Need Ideas for an Alesmith Wee Heavy Clone

I'd like to try another Scotch Ale brew hoping for the result to be something similar or alike to Alesmith's Wee Heavy. I bought a couple of bottles of this in Carlsbad, CA a couple of months ago. It has a small stout or coffee component to it and I'm in need of ideas on how to accomplish that. Black Patent and/or chocolate malt ? Any ideas on how much? This will be a 5-6 gallon batch and will be extracts with specialty grains. I'm thinking of using Wyeast 1084 (Irish Ale) or 1056 (American Ale).
Secondly, can anyone give me direction with regards to better carbonation? My first brew, last October, was the Belhaven Wee Heavy clone. I used a slight bit more extract than what the recipe called for. Priming was 1-1/4 cups of DME. Four months later, I had very, very low carbonation. I ended up unbottling everything and adding some grains of dry yeast (I used one of the Safale strains) to each bottle. 3-4 months later, they have low - but sufficient - carbonation for my palate. In an effort to not repeat the 7-8 months of waiting and re-priming; should I go with a little more DME? Sugar? Corn sugar? How much for a 5-6 gal batch?

Thanks

I don't know about the clone, but the Alesmith Wee Heavy is one mighty fine beer, isn't it? Let us know if you're successful.

As for the carbonation, prime with sugar, not DME. Boiled sugar is 100% fermentable, or close to it. DME can vary in its fermentability, so results can be less certain. Don't forget to take fermentation and conditioning temps into consideration, too. Use the charts.

I'll bump this to see if any of you have some ideas. I just transferred my yearly Belhaven Wee Heavy clone, into the secondary, today. I'd like to make this Alesmith Wee Heavy clone, next month.
Here's what I've come up with so far:

malt & fermentables
% LB OZ Malt or Fermentable
54% 8 0 Briess Pilsen/Light LME
17% 2 8 Golden Promise
14% 2 0 Briess Pilsen Light DME
5% 0 12 British Crystal 50-60L
3% 0 8 Milk Sugar (Lactose)
2% 0 4 Chocolate Malt
2% 0 4 Belgian Biscuit Malt
1% 0 3 Belgian Aromatic
1% 0 3 Roasted Barley
1% 0 2 Peated Malt

Batch size: 5.3 gallons Original Gravity
1.094 / 22.4° Plato (1.084 to 1.098)
Final Gravity
1.027 / 6.8° Plato (1.024 to 1.029)
Color
21° SRM / 42° EBC
(Brown to Dark Brown)
Mash Efficiency
75%
hops
use time oz variety form aa
boil 60 mins 1.5 Goldings, East Kent info pellet 5.6
boil 45 mins 0.5 Goldings, East Kent info pellet 5.6

Boil: 3.5 avg gallons for 60 minutes 0.19

Wyeast Scottish Ale (1728)

Alcohol
8.9% ABV / 7% ABW

misc
use time amount ingredient
boil 15 min 1 ea Whirlfloc Tablet info

Alesmith Wee Heavy tastes as if it has a little bit of a milk stout component in it. My best description would be a cross between Belhaven Wee Heavy and Mackeson XXX stout. At least that's what I'm reminded of. What I don't want is an imperial stout. Now, if I had to guess, Alesmith likely uses Wyeast 1056 (American Ale) / White Labs 001 (Chico, California Ale). I went with my standby 1728 (Scottish Ale).
Thoughts?

Old post, but I don't think there is peated malt in it. I heard that a perceived 'smokiness' or 'peat flavor' is due to carmelizing high lovibond grains....you lauter out the first gallon or so and really scorch it in the kettle, then drain the rest and continue on as normal. Some american examples get around this by using crystal malts I guess but toasting it in the kettle on high heat is probably the way Alesmith does it.