RIS (Dark Night w/changes) thoughts?

[looneybomber]

So, I wanted to make a few changes to the Dark Night of the Soul RIS and was curious what you all thought.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f68/dark-night-soul-russian-imperial-stout-21088/

The original extract recipe is this.

Dark Night of the Soul Russian Imperial Stout

Converted this recipe to a partial mash and reduced to 5 gallons
Should make a starter for this recipe 3 days ahead of time.

__________________________________________

Recipe Type: Partial Mash
Yeast: Wyeast 1272
Yeast Starter: HUGE
Batch Size (Gallons): 5
Original Gravity: 1.1324
Final Gravity: 1.020
IBU: 178
Boiling Time (Minutes): 90
Color: void of light
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 1 week
Additional Fermentation: eternity
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 4 weeks


Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 5.00 Wort Size (Gal): 5.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 24.00
Anticipated OG: 1.13245 Plato: 30.668
Anticipated SRM: 53.3
Anticipated IBU: 178.8
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75 %
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients
____________________
12.5 lbs. Light DME
1.25 lbs. Roasted Rye
1.00 lbs. Chocolate Malt
1.00 lbs. Crystal 150L
0.75 lbs. Special B Malt

5.00 oz. Columbus Pellet
WYeast 1272 American Ale II


Instructions:
Heat 6 gallons of water to 146.
Sock specialty grains and steep for 60 minutes.
Raise temp to 170. Remove grain sock.
Remove wort from fire and add DME and hops (in hop sock). Stir in well.
Boil for 60 minutes adding 1 teaspoon of Irish Moss or 1 Whirlfoc tablet 45 minutes in.
Cool, aerate, and pitch yeast accordingly. Bring to 5.25 gallons if necessary.
Ferment for 7 days or until complete @ 68 degrees.
Rack to secondary for 4 weeks @ 68 degrees.
Bottle and condition for 6 - 8 months.

Here are my proposed changes.
5gal --------------------------> 5.5gal
12.5 light DME ----------------> 15lbs light LME (cheaper)
1.25lbs Roasted rye -----------> 1.0lb roasted barley and 1.0lbs rye (want the roast flavor, but would also like to get some of that rye flavor)
5oz columbus pellet @ 60min --> 3oz @ 60min and 1oz @ 15min (original recipe had a crazy high IBU)
Add 2lbs Turbinado sugar near the end of fermentation (taking cues from Avery with their Mephistopheles)
Use EC-1118 to finish it off.
Secondary it on medium oak chips for a couple weeks.

Putting that into BrewBuilder gives me this.
OG = 1.130
FG = 1.020
IBU= 71.9
SRM= 53.84
ABV= 14.41

 

[eulipion2]

Go with the roasted rye. I've brewed this before, and the roasted rye adds a nice flavor. Also, if you're doing extract with specialty grains, you'd still have to mash the pound of rye malt if you went that direction.

For the hops, I did 5 oz as recommended and found the beer very bitter. After about 6 months it was perfect. I honestly think late additions would just muddy up the flavors. This is a very malt-forward beer (despite the high IBUs) that will get more and more complex as it ages.

If you can pitch onto the yeast cake of another brew, that'll be your best bet. I racked "Damned Kids Oatmeal Stout" into secondary and immediately racked Dark Night onto the cake -- took right off!

Hope that helps.

 

[looneybomber]

I'm having a hard time finding that roasted rye and thus why I thought I'd go with roasted barley and rye. Where did you find the roasted rye?

If I dumped on a yeast cake, say wyeast 1728, do you think I'd still need the champagne yeast in order to finish being that I planned on adding a little more malt and some sugar? The calculated ABV goes past what any stout yeast can handle (according to wyeast)

 

[eulipion2]

Midwest Supplies calls it crystal rye, but it matches BrewPastor's Lovibond range for roasted rye. BP says 95, Midwest estimates 80-100.

I used a yeast cake of Wyeast 1056 and it finished right on target. Probably ended around 13-15% ABV.

 

[looneybomber]

Nice find, thanks! Too bad Midwest doesn't stock turbinado sugar used in Avery Mephistopheles. I'll look into substitutes and see what I can find.

In case anyone is wondering why I would modify that recipe and add turbinado sugar, I am trying to work my way into a Mephistopheles clone...Even though they use wyeast trappist 3787, from what I've read.