Imperial stout with oak and juniper - recipe critique

[Luovahulluus]

The idea is to make a smooth and strong imperial stout with lots and lots of taste (using the malts I have in my inventory). It's not supposed to be too easy to drink. The plan is to overdo everything and then age the beer for two or more years to blend the taste into a harmonic experience. I will be using lots (too much?) of dark malts and bittering hops. In addition to this I want to add some oak and juniper berries to give the beer some edge.


Beyond the Death Ray

Style: Imperial Stout
TYPE: All Grain
Batch Size (fermenter): 13,00 l
Estimated OG: 1,110 SG
Estimated Color: 139,2 EBC
Estimated IBU: 106 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 62,00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

4,56 kg Pale Malt (2 Row) Bel (5,9 EBC) 60,0 %
0,76 kg Rye, Flaked (3,9 EBC) 10,0 %
0,53 kg Aromatic Malt (51,2 EBC) 7,0 %
0,53 kg Pale Chocolate Malt (500,0 EBC) 7,0 %
0,30 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt -100L (200,0 EBC) 4,0 %

0,30 kg Dark Caramel Rye Malt 4,0 %
0,30 kg Chocolate Malt (886,5 EBC) 4,0 %

60 g Simcoe [13,00 %] - First Wort 60,0 min 106 IBUs - I have 100g left over from previous ipa 60°C additions

0,30 kg Molasses (157,6 EBC) 4,0 % (or maybe some dark sugar?)
20,00 g Juniper berries (Boil 5,0 mins)
2 pkg SafAle English Ale (DCL/Fermentis #S-04)
1 pkg Pasteur Champagne yeast - If needed after the english ale yeast.
100 g Oak, toasted at 200°C for 3 hours, surface charred (Primary 4 months) - This is what they do with Jack Daniels barrels before using them.

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge with 3 steps
Total Grain Weight: 7,59 kg


I'm considering leaving out all the late hop additions.

What would you do differently and why?
Too much caramel?
Does anyone have experience using juniper berries in a strong dark ale? How much should I use? The guideline for sahti seems to be 1g/liter, but they also use the foliage (or whatever it's called in english) and sahti is very different beer from imperial stout.

 

[Yob]

I'd up the chocolate (400-450) and add at least a few hundred grams (400-450) of roast barley.

Not sure about the caramel and the aromatic, as an American RIS you have a world of options for late Hops, jaryllo or the like for my taste's, if it's going to be aged for a few years though it won't matter too much, the late Hops will likely have backed away from the table.

I think your juniper berries will,get lost in,the huddle but Hay, got em, use em.

 

[MHB]

Just a couple of things to think about.
S-04, with a whole packet in your 13L batch at an OG of 1.110 under ideal conditions might reach 75% apparent attenuation so taking the gravity down to 1.0275 giving you an alcohol content of 11%. It might get that far but realistically I would expect it to pull up around 10% ABV, leaving your FG at around 1.035.
To get the most attenuation you might need to rouse the yeast a couple of times as S-04 is very flocculent and might want to sit on the bottom rather than finish off.
I would rack the beer onto the Oak at about 3-4 days into primary, if you leave the beer on the primary yeast cake (as may be implied in your post) for 4 months you will get yeast taint.
An alternative would be to run the primary for 7-14 days, rack to the Oak and add the Champagne yeast at that time.

Interesting to see someone mention Shati, but your from the right part of the world to know about that sort of beer, I suspect an Unboiled and Unhoped probably slightly Lacto beer is going to be a bit different beer to the monster you are planning. the use of Juniper or Spruce foliage to make a false bottom for the mash will not really equate to adding Juniper Berries to the brew. I keep looking at Shati recipes and thinking about it... then smack my self up the back of the head and get on with making real beer. Might be different if Juniper grew around here, but the local botanical garden has the only one I have seen growing and they hate people taking samples.

I don't know if you like Gin but that is more the sort of flavour the Juniper will give, before you add Juniper to a stout, do a taste test. Get a decent stout, split into 2 glasses add a touch of Gin to one of them and see if you like the combination - personally its a pass, love good gin, just not in my beer thanks.

Mark