Thoughts on Imperial Red

So not necessarily a style per se but definitely a style. A group of friends do a few “competitions” a year and this is the most recent one.

Here is my first stab at a recipe, i am thinking mostly imperial ipa with quite a bit more color.

For 10 gallons 78% efficiency.

22 lbs 86% 2 row
1 lb 4% Crystal 120
1 lb 4% Crystal 40
1 lb 4% Carared
4 oz 1% Special B
2 oz .5 % Pale Chocolate
1 oz .2% Roast Barley

Beersmith says 1.071 16.4 SRM

Normally I like more simple grainbills but I have used the combo of C-120 and Special B before and I like the balance between them. The Roast barley and Chocolate are there for color. And I have some leftover carared that I want to use up and feel that a red ale is a perfect place. I know this puts me around 12% crystal and am honestly planning on mashing around 153 or so to keep a solid mouth feel.

I am undecided on hops but am thinking something around a 1:1 BU:GU, but probably a little bit more but for starters I was thinking

1.5 oz Magnum 60 min 27 ibu
2 oz Centennial 15 min 13 ibu

but am unsure how to finish… kind of thinking some sort of blend of Cent, Amarillo, Citra, Columbus.

I am still very open to ideas on all of it so let em rip! I did have some idea of replacing 2 row with 10-15% rye because that was the main ingredient in the last “competition” we did and i do like being a smartass. But in all reality I think the combo of lots of crystal and lots of hops will just bury the rye and not make it worth the lautering hassle.

For the most part it looks pretty good. I would add the rye and also a little dry hops.

I made a red a few months back, and I used some warrior and Amarillo hops just cause I had some on hand. It came out great

I did a regular red a couple of months ago using saphir to FWH, then bittered with simcoe and summit and finished with summit and saphir that turned out awesome.

FWH is a pretty good idea…

Heres what I have for now, guna go with the rye.

75% 2 row 20 lb
11% Rye 3 lb
4% Crystal 40 Crystal 120 Carared 1 lb each
1% Special B 4 oz
.5 % Pale Chocolate 2 oz
.2 % Roast Barley 1 oz

Hops

60
1.5 oz Magnum 27 IBU

15
2 oz Centennial 12 IBU
1 oz Columbus 9 IBU

10
1 oz Columbus 6 ibu
1 oz Amarillo 4 ibu

5
1 oz Amarillo 2 ibu
1 oz Citra 3 ibu
1 oz Clumbus 3 ibu

1
1 oz columbus
1 oz citra
1 oz centennial
1 oz amarillo all ~1 ibu

Puts me at .95:1 BU:GU

Probably ferment half with Dennys fav 50 and half with s-05 and see which comes out better.

Thanks for the thoughts, any more input?