doesn't seems to match very well with roasted and caramel.
Off course, that's my opinion, but you can get some ideas.

 

[Gnomebrewer]

I'm thinking I might have a bit too much going on in the malt bill

I think you do. Marris, oats, two different crystals, then choose two roasted malts (instead of four). I suggest Black patent OR Roasted barley AND chocolate OR Midnight wheat. My preference would be midnight wheat and roasted barley. Roasted grains can push up towards 10% of the grain bill if you're giving it time to age.

As Alan mentioned above, big beers are logistically difficult to brew. To get a 1.097 OG, you either need a very long boil (3 hours is quite common) or just use first runnings with a normal mash thickness. Obviously efficiency takes a big hit with the second method, so consider catching the second runnings for a smaller beer. Alternatively, again as Alan said, consider adding sugar (or malt extract). It makes it much easier to reach target OG. I like to use homemade candi syrup from here 20 lb of sugar and a jar of yeast nutrient
along with some DME.

You definitely have more hops than I like to use, but if that's what you're going for I don't see a problem with the schedule you listed.

Don't forget to think about yeast - the strain you use is important and having a BIG and HEALTHY pitch is vital. Consider brewing a simple blonde ale or cream ale and using the entire cake straight away for the imperial stout, with good oxygenation.

 

[kevin58]

Taken from the Barclay Perkins brew log circa 1849. The original RIS that they named IBSt:

62% Pale Malt (2 row) UK
24% Brown Malt
11% Amber Malt
3% Black Malt

Hops are all EKG
90 min 63 IBU
60 min 42 IBU
30 min 32.5 IBU