Imperial Chocolate Porter II

I may have overdone my first imperial porter. The smell of the beer is intoxicating but the flavor is all cocoa. I'm committed to getting this style right. Once I have the base down I have big plans for my recipe.

This is basically a re-building of my original Imperial Chocolate Porter but with the recipe I intended. When I had gone to buy malt I couldn't find brown malt or pale chocolate. I ended up adding carabrown and adding more chocolate malt instead. I don't intend to add any adjuncts to the brew this time around so that I can get a better baseline for future brews.  I'll be using oak cubes as I did last time because I believe that oak adds a great deal to the finished product through depth of flavor.

(please read more after the break.)

In addition to returning to my intended recipe, I dialed up the roasted barley. By adding 50% more roasted barley than the first brewing I hope to increase it's flavor from barely perceivable to noted contributions without venturing into the primary focus range. Additional changes include: tossing the caramel 60, opting to included even more dark caramel malts, and selecting warrior to be a single hop in two additions.

Recipe Specifications:
Batch Size (fermenter): 3.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.095 SG
Estimated Color: 73.6 SRM
Estimated IBU: 51.0 IBUs
Est Mash Efficiency: 65.0 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes 

Ingredients:
7 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) 53.8 %
1 lbs 8.0 oz Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) 11.3 %
1 lbs 8.0 oz Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) 11.3 %
12.0 oz Brown Malt (65.0 SRM) 5.7 %
12.0 oz Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) 5.7 %
12.0 oz Pale Chocolate Malt (200.0 SRM)  5.7 %
8.0 oz Caramel Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) 3.8 %
8.0 oz Special B Malt (180.0 SRM) 3.8 %
0.8 oz Warrior [15.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min 47.7 IBUs
0.2 oz Warrior [15.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min 2.2 IBUs
1.0 pkg Scottish Ale (East Coast Yeast #ECY 07)
0.50 oz French Oak Cubes (Secondary 180.0 days)

Mash Schedule:
Single Infusion, Full Body, Batch Sparge

Brewday: 
Brewing went slow. Nothing went wrong; I just was lazy. By taking my brew day slowly I enjoyed it more than being rush rush rush. The beer was pitch black in the kettle. Everyone around the house commented how much it looked like motor oil. The fermentation took off rapidly and eventually managed to blow through the airlock even with three gallons of head space capacity. Eventually the kraussen broke down and I refilled the airlock with clean sanitizer.