Looking for a critique of my recipe: A chocolate strawberry RIS

[CrazyPlato]

I've been playing with this concept for a long time, but never got the chance to finish the beer. The first time I tried to brew it, I used un-milled grains and they didn't leave enough sugars to ferment. The second time it made it to secondary before getting infected when I added the cocoa nibs. Now I've touched up the recipe and I'm willing to give it another go.

**Fermentables**

- 9# Pale 2-Row Malt

- 1.25# White Wheat Malt

- 0.8# CaraMunich

- 0.8# Crystal 80L

- 0.8# Chocolate Malt

- 0.6# Special B

- 0.4# Roasted Barley

- 1.25# Flaked Barley

- 0.8# Lactose

- 0.8# Corn Sugar (to up the alcohol content)

**Hops**

- 1.25oz Challenger (60min)

- 1.25oz Northern Brewer (60min)

- 1oz Target (20min)

**Yeast:** 2-3 packets Safale-04 dry yeast

**Others**

- 10# strawberries, frozen and then pasteurized; added at secondary for 3 weeks

- 6oz cocoa nibs, pre-soaked in vodka and added at secondary for 2 weeks

Overall, I plan to age the beer in secondary for 2-3 weeks, then remove the new flavoring agents and transfer to a keg to age in the fridge for the rest of a two-months period before carbonating.

**OG:** 1.095
**FG:** 1.028
**IBU:** 60
**ABV:** 9%

What do you think? Anything I should change?

 

[bransona]

It sounds really good, but your malt character might be so complex that it covers the strawberry and just tastes "dark fruit." Dark fruit and chocolate still sounds awesome! I would up the chocolate malt (because I LOOOVE that flavor) and maybe a pinch of black malt, but I'm sure this will be a good brew. I'm not sure what the 20 minute hop addition is for though... Sounds like you're not looking for much hop flavor here.

 

[CrazyPlato]

I started by looking up a recipe for a Russian imperial stout, and then I just added some ingredients for flavor (strawberries, cocoa, and lactose mostly). I can see why the result is a bit imbalamced: the original recipe was hoppy and complex, but that isn't really necessary with the flavors I'm adding.

Any advice on how I can simplify the malt profile? I guess I should take out the 20min hop addition, or should I change the hop schedule? Any advice would be awesome.

 

[iijakii]

Your grain bill is all over the place. Sugar to up alcohol bit also dries it out and then lactose to add sweetness? Then caramunicg special and c60? Might be ok if you remove sugar but still a bit complex to me. Strawberries will dry it out some too so the sweeter grains aren't bad

 

[bransona]

I would drop the 80L since you have so much special b. I would also add aromatic, but that just complicates it more... Heh. Bump chocolate to a pound, and yeah, drop the 20 min addition. If not black malt, I might up the roasted barley. My thought is that I'd want a deep, chocolate, coffee, roast under the strawberries. It'd still taste like beer, and not a chocolate covered strawberry milkshake. That lactose is our call, but I wouldn't sweeten this one. You know your tastes better than I do though!

 

[CrazyPlato]

Ok, here's what I have now:

Fermentables

• 12# Pale Malt 2-Row
• 1# Flaked Barley (for head retention)
• 3# Chocolate Malt (for obvious reasons)
• 1.5# Roasted Barley (for a coffee-like flavor)
• 1.5# Crystal 80L (for a caramel flavor)

Hops

• 1oz Challenger (60min)
• 1.5oz Northern Brewer (45min)
• 1oz Target (10min)

I left the Target in to raise the IBU up to style standards for a RIS.

Flavoring

• 10# Strawberries, frozen/thawed and added to secondary for 3 weeks
• 6oz cocoa nibs, soaked in vodka and added to secondary for 3 weeks

OG: 1.100
FG: 1.030
IBU: 50
ABV: 9%

How does that look? And any thoughts about the strawberries/cocoa? I've heard mixed opinions about how much nibs to add. And I'm not sure if that's too much on the strawberry. I know it's a subtle fruit, and it'll probably fade off in aging.

 

[bransona]

I think it looks awesome! This way, the special b fruit flavor won't override the strawberries. And as far as cacao, I say the more the merrier