Is this to much grain? GIB winter ale CLONE(hopfully)

Im trying to make a clone of the Granville island winter ale.this might be to many grains to steep though, here is my recipe so far, please let me know.

Partial mash

Fermentables
-Munich Malt 2.0 lb
-Crystal 75 2.0 lb
-Vienna Malt 1.0 lb
-Chocolate Malt 8.0 oz
-pale LME 4.85 lb

HOPS
-Willamette 0.5 oz - boil
-Saaz 1.0 oz - boil
-Spalt 0.5 oz - finishing

YEAST
-English Ale Yeast WLP002 White Labs

I will be adding white or dark chocolate to the boil , making sure to do a good long boil to convert oils in chocolate as not to kill head retention.
I will add caramelized sugar at bottling as well as real vanilla extract.
I think i will be taking out some grain but what is a good amount to go with?
thanks

That looks like a little over kill with the specialty grains for the amount of extract you're using. I would scale it back.

To me it looks to be a partial mash and not steeping. You can get some sugars from C75 (75 really?) and Chocolate from steeping.

But, if you mash between say 150 and 153F for 60 minutes, you will get decent sugar conversion from the Munich and Vienna which have enzymes. They will also help pull more sugar out of the C75 and Chocolate. This is no longer extract brewing, it's partial mash. A great in between step to All Grain brewing. Make sure you get a good crush (or double crush from LHBS) to help with efficiency. And use a fine mesh bag, like a nylon 5 gallon paint strainer bag.

I will say I've never had that specific beer. If its got heavy carmel notes and is really sweet your recipe might be fine. If not, I'd cut the C75 back to 1 lb and substitue 1 lb of Vienna. Expected OG with 72% conversion efficiency is 1.062 for 5.5 gallons. With 1 lb of C75/2lb of Vienna color is 32 SRM (2 lbs of C75 would be darker yet). With using 6 oz of chocolate instead of 8 oz, it drops to 29 SRM which will be closer on color I think. 4 oz is 25 SRM.

solbes said:

To me it looks to be a partial mash and not steeping. You can get some sugars from C75 (75 really?) and Chocolate from steeping.

But, if you mash between say 150 and 153F for 60 minutes, you will get decent sugar conversion from the Munich and Vienna which have enzymes. They will also help pull more sugar out of the C75 and Chocolate. This is no longer extract brewing, it's partial mash. A great in between step to All Grain brewing. Make sure you get a good crush (or double crush from LHBS) to help with efficiency. And use a fine mesh bag, like a nylon 5 gallon paint strainer bag.

I will say I've never had that specific beer. If its got heavy carmel notes and is really sweet your recipe might be fine. If not, I'd cut the C75 back to 1 lb and substitue 1 lb of Vienna. Expected OG with 72% conversion efficiency is 1.062 for 5.5 gallons. With 1 lb of C75/2lb of Vienna color is 32 SRM (2 lbs of C75 would be darker yet). With using 6 oz of chocolate instead of 8 oz, it drops to 29 SRM which will be closer on color I think. 4 oz is 25 SRM.

Click to expand...

I'm also wanting to brew a clone of this beer and Dex323's recipe is the only one I can find. A few questions regarding solbe's comments, as this will be my first ever all-grain batch. It will be BIAB style.

What would you recommend changing about this recipe considering I would like to do all-grain (not partial mash) and BIAB?

Keep in mind:

1) I'll probably use chocolate beer flavouring in the end as it's easier and I know it will turn out all right

2) what should I replace the 4.5lbs of pale LME?

3) I will reduce crystal to 1.0lb and up vienna to 2.0lb as per your recommendation

THANKS!

Also, here is a further description of the beer from the brewers website:

"Caramel malt aromas dominated by cocoa and vanilla. Complex layers of vanilla, bready malts, toffee, cocoa bean and a slight nuttiness. Moderate hop bitterness gives balance so that sweeter flavours do not overwhelm."

I'm thinking of adding a pinch of cinnamon or nutmeg as well before bottling. thoughts? anything else that may suit the overall recipe?

Okay here's the conversion to all grain for BIAB. 6.5 lbs of pale 2 row base malt (38 points per gallon @ 72% effieciency) would replace the 4.85 lbs of pale LME (36 ppg @ 100% eff). I further reduced the C75 @ 1 lb to 12 oz of C60, I think 1 lb of C60 is pretty heavy toffee, unless you really want it heavy stick with 1 lb.

6.5 lbs pale 2 row barley
6 oz chocolate malt
2 lbs vienna
1 lb munich
12 oz C60
Estimated OG @ 72% sugar conversion efficiency (for first attempt) = 1.057 @ 5 gallons chilled

If you take out the 6 oz of chocolate malt and add chocolate flavoring, you will be too light in color IMO.

I've only ever added spices in one beer, my pumpkin ale that is currently on tap. I had .5 tsp each of nutmeg, and clove, 1 oz of cinnamon, and .25 oz of ginger at 10 minutes in boil from flameout. Pretty apparent (but not hit you in the face) level of spice. I would leave it out here personally as it's already pretty complex. Sounds like you want the vanilla to shine through. Go no more than 1/8 tsp of nutmeg and/or 1/4 tsp of cinnamon if you want it way in the background.