Please critique choco stout extract recipe

Hi everyone!
I am going to brew this beer to give to family/friends for xmas. I am trying to make a chocolate heavy/sweet beer that even non beer loves would like. I took the recipe from a book we have and then tweaked it quite a bit. I'm also trying to decide about the chocolate addition. Right now I want to do 8oz of unsweetened cocoa powder to flameout. I am planning on tasting the beer after a week and seeing if I should add any more chocolate. Either way I'll add one or two cracked vanilla beans to primary after a week.

I have been playing around the with the grain bill: chocolate malt, roasted barley, and black patent amounts. Let me know if you think there's too much or too little of them. Also any feedback/experience with chocolate types would be helpful. I've done quite a bit of research on the topic and can't seem to find a definitive answer to whether it's better to use unsweetened cocoa powder, semisweet chocolate, or cocoa nibs. The main thing I'm worried about is the cocoa powder causing bitterness. I am going to brew this soon to give some time for the beer to age/mellow out.

6.5 lb dark malt extract
2 lb dark dry malt extract
1 lb crystal malt 60L
1/2 lb roasted barley
1/2 lb chocolate malt
1/8 lb black patent malt
1/2 lb rolled oats (for mouthfeel)
1 1/2 oz cascade hops (bittering at 60)
1/2 oz hallertau hops (aroma at 5)
8 oz unsweetened cocoa (flameout)
2 tsp gypsum
irish ale yeast
1-2 cracked vanilla bean

Thanks in advance!
Tina

There seems to be a fair bit of debate back and forth regarding using cocoa powder vs. nibs, but I'm assuming you're going with powder simply because you have it on hand. It looks decent to me, although I'm uncertain you'll get the color you want for a stout out of so little black patent. It might depend on the lovibond level of your barley and chocolate malts.

Be careful with the vanilla; it can be easy to overdose on a batch, so I'd recommend sampling early and often once that goes in.

smagee said:

There seems to be a fair bit of debate back and forth regarding using cocoa powder vs. nibs, but I'm assuming you're going with powder simply because you have it on hand. It looks decent to me, although I'm uncertain you'll get the color you want for a stout out of so little black patent. It might depend on the lovibond level of your barley and chocolate malts.

Be careful with the vanilla; it can be easy to overdose on a batch, so I'd recommend sampling early and often once that goes in.

Click to expand...

Hi! Thanks for the feedback (also, I love your icon!). I actually have some cocoa powder on hand but would be open to tracking down some nibs to use as well or instead. I had read this thread (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/what-you-need-know-about-chocolate-brewing-94804/) and there really didn't seem to be an answer either way, both cocoa and nibs had their pros and cons.

I was playing around with the grain bill and am definitely open to upping the black patent malt, maybe to 1/4 lb or 1/2 lb.

Thanks for the feedback, I haven't used vanilla beans in my beer before, so I'll definitely be careful with adding that.