Final recipe for 15% imperial stout

[strongarm]

A couple of questions about my reciepe.

How does the dark grain bill look, too much, too little (I do plan on cold steeping all but the Special B dark grain)?

Is my bittering hop schedule too much/ too little. I know this beer is going to be big and I want to make sure the hop dosen't get lost in the sweetness and alchohol but I don't want it to have a bite either.

Does the yeast strain seem appropriate? I have some super high gravity yeast incase the 007 dies out to early.

I'm looking for a very big stout but trying to get it as smooth and creamy as possible with good head retention. My big stout's in the past have little head retention.

Thanks.

BIAB
Batch Size (fermenter): 6.00 gal
Boil Size: 5.70 gal
Boil Time: 60 min
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 6.00 gal Est Mash Efficiency 72.0 %
Fermentation: Ale, Single Stage,
Bourbon Barrel 2nd stage Taste Rating(out of 50):

Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
30 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 81.1 %
1 lbs 8.0 oz Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 2 4.1 %
1 lbs 8.0 oz Special B Malt (180.0 SRM) Grain 3 4.1 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 4 2.7 %
1 lbs Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 5 2.7 %
1 lbs Simpsons British Chocolate (450.0 SRM) Grain 6 2.7 %
8.0 oz Rye, Flaked (2.0 SRM) Grain 7 1.4 %
8.0 oz Molasses (80.0 SRM) Sugar 8 1.4 %
3.00 oz Summit [17.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 9 60.0 IBUs
2.50 oz Cascade [7.10 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 10 16.0 IBUs
1.50 oz Summit [17.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 11 23.0 IBUs
4.00 Items Anise, Star (Boil 30.0 mins) Spice 12 -
2.00 oz Cascade [7.10 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 13 3.3 IBUs
15.00 Items Vanilla Bean (Boil 0.0 mins) Spice 14 -
Dry English Ale (White Labs #WLP007) [35.49
ml] Yeast 15 -
6.00 oz Cocoa Nibs (Secondary 4.0 days) Flavor 16 -

Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.152 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.035 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 15.8 %
Bitterness: 102.4 IBUs Calories: 464.7 kcal/12oz
Est Color: 58.8 SRM
Mash Profile
Mash Name: Single Infusion, Full Body,
No Mash Out Total Grain Weight: 37 lbs

Name Description Step
TemperatureStep Time
Mash In Add 45.63 qt of water at 167.1 F 155.0 F 90 min

 

[bmick]

Head retention in beers like this are tough, and really aren't called for in the style. From looking at it (this is one hell of a complicated recipe), I'd say your mash temp is too high. 1.035 FG is pretty crazy, and with the vanilla, specialty malts, all of it, I think it'll be cloying (assuming you can get there).

 

[strongarm]

Agreed on the FG. That is the beersmith estimate. Last time I brewed this similar receipe the 099 yeast brought it down to .021 so I will probably see something closer to that but it was an extract brew not all grain. Would you recommend 153 for the mash temp?

 

[strongarm]

Update; brewed this over the weekend. 8 hours total...mostly due to boil down time. Lessons learned
-30 lbs of grain is very very heavy when wet. My custom BIAB bag was strong enough to hold it but getting it out of my 15g pot was a struggle even with a pulley(obviously my pulley isn't designed for good leverage which I need to address)
-also when I did finally pull the bag up above the mash tun the bag did a muffin top over the kettle and I lost a decent amount of wort all over my brew rig.
-I cold steeped most of my dark grains for 36 hours....I found that there was a lot of left over color/flavor after my initial steep so I added water again for a quick 15 minute soak which extracted more dark wort.
- My mash tun was very full and I had issues getting an accurate temp. my digital thermapen was hovering around 148-151 but my blichman analog thermometer read 155/156. I think the reading from the TP at the top of the tun was the inaccurate one
-My ph reading came in at 4.9...no idea why it was so low. My ph meter is old but I did calibrate it. Starting ph was 7.6. I used almost no dark grains in the mash and I added 3.5g baking soda with hopes of a 5.5ph. Not sure what happened here.
- I underestimated how long it would take to boil down 3 gal. It easily added 2+ hours to the brew time.
- I use a false bottom and towards the end of my gravity feed through the counterflow chiller it was clogging up. I noticed it was sludge that covered the top of the false bottom. I use mesh bags for all my hops so it must have been from the grain. Not sure how to fix this one.

My expected OG was 1.147, I hit 1.142 so was pretty happy about that but I only ended up with 5.25gal and this was supposed to be a 6gal batch. I think I might have boiled down a little too much and the hops probably absorbed a decent amount (there were 9oz of hops total used). If I would have toped off with water my OG would have been off so I guess i'm ok with it. Next time I need to plan for a lower efficiency...probably because I did no sparge.

I was surprised on how long fermentation took to start. I had a large 4l starter at high krausen and it was probably 12 hours before even the faintest notice of fermentation. It took closer to 36 hours before a active fermentation got started.

Overall the process was fun to do such a big beer. Now crossing my fingers I can get the FG to an acceptable range 1.021-1.027.

 

[BottleItUp]

Taste test the finished product before you bottle it.

If memory serves vanillin is metabolized by yeast.

Because it was put in the boil, the yeast may have altered it's structure during fermentation (destroyed it).

You may need to add vanilla to secondary to achieve the flavor you desire.

 

[HopHoarder]

You have 15 items under vanilla beans....is that 15 vanilla beans? I don't think I've ever used more than two in secondary. Three would give you a pretty serious vanilla taste. I'm not familiar with 007 yeast but my understanding is that pretty much all beer yeast peaks out at a maximum of 12% . Looks like a pretty serious beer all the same...good luck

 

[strongarm]

I got to 13-14% with it last time I did this brew. At that point I pitch 099 super high gravity yeast which should get it into the low .020's. For the vanilla beans in the recipe I do not add them to the boil. I add them after primary and barrel aging. Yes 15 beans is correct and there potent ones at that. Last time I just split the bean and boiled for 5 minutes then dumped all of that into the carboy. Last time I used 10 beans and I didn't think the vanilla came through enough. I think maybe ill scrap out the vanilla this time. I get my beans online 1/4lb for about $26 and they are very good beans. http://www.amadeusvanillabeans.com/