recipe review- russian imperial stout

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bayern-kaiser

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hello all i'm currently planning a Russian imperial stout to be ready by Christmas and I was looking forward to seeing your critique so here we go

5 gal batch
expected og : 1.125
expected fg : 1.025
expected ibu: 70'ish
expected ABV: 13%

grain bill

5# pale malt
5# light munich
2# crystal 60
2# crystal 120
2# Belgian special B
3# chocolate malt
1# black patent
2# toasted oats
2# chocolate wheat malt
1# raw rye

hops bill

3oz Columbus 60min
2oz fuggles 30min



irish ale yeast


5 weeks primary 65F
4 months celler at 60F
2 months bottle condition 60F

I was also thinking about adding some oak during the celler aging period. anyway what I was wondering is anyone saw an inherit error with my grain bill, and what y'all thought of my hop bill as I was hoping to maintain a malt forwardness. if anyone can think of a yeast with a higher attenuation level that would be ideal. one final question should I do an infusion or decoction mash. oh, and should I batch sparge or just make a small beer.
 
Personally, I think the grain bill is unnecessarily complicated and might make for a muddy beer. If it were my recipe I would leave out the crystal malts, leave out the black patent,leave out the Munich and up the base malt. Maybe add a touch of carafa iii or caramunich. Also, I'd agree with your idea of a more attenuators malt, maybe wlp001 or 002. Just IMHO.
 
Oh, and I might use the wheat or the oats, but not both and not that much.

Just taking notes, cause I love me a good stout! So, in your estimation, less is usually more... Less complex grain bill yields better flavor? Character?

I agree too many competing grains can "muddy" the flavor and make it too complex, theoretically anyway...
 
Less is not always more, but more is rarely more. Just as in fine cooking, too many ingredients can dampen the contributions of individual components. You want malt complexity, but you want to have a reason for each addition and you want to be able to detect the characteristics of each. Lets break down the recipe to see what each item is contributing and what it brings to this style. First the crystal malts. Crystal malts bring sweetness and fullness. Light crystal malts such as 20 or 40 lend a candy like sweet, carmely note. In the case of a RIS, this is not to style. Dark crystals such as 120 or special B lend a darker, more complex sweetness with flavors of burnt toffee, fig and raisins which is what this style wants. Munich malts give a biscuity, toasty flavor which would be lost in the roasty richness of this beer and would just muddy things up. You need some roastyness, but a RIS is rich and desert like so the tart ashyness of a patent roast might be too much. I would use black patent in a dry stout but maybe not here, or very restrained at the least. Roasted barley and chocolate malt are better, maybe even carafa III. You want some dark chocolate and slight coffee roastiness, but not too much astringency. As far as the oats and flaked barley, they both add fullness and mouthfeel, but this is a whopping big beer, it's gonna have fullness to spare. A lot of oats and barley would just lend to a stuck sparge and a too thick texture. I'd favor a touch of one or the other, my preference would be the flaked oats. The rye. not really sure what it's doing here at all. If you really like what rye would bring then go for it but I don't think it's going to help the style at all and would not use it. Also, I think your percentages of specialty malts are way too high. Most well respected recipes I have read use much smaller additions of specialty malts and a higher percentage of base malt. As for the yeast, I would think you need some attenuation here. You don't need your yeast to leave behind residual sugar, there is already a ton here. Slight fruity esters might be nice, so an english yeast such as WL002 would be a good choice. Or a clean yeast such as WLP001 would be nice as well, letting the malt character shine through and giving a good balance and clean finish. I would ferment fairly cool to keep the esters to a minimum, just a slight background note. Your hop choice is nice, I love me some fuggles. You'll need a huge starter for this, or better yet put it on the cake from a smaller beer such as a pale ale or ESB using the yeast you want. Finally, these are just my opinions. In the end this is your beer and you have to be the one who likes it.

I took an interest in this recipe because I have been planning a new RIS myself and have been doing a lot of research on the style. Check out Jamil's book brewing classic styles or listen to the podcasts on the brewing network. I have learned a lot about beer styles form these resources.
 
I like complex malt bills. 3 lbs. of chocolate and 2 lbs. of chocolate wheat will be way too much choc. I also think 2 lbs of Special B is too much. I would keep some crystal, but 4 lbs, again, to me, that is too much.
 
You'll be swimming in it with 2# of Special-B!

If this helps:

For 5.25-gal:

18 lbs 12.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) Crisp (3.0 SRM)
1 lbs 8.0 oz Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM)
1 lbs Special B Malt (180.0 SRM)
8.0 oz Caramunich Malt (56.0 SRM)
8.0 oz Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM)
8.0 oz Pale Chocolate Malt (500.0 SRM)

1.50 oz Nugget [13.60 %] - Boil 90.0 min Hop 7 52.4 IBUs
2.00 oz Styrian Goldings [5.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 8 13.1 IBUs
2.00 oz Styrian Goldings [5.50 %] - Aroma Steep 0.0 min Hop 9 0.0 IBUs
 
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