Critques on my Breakfast Stout

Hey everyone,

So I am putting together a recipe for a breakfast stout. I wanted to
incorporate some smoked malt in order to bring out some bacon flavor. Just
wanted your guys' input on the rough draft of the recipe. There is a lot
going on, and feel free to tell me if it's too much. I wanted to add maple
syrup as well...but I thought it would REALLY be too much after that.

I don't want so much smoked flavor that it overpowers and needs months to
settle out, but I also don't want it hidden behind the other potent flavors.
I know, it's a delicate balance...I may drop one of the smoked malts, but that depends on everyone's suggestions

05lb 00oz Maris Otter (35%) (actually thinking golden promise, but beersmith
doesn't have it, so this is an equal substitution)
03lb 08oz Pale Malt (24%)
01lb 08oz Smoked Malt (14%) (Total base malt- ~73%)
02lb 00oz Flaked Oat (Toasted, 10.5%)
01lb 00oz Chocolate Rye Malt (7%)
00lb 12oz Crystal 120 (5%)
00lb 08oz Roasted Barley (500 SRM) (3.5%)
00lb 02oz Peat smoked malt (1%)

1.25oz Columbus 60min (57 IBU)
1.00oz Centennial 15min (16 IBU)

00lb 08oz Coffee (secondary)

WLP002 English Ale (maybe WLP001 instead?)
Probably mash around 155-156

Estimated OG- 1.071
Estimated FG- 1.016
IBU- 73.5
SRM- 38.5
ABV- 7.3%

All advice is of course welcome. And if you think I should REALLY add the
maple syrup, let me know what you think I should drop. Looking forward to
your ideas/critiques.

Thank you for your time.
Kyle

To me a breafast stout is a culmination of a milk stout, oatmeal stout, and espresso stout. All things you would have at breakfast.
I can't speak to the smoked malts, but I do know that Golden Promise would not be a good choice as I was informed at my LHBS that they had a really crappy year and the grain is not that great. I have also found I need to mash a little longer to get good conversion with Maris Otter, may just be my system though.
I would probably cut back on the coffee unless you have used that much before and it worked for you. I would imagine you will need more to balance with any smoked malt you use. I used 1.25oz in my last 5 gal batch of BS and it was just enough. Probably gonna kick it up to 2oz in the BS that is currently in my fermenter, as it's a bit beefier. Just going to dry hop it in a secondary for a couple days. The first time I just brewed the coffee and added my priming sugar to it and brought to a boil to sterilize. 3 cups of liquid added total.
You may want to back down on the hops as they will hide the milder breakfast flavors. My last BS was just a little too bitter at only 34IBUs.
Maybe cut back on the oatmeal too. I found 1lb added a lot of body in mine, but I added a pound of lactose to mine, so that probably accounted for some of that.

Here's my recipe for what it's worth. Not trying to tell you what to do, but just some more beer for thought. Nothing like kicking a Saturday off with a Breakfast Stout! Cheers!

62% 8 0 American Two-row Pale
8% 1 0 Crystal 75L
8% 1 0 Milk Sugar (Lactose)
8% 1 0 Flaked Oats
8% 1 0 Belgian Kiln Coffee Malt
4% 0 8 British Chocolate Malt 475L
2% 0 4 Black (Patent) Malt
2% 0 4 Roasted Barley
13 0

60 mins 0.8 Nugget pellet 12%AA

Batch size: 5.5 gallons
Original Gravity 1.061 measured
(1.060 estimated)
Final Gravity (1.014 to 1.017)
Color
40° SRM (Black)
Mash @ 156F
76% measured
(72% used for O.G. estimate)

In order to use the smoked malt to bring bacon to mind, then you need a malt smoked with the same wood that is used on bacon, i.e. hickory or apple. I'd drop the peat smoked malt because that will make you think scotch whiskey. Unless, of course, you like a scotch with breakfast.

Yeah, I decided to drop the peat malt. I wasn't thinking and didn't realize what kind of flavor it would give.

I currently have upped the regular smoked malt to 2lb as I was told it is actually pretty mild.

I know a lot of people do the milk stout style for breakfast stouts. But I wanted bacon! lol. Bacon, coffee, oats, and a nice mild chocolate

I think most smoked malts that aren't peat are hickory smoked, but I will definitely check with my store before I purchase.

As far as the amount of coffee I use...well perhaps you are right. I have never added coffee to a stout before, and I was just kind of guessing in comparison to other recipes.

On the coffee topic: pick an amount and put in secondary, taste after awhile and add more if necessary. Just pick a way of introducing the flavor into the beer ( i.e. cold pressing, dry hoping). Once you find the amount you will need you'll have a ballpark idea of the quantity you like.

actually, after talking to a few of my homebrew group friends at the bar. I think I will reduce my coffee down to 1-2oz and put it into secondary with an exceptionally coarse grind in order to keep it in a hop bag.