Russian Imperial stout recipe question

[beerboar]

I am thinking of brewing my first RIS. I do not think my mash tun is big enough to hold the large grain bill and so was planning on splitting it in two and taking the first runnings for the RIS and the second for a low abv stout. has anyone got any experience of doing this?

anyway the recipe is an adapted version of this http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f68/russian-imperial-stout-2011-hbt-competition-category-winner-238807/

Mash Ingredients
Amt   Name   Type   #   %/IBU
8.00 kg   Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC)   Grain   1   85.2 %
0.50 kg   Roasted Barley (591.0 EBC)   Grain   2   5.7 %
0.40 kg   Biscuit Malt (45.3 EBC)   Grain   3   4.5 %
0.20 kg   Carafa I (663.9 EBC)   Grain   4   2.3 %
0.20 kg   Chocolate Malt (886.5 EBC)   Grain   5   2.3 %

Boil Ingredients
Amt   Name   Type   #   %/IBU
113.00 g   Challenger [7.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min   Hop   6   59.0 IBUs
50.00 g   Goldings, East Kent [6.40 %] - Boil 30.0 min   Hop   7   17.1 IBUs

Dry English Ale (White Labs #WLP007)


Brewsmith tells me in comes in at 10.5% abv


what do people think of the recipe? tips etc.
I am also buying a new ferm bucket should i go for the bigger 33lt ones for such a high abv beer or should i just stick with the cheaper 25 lt ones.

thanks in advance for all tips etc.

[nigel_c]

If your mash ton is not large enough you could always sub some of the grain for dme or lme. That's what we did for our RIS in the north county brewers.