imperial stout recipe -- thoughts?

I think you are too heavy on roast malts.

 

Yeah, you probably don't need both the Carafa and Black malt. To each their own though, should turn out fine the way you have it.

Also, champagne yeast will only ferment simple sugars, and probably wouldn't do much of anything in this beer.

 

I would think that the debittered black and carafa are unnecessary. Not only are they very similar, but I think they're only contributions are color and aroma. With that much roasted barley, chocolate malt, and chocolate rye I think you're set.

Regarding the champagne yeast, I don't think you'll get any help from it if fermentation stalls out. From what I recall, it wouldn't be able to consume whatever sugars are left at that stage. The best thing you can do is make a properly sized starter and oxygenate the wort thoroughly. Also, oxygenating again 12 or so hours after fermentation starts would be helpful for a beer this big.

 

I've been happy with this for the specialty malt part of my 8-10% stouts for 5.5 gallons in the fermenter and a gallon left in the kettle:

1# British Crystal 75L
1# Chocolate malt
12oz oats
8oz Carafa special II
8oz Roasted Barley

I get coffee, chocolate and toffee from it. Smooth and robust.

 

My only advice is to make a 9-10% beer instead of 12%, use more than enough yeast, oxygenate and ferment at 62F internal with temperature control.

 

The rye won't be noticeable at .5lb.

FG's are hard to predict, you can make adjustments to process and materials to persuade it but you really need to know your system and process to get a fairly good indication of FG. I wouldn't put much faith in the Beersmith calc.
I usually just live with what ever FG I get, but there are ways to adjust it after the fact, like blending.

 

Personally like the original recipe...so long as your going for a really big beefy stout that could be aged a few years, i like it.

fwiw, Carafa & debittered malts are not the same. Carafa II would be closer to UK chocolate malts than debittered black malt. Carafa Special is the dehusked version of the carafa line-up. But maybe swapping up with some pale chocolate maybe something to consider...or adding some some darker cara malt like special B to add a fig/raisin element in the mix.

And if you want to re-pitch for drying out a beer, you can try pitching a starter of a trappist yeast or super high gravity yeast from white labs after primary finishes.

 

The problem with most software's attenuation (and thus FG) calculations is that they apply an "average" attenuation factor for the yeast strain being used, regardless of the basic fermentability of the grain bill, the mash temp, and the mash length. That's (mainly) why I built BrewCipher, to take these other factors into account. There are of course other un-modeled system/process differences that could affect the outcome, which is why BrewCipher also includes an "Attenuation Power Factor" parameter that allows users to dial-in attenuation predictions even further.

I know this sounds like a commercial for BrewCipher, but didn't want the OP to think Beersmith's FG prediction was the only option.

 

Keep the total dark malt additions around 10%. Roasted Barley and whatever choc type(s) you like.
The Munich is a good addition.

 

By gravity this recipe is about 15% roasted grains, the majority of which are chocolate, carafa, and debittered varieties. That is not at all out of line for a big imperial stout. I've gone as high as 20% and that's with a heavy hand with the roasted barley and black patent and I've never had an issue. Personally I think people generally go too light on the roasted grains in big stouts, I often see 10% recommended as the upper limit and IMO this should be the lower limit.

 

I like a little black malt (not debittered) in my big stouts, it helps keep the sweetness under control.

 

I think you'll be happy with this recipe. If you want to back down the roast, you can. If you want to add a little more, that's ok too. Why not a 10 min aroma hop addition, (not Magnum), if you're going to bitter the crap out of it?

 

I've made a few RIS that just have a bittering charge. They turn out really good. They just take longer to get there. I've made most of my RIS with at least a little late hop. They seem to drink a little betterand a little sooner. Something like an oz of Northern Brewer or Willamette would work excellent. To overgeneralize, late hops counteract harsher bitter flavors--especially with younger big beers.

 

There's no BrewCipher app per se, but reportedly it works in the Google Sheets app, or if you have an iOS platform, in the iOS Excel app. The likelihood of a standalone app is non-zero, but astonishingly close to it.

 

I think it's good. Unlike some others I have no problem with the .5lb Carafe II along with .5lb debittered black malt (ie. Carafa III). In fact I like some black patent to add a little burnt flavors as well.

 

I just bought a pack of the medium toasted French Oak spirals. I am curious about the difference I keep reading about for the French Oak.

My preference is for med to heavy toast, which brings out more of the vanilla and bourbon notes. The light toast will have more of the coconut and raw wood flavors.