1) If I use distilled water, what combination of salts will provide adequate RA without resulting in too much Ca++, Na+, or Mg++ ?
2) Should I consider using debittered rather than standard black malt since the style calls for large amounts of dark roasted malts?
… I will be brewing a 5 gallon all grain batch.
Thank you for the advice.
I will post the recipe when I’ve made a final decision which to brew. I’ve found a few to choose from but have brewed a witbier recipe from an unknown source and had a final product with too much spice in the flavor profile, so I’m reluctant as to which recipe to use, depending on where I found it.
I’m pretty green regarding the Imperial Stouts. I plan to use oatmeal and saw a recipe posted in this forum recently that appeals to me but I plan to run it through a recipe program for further evaluation:
Imperial Oatmeal Stout (5.5 gal)
0.25 lb Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM) Adjunct 1.47 %
11.20 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 66.08 %
2.00 lb Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) Grain 11.80 %
1.00 lb Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 5.90 %
1.00 lb Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 5.90 %
1.00 lb Special Roast (50.0 SRM) Grain 5.90 %
0.50 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 2.95 %
3.28 oz Styrian Goldings [5.40 %] (60 min) Hops 53.9 IBU
1.50 oz Chinook [13.00 %] (10 min) Hops 21.5 IBU
0.11 tsp Fermcap -use 2-3 drops (Boil 60.0 min) Misc
1.10 tbsp PH 5.2 Stabilizer (Mash 60.0 min) Misc
1.10 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
1.10 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Primary 3.0 days) Misc
1 Pkgs SafBrew - US 05 (Fermentis)
OG 1.082
FG 1.018
ABV 8.38%
That recipe doesn’t look like you’d need to swap in any dehusked roasted grain. You could add half a pound of it to get closer to 10% roasted grain.
Two additional comments: 1. I’m not sure a big late addition of Chinook would be my go-to for this style. 2. Most RIS’s include some darker crystal malt which helps to temper the roast and make it seem more like chocolate, less acrid. I don’t have a lot of experience with Special Roast but I don’t remember it being all that sweet.
This recipe looks like it may be more traditional for a RIS (except for the oatmeal) ?
5 gallon batch
16 lb American Pale Malt (2 row)
1 lb Crystal Malt 90L
1 lb Crystal Malt 30L
1 lb Quick Oatmeal
1 lb Rice Hulls
0.5 lb British Brown Malt
0.5 lb British Chocolate Malt
0.25 lb American Black Barley
3oz Cluster hop pellets @ 60 mins
0.75oz Centennial hop pellets @ 60 mins
1oz Northern Brewer hop pellets @ 2 mins
Mash 60 mins 154 F
Boil: 90 mins
yeast: WPL051 liquid yeast (do a 1 liter starter)
ferment temp: 66 F
I like to use Special B in my RIS. Gives a nice raisin, stone fruit complexity to pair off the dark roasted grains. Crystal 120L or 150L would work as well.