chocolate coffee stout

My wife has been asking me for a chocolate and coffee stout. I think I want something like a sweet stout, about 6% ABV, with limited roasted or bitterness tastes. After looking at numerous recipes, I'm thinking of the idea below. I'd appreciate any input.

10.5 lb 2 row pale
1 lb crystal 60L
12 oz dark munich
12 oz chocolate malt
3 oz roasted malt
8 oz flaked oats
8 oz rice hulls
4-8 oz cocoa nibs for last 10 minutes of boil

24 oz cold steep coffee at bottling

mash at 154

probably WLP004 Irish Ale yeast

A neutral bittering hop at around .6 BU/GU

I'm unsure of the amount of roasted and whether that should be changed to black or de-bittered black

I'm also unsure of whether to add flaked barley - possibly reducing the flaked oats

Also considering lactose.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

I'm also new to Home brewing, and just bottled a Coffee-Irish Stout today. I think 24 ounces of coffee might be a bit much. I read about a dozen threads here on techniques for brewing/adding coffee before trying. After a week in the secondary I cold brewed about 20 ounces of Blue Mountain coffee. I ended up only adding 8-10 ounces to the secondary and then bottled 2 days later. Probably would have been just fine adding during bottling. Anyway, I tasted a few ounces of stout at bottling and the coffee had a definite presence, but was not overpowering..... not completely subtle either. Perfect for me. A few folks around here added too much coffee and had issues, so I wanted to start out careful.

To make it, I added bottled water to about 4 ounces of freshly course ground beans to around 20 ounces of water in a french press and gave a good stir. Set it overnight in the fridge (12 hours) and then pressed. I drank half and added half to the carboy. Made for strong coffee. I of course sanitized the french press, but it appears that folks have had no issues with bacteria from beans. My recipe was a Brewers Best Irish Stout extract kit. Around 4.5 - 5% ABV. Sounds like you are making a bigger stout.

Nick, thanks for the input on the amount of coffee. I'll add 8 or 10 oz and then taste before adding more.

Does anyone have any input on the grain bill? I'm specifically concerned about the amount and type of roasted/black grain. After researching more yesterday, I'm thinking the grain should be either de-bittered black or Carafe III.

Thanks,
Jake

i'd say increase the roasted malt to half a pound, add lactose, and change the coffee addition. either add whole beans as you would dry hop, which will impart more aroma, or freshly brewed coffee at bottling, but DO NOT boil the coffee. if it is boiled it will have a burnt flavor. the cold steeped coffee probably just wont give you the flavor profile you're looking for...unless you use vodka and steep it overnight.

Since you're using nibs, maybe try not boiling them. I've had good results soaking cocoa nibs in whiskey (vodka could work too) and then adding it to the secondary. I think this may get you a bit more bang for your buck.

I did nibs in secondary for a couple weeks and that was good. I think I did 3-4oz. Coffee I cold press 4oz in 1 quart of water over night and threw that into secondary for a week to settle in before kegging. I had a source of infection from cold pressed coffee once so sanitize your cold pressing mechanism as well as boil your water then cool to be safe.

I would say you would be safe with about 6 oz of roasted malt. I don't like black malt which I will be staying away from in future recipes. With the coffee addition and chocoalte nibs and malt plus with the cold press coffe you'll get enough roastiness for a "sweet stout".

Unfortunetly there is no hard and fast amounts/types for coffee, chocolate, spice additions. All on personal tastes and probablly needing to brew things a couple times to dial it in.

Thanks everyone for the input. adamjab19, you're right; I'll just have to dial it in. I'll probably brew this in a week and half and see if I need to adjust from there.