Russian Imperial Stout recipe help

Too much Black Patent for my taste. Especially since you are after a "fairly sweet" imperial stout and the black patent will add more of a burnt / acrid quality to your beer. If it were my beer, I'd probably increase the roast barley to around 7.5% and ditch the black patent completely. The flaked rye will also give this beer more of a grainy bite I believe. Might want to keep that in mind when considering your final target IBU's. I also don't think those late hop additions are going to do anything for you after 12 months of conditioning, so I'd probably skip those completely as well. I'd also recommend planning to leave such a big beer in primary for much longer than 10 days.

 

1. Im not a fan of the black patent, too ashy, personally I would just nix the BP and up the chocolate and RB accordingly (BTW Im a big fan of pale chocolate instead of chocolate and would suggest using that)
2. Special B - You might think about using Simpsons extra dark crystal
3. Dont do the late hops (0min) they will fade by next year. Instead bulk age, bottle ~2mos before next xmas and dry hop the snot out of it, but make sure to reyeast

 

I would bring your BP % down. More close to = with the roast barley. What kinda efficiency do you get? Seems like your actual OG is gonna be more than likely in the 1.080's or maybe 1.090 range unless your efficiency is always pretty high.

BP comes off real ashey and acrid in high % IMO.

 

I would have some dme on hand and add some to the boil if need be. Not gonna hurt a beer with this much going on.

 

I like black patent in a stout, but I agree that you have too much. I would aim for ~5%

FWIW, I did a RIS/dry stout partigyle a couple years ago that used the following

20lb 2-row
1lb each of chocolate, black patent and roasted barley (cold steeped in 1 gal water overnight)
1lb caramel 80
.75lb special B

this grain bill yielded ~4.5 gallons of 1.095 (post boil) RIS
and ~4.5 gallons of 1.040 (post boil) dry stout

no hint of ash or cigarette butts from this level of black patent. Both ended up being delicious beers.

On the other hand, I have a distinct memory of getting carried away with black patent in a stout. It was like licking an ashtray for the first 6 months, ended up being a good beer, but needed lots of time. In my limited experience, you can expect some fading of the ash notes if you are going to let it sit for 6-12 months.

 

It sounds like you grains are milled and mixed together, so I am unsure of how to adjust. If they are not mixed, then reduce the BP a bit is probably the way to go. If they are already mixed together then I don't know what to suggest to add to the grain bill to help balance things out.

FWIW, I think the ashiness would fade over a year and I think the bitterness/dryness you get from BP really works in a big stout.

As far as cold steeping goes, I milled the roasted grains and mixed with 1 gallon of filtered (Brita) water and but it in the fridge overnight. Because I was doing a partigyle, I needed those grains in both beers, just before I drained the mash tun for the first runnings, I dumped the cold steeped grains and liquid into the mash, stirred/vorlaufed, then drained. Then added the water addition for the second runnings.

In the end, I think I would have liked a little more roasted malt/black patent malt character in the RIS. Everything was great for the 2nd runnings Dry Stout.

 

I'm not that experienced a brewer, but to me if you want to redo the specialty grains you don't need to throw all of it out. For example if you rework your recipe and decide you only want .75 lbs black patent, but everything else the same, you can use half of your pre mixed grain and buy half the quantities of the other grains (assuming the store will sell in 1/4 lb increments). It may not be worth much, but this way you are only throwing out $3.50 rather than $7.

 

FWIW: When i cold steep, I do so at room temperature for 24-36 hours rather than refrigerator temps. I also add the cold steeped liquid to the boil during the last 10 minutes of the boil. This technique really takes the edge off of the roast malts.

Personally, I don't think you need to go this route for your current recipe "as is" though. Provided you don't mind giving the beer the extended conditioning you originally planned to give it, and can accept the fact that this recipe "as is" will never produce a "sweet stout" as you were hoping it would.

I will also say that beers requiring this much conditioning time are a big investment, and if you are dead set on realizing your original vision then it's a small investment (in the grand scheme of things) to repurchase the specialty malts needed.

 

I dunno, if it were Me I would just skip the BP altogether, IMO in a RIS you dont want the dry character that BP adds, in an Irish stout sure, but not a RIS

You said yourself you want a rich, sweetish beer, with BP you wont get that

In the future I suggest getting all your specialty grains milled and bagged separately (uncrushed is even better + buy a mill) this way you can adjust later if you change your mind on something

 

Use Target hops for bittering and Styrian for flavor and aroma. One oz for each. first wort for the target hops. as said above, lay off the extreme amount of black patent.