My LHBS Doesn't Carry Dark Malt Extract

I was really excited today to brew two new recipes after the success of my first (well, it's still bottling, but even flat it tasted great, my roommate described it as tasting somewhat like Fat Tire - flattering since they all like Flat Tire)

Since I enjoy dark beer, I was going to make a "Nitro Stout" (just some stout I found at beersmith.com that got a good taste score) as well as an Oatmeal Stout. I decided to go a little into the unknown, since these recipes both require me to steep some grains (roasted barley, as well as oatmeal in the oatmeal stout.)

However, at the LHBS they were out of the hops I needed (I just used similar purpose, similar AA% ones instead) and worst of all, they had no dark DME! I ended up ordering 15 lbs of it online today at the Austin Homebrew Supply website.

I then read in John Palmer's book just now that stouts can be made with any malt extract and specialty grains. Was it necessary for me to have the dark malt extract these recipes called for, or could I have just gone with any old extract?

Most people prefer to use Pilsner or Pale Malt extract (sometimes called Extra/Ultra Light and Light/Golden, respectively) as the base for all their beers, and control color and flavor by adding appropriate amounts of specialty grains when steeping or mini-mashing.

Yep what ^ he said. When I was doing extract brewing all I ever bought was light DME and we make a lot of dark beers.

Yup, plus three. I PM myself, but I only stock pale LME and sometimes if I am doing something really light colored I'll go with the Xtra Lite DME.

You'll probably start steeping just a half pound of Crystal 40 or so, the rest extract 9we've all been there).

At this point my (indoor stove top) system can handle six pounds of grain and I can brew as black as sin with pale LME.

Go for it.

Damn, makes me wish I hadn't spent $60 on the extract Oh well, now I know!

The specialty grains used in stouts are the darker crystals, black patent and roasted barley, maybe chocolate malt, so it is easy to make a stout using pale extract.

You didn't waste the money on the dark extract, maybe it was more expensive than pale extract, but you will use smaller amounts of specialty grains.

This recipe has me steeping one lb of roasted barley along with putting in ~7 lbs of Dark DME. Is this the normal amount for a stout? I guess my last beer I made (the only beer I've made) didn't have much substance in comparison. Just 6 lbs of LME and some hops, no specialty grains involved.

RDWHAHB! Sounds like it will be fine.

I occasionally use Dark DME and have had good results in Browns and Porters. Though, as people have mentioned, most of the time Light DME + specialty grains works fine.

If you know the maltster, you can look up the content of their Dark Extract online and see what's in it to get a feel for how to tweak recipes. As an example, the Briess Dark Extract has 2 Row, Crystal 60L, Munich and Black.

Wow -
One lb of roasted barley?
Man you have to age that a long time to get rid of that burn. Or maybe I'm just getting old.
I use .25 to .5 lbs and oh boy can I taste it, it almost over powers everything else until I hit the three month ageing mark.
I have never brewed the nitro-stout, but could I recommend you try something from this board that has a bunch of stars next to it and just might be a little more balanced. Really, I think your be much happier and get wild and crazy once you have a good stock pile.
Best of luck.