[commander flatus]

Critique my Oatmeal Imperial Stout, please:


The Cascades at "0 min" are going to go in my hop back...

Imperial Tao
------------
Brewer: The Flatulent One
Style: Imperial Stout
Batch: 6.00 galAll Grain

Characteristics
---------------
Recipe Gravity: 1.100 OG
Recipe Bitterness: 81 IBU
Recipe Color: 40° SRM
Estimated FG: 1.025
Alcohol by Volume: 9.6%
Alcohol by Weight: 7.6%

Ingredients
-----------
American Munich 8.00 lb, Grain, Mashed
American black patent 0.25 lb, Grain, Mashed
American chocolate malt 0.50 lb, Grain, Mashed
American two-row 11.00 lb, Grain, Mashed
CaraMunich 1.00 lb, Grain, Mashed
CaraPils 0.50 lb, Grain, Mashed
Crystal 90L 0.50 lb, Grain, Mashed
Flaked oats 2.00 lb, Adjunct, Mashed
Oat malt 3.00 lb, Grain, Mashed
Roasted barley 0.75 lb, Grain, Mashed

Cascade 1.00 oz, Whole, 0 minutes
Fuggles 3.00 oz, Pellet, 60 minutes
Kent Golding 1.00 oz, Pellet, 30 minutes
Northern Brewer 2.00 oz, Pellet, 60 minutes

This post has been edited by commander flatus: 12 April 2009 - 12:45 AM

[commander flatus]

anyone? bueller? bueller?

[earthtone]

well...what do you want to know??? How do you want it to taste? what do you want from this brew....?

It's a impy stout that's for sure, I might make it differently but it's hard to offer suggestions without some guidance from you.

This will be beer, probably tasty beer given some time to age.

Off the top I'd say teh cara-pils are overkill here. With an OG of 1.100 you are going to have plenty of residual dextrins and the body will be big from all the crystal and caramunich and munich base and the oats!

[commander flatus]

yeah, i guess some guidance would be a good idea. sorry.

big roasty not too alcoholic on the finish. i like the alcohol in imperial stouts to sneak up on you. i was hoping that hops in the hop back would accomplish some of that.

point re: cara pils - point well taken.

flatulently,

This post has been edited by commander flatus: 13 April 2009 - 09:18 PM

[earthtone]

NP dude, help me help you

what's your mash temp going to be like?? If you are mashing above 152 I'd ditch the crystal 90 as well....but that's just me.

With the much grain a slightly higher mash temp will give you complexity, body and mouthfeel and simplify the recipe up a bit. I like to keep things simple personally and I see crystal as more of a tool than a catchall - if I am making a beer that I want to dry out pretty well so I am mashing at 148 df, but I want a little body in there I might add some carapils to get the body without changing the colour or my mash temp. In this case, you've got so much grain going on there you probably won't notice the lack. I'd leave the caramunich though, that will give some compliment to the munich base malt and won't leave you completely crystal-less.

I tend to like my big beers dried out as much as possible and still maintain balance, I find sweet big beers turn into a slightly sickeningly sweet pint by the last 3rd of the glass. Thats just my opinion though.

The hops look pretty good, but I would think about why you are finishing with cascade in the hop back. It's going to be all alone for american hop flavour in the brew, probably get masked heavily by the malt. Do you want some citrusy notes in there? If so then I would change the 30 minute addition to cascade, and maybe bump to a 20. If you aren't particularly interested in citrus notes, then I would switch the cascade for more EKG in the hop back to try and bring out the flavours you have already imbedded earlier on in the boil.



you might want to think about using some yeast in this one too, I hear it does wonders for a good healthy wort


P.S. Looks good on the roast grains, if you want it a little smoother you might switch the amount of chocolate and RB, but I think it'll be dandy as is!

[Jimmy James]

One more vote for dropping the carapils. I like the rest of the recipe though.

Regarding yeast did you have anything in mind? I'd probably go with something like WLP001 California Ale which in my experience attenuates high and has a clean flavor profile. Another good option would be WLP007 which is the dry British Ale yeast (or something sounding like that) which is also a very good pick for a high OG ale, and doesn't have any overbearing "fruit" flavors like some British yeasts. WLP007 may even attenuate higher than 001 but they are both solid. I don't have any experience with the specialized "high gravity" strains but I am sure some folks here can make recommendations.

I'd brew something smaller like a Special Bitter or APA with whatever yeast and pitch the entire slurry for this Stout. Either that or make a boat load of starter. I'd do a full gallon starter, stepped up a couple times.

[Jimmy James]

One more thing is that if you don't want the alcohol to be hot or noticeable you'll want to ferment at slightly cooler temperatures, maybe towards the lower end of the yeast's optimal range, and do what you can to prevent it from getting to warm as fermentation cranks up. A swamp cooler or something to help keep it from getting too warm will be a good idea. Since you'll want to pitch a lot of yeast and there's going to be a ton of sweet wort to chew on the fermentation could get pretty violent. The beer could easily be several to ten degrees warmer than the ambient room temp. If you end up with the beer fermenting in the high 70s or low 80s you'll get a lot more of the solventy alcohols than if you can keep it in the high 60s.

[earthtone]

JimmyJames' yeast suggestions are spot on. I'd add that if you wanted to use dry yeast a couple packets of either US-05 or Nottingham would do the trick. The nottingham is similar to Jimmy's description of WLP007 in that there are minimal fruity esters and it gets good attenuation.

[commander flatus]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm brewing it this weekend and will follow up with tasting notes. I think it's gonna be yummy.

I did decide that I should mash at a lower temp in an attempt to dry it out. I think 148. Because of this I think I'm gonna keep the 90L Crystal.

As far as yeast, I have a brown ale going nuts on WLP 008 "East Coast Ale" right now and might pitch it on that yeast cake though I realize this isn't a terribly high attenuation yeast and doesn't have a terribly high alcohol tolerance. Those factors might be mitigated by convenience.

I like the hop suggestions and will prob do a Cascade at 20 and EKG in the hop back.

Flatulently,

[commander flatus]

just as a belated follow up - this came out a little on the sweet side. makes a great black and tan, though.