Russian Imperial Stout - 2017

For my first brew of 2017, I'm brewing an ever so slightly modified version of the whiskey barrel stout that I brewed with a couple buddies last year. If it turns out as planned, this will be the first of my NHC entries this year. I won't be putting this version in a whiskey barrel, which will allow me to avoid the way too crowded Specialty Beer category. Edit 2/20/2017: The AHA finally adopted the 2015 BJCP Guidelines, so the groupings should result in a much less crowded Specialty Category this year. I'll be kegging this beer and I'm considering putting half on nitro. This recipe uses almost all Crisp malts. I'd strongly suggest sticking with the malts below as domestic malts just don't have the same character as Crisp malts. Here's the recipe as I'm making it today:

8.0 # Crisp Maris Otter
6.0 # Crisp Organic Pale
1.0 # Crisp Roasted Barley
12 oz Simpsons Double Roasted Crystal
5 oz Crisp Chocolate Malt
5 oz Crisp Pale Chocolate Malt
0.75 # Extra light DME
28g Warrior (60 min)
(1) 3ml Hopshot (60 min)
42g EKG (10 min)
42g EKG (0 min)
Yeast Nutrient
Whirlfloc
(2) US-05

Mash at 152F, 90 min boil, start fermentation at 63F and raise to 68F over a few days. Nothing fancy on the water as West Jordan, Utah water has worked really well for stouts.

Brewing Notes
No issues with this brew session other than I was having a hard time getting a super accurate gravity reading on my refractometer. Original gravity is somewhere between 1.105 and 1.110 which means this is going to be a pretty big beer. I made sure I aerated well with pure O2; I dosed it right before pitching, then again about five hours later.