Hi there, I'm newer to home brewing (about 2 years of all grain experience). I'm looking for some recipe feedback on my first RIS. I've almost exclusively brewed wild ales up till now, but I'd like to bring home a big stout to my beer geek friends in Tampa this winter. Here's what I've got so far from researching on the net. Much of this is pulled from recipes from HBT. I'd love any thoughts/feedback on the recipe, process, etc.. Thanks in advance!! 5 gal Russian Imperial Stout 17.00 lb Organic Pale Malt (2 Row) US 0.80 lb Barley, Flaked 0.80 lb Special B Malt 0.80 lb Wheat Malt, Dark 0.70 lb Carafa III 0.60 lb Aromatic Malt 0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L 0.50 lb Roasted Barley 0.25 lb Black (Patent) Malt 0.25 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L 0.25 lb Chocolate Rye Malt Mash at 150 (75 min) 1.0 oz Magnum (75 min) 0.5 oz Perle (75 min) 0.5 oz Styrian Goldings (75 min) 0.5 oz Perle (30 min) 0.5 oz Styrian Goldings (30 min) Fermentation: Pitch 2-3 liter starter of Wyeast 1029 Ferment at 65 F Primary 3 weeks Secondary 3 months Secondary additions: Vanilla bean (1 week from bottling) (2 beans, split, gum removed, soaked in vodka for 3 weeks) Cocoa nibs (1 week from bottling) (soak 1.5oz of nibs in vodka for 3 weeks) Bourbon soaked oak cubes (1 week from bottling) (Soak 1.5oz of US Medium Plus Oak Cubes in 10oz of bourbon 3-4 weeks)
Having never brewed a RIS, take this with a grain of salt, but are 10 different specialty grains really necessary?
KISS is a great piece of advice. There is way too much going on there for my tastes. I have only had one RIS made by a homebrewer with that much going on, but he had made lots of great ones already and knew where he was going with each ingredient. I would bring it down to Base, Crystal (maybe a blend of 2), Roast (a blend of 2-3). Pitch a big slug of yeast (I get a brewery pitch for mine), start the fermentation in the lower temp range and keep it there for 5 days, then start ramping it up a few degrees every couple days for a week, then hold warm for a week. Let it cool naturally and then age.
i'm not sure that KISS is always applicable to RIS, however i do agree that you've got too much going on. more important, you have some overlap in your malts. i would consider dropping or taking down: Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (too similar to Special B), Carafa 3 (you've got enough other roasts going on), Chocolate Rye (will probably be buried at that amount anyways, if you want to make it prominent than increase it and drop the Dark Wheat Malt).
Drop the Carafa, C120, Dark Wheat. The Aromatic is probably not going to do too much here, ditto the flaked barley. I would go with Pale malt, Special B, Chocolate Malt, Roasted Barley, and Black Patent. Given that you are talking about adding vanilla, bourbon and cocoa you could go even more simple with just the pale malt, special B and Roast Barley, but I like the chocolate and black patent malts in a stout. How roasty do you want it? Or do you want a beer that highlights the "extras" you are adding to the secondary?
I'll join the chorus on the malts and also add that you could simplify the hops as well. I'd go with just magnum at 75 and just styrians at 30 in rates that will still get your targeted IBUs. A lot of folks will tell you that the 30min addition is too little one way or the other, but I like it. A metric butt-ton of pros do it, so it can't be that much of a waste.
