Abraxas Inspiration

[Steven P]

After having this beer for the second time and in anticipation of drinking more at GTMW this weekend I'm planning to make a RIS (first one ever) inspired by Perennial.

The starting point is Matt Franklin's Savannah Stout, which is a really good coffee stout (props to Matt) with a silky mouthfeel, kicked up a few notches by adding Ancho chili, Vanilla beans, Cacao nibs, and Cinnamon sticks. And about 20 more gravity points lol.

Boil Time: 60 min
OG 1.102
FG 1.027
ABV 10%
Efficiency: 65.00 %
Mash at 156F for 60min

14 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter 64.4 %
2 lbs 8.0 oz Oats, Flaked 11.5 %
1 lbs 8.0 oz Chocolate Malt 6.9 %
1 lbs Barley, Flaked 4.6 %
1 lbs Caramel 120L 4.6 %
1 lbs Roasted Barley 4.6 %
12.0 oz Black Barley 3.4 %

2 oz Millennium 15.3% AA 60min for 82 IBU

1056 American Ale 2L Starter.

For the spices I plan on adding 1 oz dried Ancho chili (fresh ground) and 4 oz Mexican chocolate in the boil at 5 min. Once fermented out I'll dry spice with two vanilla beans, 1/2 cinnamon stick and four ounces of cacao nibs for 3-5 days.

I'm not brewing this for a few weeks as I have other things planned (Bretty/sour stuff) in the meantime. Any thoughts or feedback is welcome.

I"m looking at you (>.>)Jim Fuller and Randy Carris (<.<)

[fargo41]

Awesome, that beer (so good, thanks again Randy) got me thinking about making a RIS as well, but I was just going to do a plain RIS (since this would be my first) and maybe split off some to experiment with different spices. I was also thinking of just going with a couple packets of dry yeast instead of making a large starter

[carrisr]

Recipe looks good. You may not need the black, it's probably dark enough, but I haven't run it through BS. A couple of other things to consider: I prefer to add my dark malts at the end of the mash. You get less bitterness that way and pH doesn't get too low.

[Steven P]

Excellent point. Abraxas is super smooth

[carrisr]

You might also consider flaked rye instead of barley. Jim has good luck with it in his RIS.

[Matt F]

That's funny I was thinking of doing something similar. Going to research some other RIS recipes first but Savannah was probably going to be my base. I was going to brew 5 gallons and then pull of a growler to age with some of the spices and peppers to see what levels to shoot for in the rest. I still find the balance of all the xtras in Abraxas to be fantastic and think it is key to why it is so outstanding.

[carrisr]

Absolutely. It's really what impressed me the first time. That kind of balance is really difficult.

[JimF]

You might also consider flaked rye instead of barley. Jim has good luck with it in his RIS.

You might want to substitute flaked rye for half of the flaked barley...

[jjbuck]

A whole poind of roasted barly sounds like a lot. There is a very high OG however.