Impy Stout 3 ways

[Metacomet]

So I'm planning an imperial stout to brew soon and let condition until christmas (bit late but they'll keep).
I want to do a small batch (14l) and split it into 3 small buckets and condition them with different flavours.

I've based it on a recent porter I did, which is by far my favourite so far (based on Fisherman's Stout in the completed recipe section), but would like opinions on how I made it bigger.

I can't go all grain due to the size of my biab kettle, so I'll be using a portion of light DME to replace the pale malt.

1kg Extra Light Dry Extract - 60mins
1kg Extra Light Dry Extract - 15 mins
1.5Kg Marris Otter
400g Rolled Oats
200g Caramalt
200g Special B
150g Dark Crystal
150g Roasted Barley
75g Chocolate malt

30g Magnum - 60 min
40g East K Golding 60 mins

Mash at 68c
SG 1.092 (only 70% eff maybe lower) / FG 1.023
IBU 80 (too high?)
EBC 71
ABV 9% (ish)

Yeast - TBC (but possible some Kriek I was sent recently)

I'll be trying to get 3x 4.5l batches
Opinions on flavour combos also welcome. So far we are thinking of raspberry/chocolate, Coffee/Vanilla/lactose and a mixed peel/dates/raisins/cinnamon soaked in rum (christmas cake).
May swap one of these for a coconut version, or add coconut to the raspberry and chocolate one.

 

[Dutto]

For the Coffee/Vanilla/lactose one have you thought of using Camp Coffee as a flavouring?

It's not "real coffee" but I love the taste (a throwback to when I was a kid I guess) so with vanilla and lactose it should give a lovely creamy taste.

BTW, as Camp Coffee has a sweet taste, it will probably ferment in its own right!

 

[BeerCat]

Just my take on what i have tried so far. Whiskey barrel chips are good. Oak dust ruined a batch recently so will stick to wine with them. Lactose might make it too sweet for a high strength beer. You can always add some one fermentation is finished. Vanilla pods are great but subtle and expensive. I like orange peel and never tried coconut but sounds lovely.

 

[Metacomet]

For the Coffee/Vanilla/lactose one have you thought of using Camp Coffee as a flavouring?

It's not "real coffee" but I love the taste (a throwback to when I was a kid I guess) so with vanilla and lactose it should give a lovely creamy taste.

BTW, as Camp Coffee has a sweet taste, it will probably ferment in its own right!

I'm afraid I'm a bit of a coffee snob, so I'll be using some freshly roasted coffee beans, cracked and "dry beaned" until desired flavour is reached.
The lactose and vanilla will as you say give it a nice creamy cappucino ish finish...or maybe coffee ice cream, which I wouldn't be upset about.

Just my take on what i have tried so far. Whiskey barrel chips are good. Oak dust ruined a batch recently so will stick to wine with them. Lactose might make it too sweet for a high strength beer. You can always add some one fermentation is finished. Vanilla pods are great but subtle and expensive. I like orange peel and never tried coconut but sounds lovely.

I've never been overly keen on beers with too much wood flavout to them. Maybe try it in the next batch.
As the flavours will all be added post primary fermentation, I'll see how much lactose sugar, if any, I can get away with. I did increase the hop bitterness to try and counter some of the residual sweetness.
I'll probably use some good quality vanilla extract rather than beans.
I've had a number of coconut stouts recently, and they are indeed very nice. Try Hawkshead Tonka if you ever come across it. A good balance of cherry, dark chocolate and coconut.

 

[Zephyr259]

I added good vanilla extract paste to a stout, 1.5 tsp in a 15L batch at bottling and it was very subtle to start with and from the July comp feedback it couldn't be detected anymore, thought it does have bourbon and a 7.5% stout to fight against.

Recipe wise, you could probably up the roast malts, my 15L batch of milk stout had 150g roast barley and 200g of chocolate and it's not that roasty, recipe also has 200g 150ebc crystal and 150g special B but only 100g lactose as that's all I had so it's not particularly sweet.