Yes, my two top beers I brew are a dry-hopped American Amber, with Cascade, and the dry hopping gives a very strong Grapefruit flavor. The other favorite is a robust Porter. The Cascade goes good with an Amber Ale, but I think it could clash with the Chocolate Malt in your Recipe. But it looks like you are into a good recipe that you are working there....The Willamette I think are good with your recipe... Good luck!
Great! Thanks for the input theEnvoy!
I concur with theEnvoy; Cascade has a citrusy flavor and aroma that probably won't pair well with a chocolate. It looks like everything is geared towards an American-style, so perhaps double the Willamette. My current favorite is Kent Goldings, but that is British and might not fit the style you're going for here.
Speaking of hops, I don't know that I would bother with aroma additions. This is going to take a bit of aging, and most of the aroma will be gone by the time it is ready.
Thanks for the input Midnight! I'm working on tweaking the hops now, probably simplifying down to two kinds, and not worrying too much about the aroma ones as you and akueck mention. I hadn't thought about styling for it, but now that you mention, I will work towards keeping it within one style. No sense in getting all crazy on my first recipe and not really knowing what I'm doing (=
Consider dropping the Irish moss. You really don't have a large quantity of malts, so haze should be minimal. Plus it is going to be a dark beer, no one is going to notice a little haze if there is even any.
Is there a downside to having the Irish Moss in there? I'm just trying to learn here and all the recipes I've seen seem to always include it. But if it's one less then I need to worry about, then yeah, I'm definitely up for not including it.
Make a big starter! Wyeast 1056 is supposed to be good for 11%. If your SG and FG are where you anticipate, then you will be at 12.2%. I think this one will finish sweeter then you want...
Yes! Definitely making a big starter. My new stir plate and flask should be arriving today which I won from a contest. I'm quite excited to play around with them!
Unless you are doing a full 5-gallon boil, then there is no real reason to boil all of your extract for 60min. Boiling all of your extract in a smaller quantity of water risks caramelizing your malt. Consider adding 50 points worth of extract to the boil and the rest at flame-out.
All in all, this looks like it will be really good
I think it'll be a wild one too, have a blow-off tube ready!
Sounds like valid advice. I will work towards implementing this as well. And I do have plans for that blow-off tube as I've heard and seen results of Big Beers Gone Wild! (= Thanks!
Agreed, aroma additions aren't going to do much for you after extended aging. If you want fresh hoppy flavors, dry hop this a week or two before bottling (and here I'm assuming you'll be aging this in a carboy for several months). I like Fuggle for this kind of beer.
The imperial stouts I've done also had much higher IBUs. The long aging really knocks the hop bitterness down, and with the high FG you need something to balance the sweetness. You do have a lot of black malts in there, which will add astringency, but I'd still consider increasing the hops.
It will definitely be aged. I was planning on starting late April/May and have it ready to drink for Christmas, and then keep it around for long time after that so I can compare it with new batches as I learn more and get better and tweak the flavours and such. So, definitely will be aged.
I definitely don't want this to be too hoppy, but balancing the sweet and the bitter I can see needing to happen.
And as such, just toss all the hops right up front? And not worry about the 15 or 5 minute boiled ones?
Like Midnight Sun mentioned, I was apparently going for an American style, and will be switching to more American hops. Right now I'm thinking about 2.5 oz Brewer's Gold for 60 min and then 1oz Willamette for 30 min. That gets the IBU to 65ish. Higher, but also not too too high.
Thanks for all the input, help and ideas!