[beerlord]

I don't brew lagers but got a hold of some Bootleg Biology laber yeast and plan a black lager that's somewhat hoppy. As of now my recipe looks like this:
8 lbs Pale 2-row
3 lbs Pilsner 2-row
1 lb Munich Light
1 lb Vienna
8 oz. Crystal 80
6 oz. Chocolate Malt
6 oz. Carafa III
IBU's 70 ish???

I use RO water and play around with many water calculators and most show I need some baking soda to bring it to 5.3ish.  One does not and shows me adding gypsum, epsom and CC but this does stick out to me so I'm curious what I should be looking for in this lager. 
Suggestions?
Thanks!

[mabrungard]

Well given the amount of roast grain in that recipe, its possible that some alkalinity might be needed for that mash. But my question is: why so much roast in a black lager? In addition, that is a healthy bittering level. Both of those components are likely to need plenty of malt in order to provide a reasonable balance.

If this is a 5 gal recipe, I can see that the gravity will be high, so the malt may be sufficient. But I find that beers like Dunkel, Schwarzbier, and Black IPA tend to have roast in order to provide color and less so for adding roast flavor.

Another consideration is that lager yeast may leave the beer too clean and not supplying esters that might compliment or enhance the roast features in that recipe.

With regard to water adjustment, the amount of roast in the grist suggests that the beer should be somewhat drying already. You shouldn't need to add much sulfate to the water. I would be looking to add chloride as primary addition to the water. Sulfate can be added, but should be minor.

[bayareabrewer]

bootleg biology has a lager yeast?

[Big Monk]

I don't brew lagers but got a hold of some Bootleg Biology laber yeast and plan a black lager that's somewhat hoppy. As of now my recipe looks like this:
8 lbs Pale 2-row
3 lbs Pilsner 2-row
1 lb Munich Light
1 lb Vienna
8 oz. Crystal 80
6 oz. Chocolate Malt
6 oz. Carafa III
IBU's 70 ish???

I use RO water and play around with many water calculators and most show I need some baking soda to bring it to 5.3ish.  One does not and shows me adding gypsum, epsom and CC but this does stick out to me so I'm curious what I should be looking for in this lager. 
Suggestions?
Thanks!

There is a ALOT going on grain wise. I'd swap the percentages of Pale and Pilsner. I'd use Munich OR Vienna and drop the percentage down either way. I'd drop the crystal 80 AND drop the chocolate malt. Substitute the Carafa for Sinamar and get your color from that.

IBL seems to suggest that you want black color but not roast flavor and also for the hops to shine a little bit. The way the recipe is written you'll have too much going on malt wise which will obscure the hop flavors and too much roast which may give you color but a flavor that may not jive with the type of beer.

[beerlord]

Thanks for the replies.
This is a 6 gallon BIAB and I do like both roast and hoppy in some beers. I agree the grist is odd but it's a starting point. I guess the name and what I want doesn't make much sense. And, I don't have much pils but what I have is getting old so I thought I'd use it up. I don't make lagers so I don't stock pilsner malt.
So if I still want roast, maybe drop each down to 4 oz in 6 gallons???  I was hoping the Munich and Vienna would help the body and balance of the beer. Maybe I'm too IPA-ish in this recipe.

Re: Bootleg Biology, I was in Nashville last week (what a great beer town it's become) and Jeff was kind enough to show a number of us around his digs.  Great guy and great stuff.  He gave us some lager yeast to try out and I figured I'd do something different with it.