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Hey all!

I'm trying my hand at a grain bill for an RIS. This is an area (style) where I have zero experience. This is what I have right now, hoping for comments specifically on grain percentage.

25 lbs Pale Malt 86.8%
1.5 lbs Roasted Barley 5.2%
1 lb Crystal 150L 3.5%
1 lb Chocolate 3.5%
5.0 oz Melanoidin 1.1%

With 60% efficiency (I've heard you should lower this for large beers, I'm normally in the 70-75% area) this would result in an OG of 1.102 and a Color of 50.2 SRM.

I haven't decided on yeast, but likely California Ale or Dry English. And hops are a future problem, as well.

Thanks in advance!

-Kevin

Just brewed this ris with my buddy on Friday.
10gal batch

34 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row)
3 lbs Roasted Barley
2 lbs Special B
1 lbs 8.0 oz Chocolate Malt
1 lbs Cara-Pils/Dextrine
8.0 oz Acid Malt

Mashed at 150f for 90min
8.00 oz Challenger @60.0 min
2.00 oz East Kent Goldings (EKG) @ 25.0 min

kberry wrote:Hey all!

I'm trying my hand at a grain bill for an RIS. This is an area (style) where I have zero experience. This is what I have right now, hoping for comments specifically on grain percentage.

25 lbs Pale Malt 86.8%
1.5 lbs Roasted Barley 5.2%
1 lb Crystal 150L 3.5%
1 lb Chocolate 3.5%
5.0 oz Melanoidin 1.1%

With 60% efficiency (I've heard you should lower this for large beers, I'm normally in the 70-75% area) this would result in an OG of 1.102 and a Color of 50.2 SRM.

I haven't decided on yeast, but likely California Ale or Dry English. And hops are a future problem, as well.

Thanks in advance!

-Kevin

Looks like a nice beer overall. I'd only recommend some Carapils to ensure you have a nice long lasting head. If you want drop some sweetness you could also drop the Crystal 150 for Crystal 60. But I think it's a solid recipe.

Thanks for the feedback guys! I'm thinking to brew this in the next couple months then let it sit until Christmas 2016. I want to be sure about the recipe before I brew. It's a lot of time to invest for a mediocre brew.

kberry wrote:Thanks for the feedback guys! I'm thinking to brew this in the next couple months then let it sit until Christmas 2016. I want to be sure about the recipe before I brew. It's a lot of time to invest for a mediocre brew.

It's all about trial and error when planning your own recipes. Have you looked at other RIS's to compare your grains, hops, yeast and water?

I have used the WL dry English in an imperial stout and really like it. Probably my favourite English yeast.

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Keith wrote:

kberry wrote:Hey all!

I'm trying my hand at a grain bill for an RIS. This is an area (style) where I have zero experience. This is what I have right now, hoping for comments specifically on grain percentage.

25 lbs Pale Malt 86.8%
1.5 lbs Roasted Barley 5.2%
1 lb Crystal 150L 3.5%
1 lb Chocolate 3.5%
5.0 oz Melanoidin 1.1%

With 60% efficiency (I've heard you should lower this for large beers, I'm normally in the 70-75% area) this would result in an OG of 1.102 and a Color of 50.2 SRM.

I haven't decided on yeast, but likely California Ale or Dry English. And hops are a future problem, as well.

Thanks in advance!

-Kevin

Looks like a nice beer overall. I'd only recommend some Carapils to ensure you have a nice long lasting head. If you want drop some sweetness you could also drop the Crystal 150 for Crystal 60. But I think it's a solid recipe.

I would think replacing a higher crystal with a lower one would add sweetness, since you're replacing toffee and dark fruit with caramel flavours.

At 3.5% of grist don't think sweetness should be an issue anyway.

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In my experience % grist doesn't mean much when you get into stronger beer. It may only be 3.5% of the grist but it is still 1lb of dark crystal in a 5 gallon batch of beer. Since the crystal isn't subject to enzyme conversion, 1lbs will convert to the same sweetness regardless of the % grist, more or less. That on top of the fact you will get a lot more sweetness out of the increased amount of grain leaving more undigestable carbs behind.

Crystal 150 can have a very strong impact on a beer, i also used it in my RIS but i only used half a pound and i could still taste it.

Agreed it is only a rough measure. You definitely need to balance all factors in big beers - mash temp, approx yeast attenuation, unfermentables... And of course personal preferences when it comes to flavour profile you are looking for. Definitely the amount of crystal will have greater effect when calculating at lower mash efficiency.

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Thanks for all the suggestions!

I'm going to take a look at the recipe again tonight and re-tool it where needed. I'll post again with an update.

The roasted malts IMO are not pronounced enough. I believe 7% is the minimum really for total grain bill and you can go as high as 15%. I made an american stout with 7% roasted malt, and it wasn't enough for the style. I actually cold steeped chocolate malt and added it, which really rounded it out. I believe the final roasted/dark malt percentage was 11%. I wouldn't personally brew a RIS with less than that if you're trying to brew to style.

Pay attention to your yeast health. You will need a good starter and make sure you oxygenate the beer. I have had the dissapointment of having my yeast peter out before there was sufficient attenuation. Its a heartbreaker when you spend this much on a batch.

kberry wrote:Thanks for the feedback guys! I'm thinking to brew this in the next couple months then let it sit until Christmas 2016. I want to be sure about the recipe before I brew. It's a lot of time to invest for a mediocre brew.

So... how did it turn out?