A good use for a Cooper's Dark Ale Kit?

Hey guys, I've brewed all grain successfully a couple of times, but with a low efficiency. So I'm trying to get better by brewing partial mash.
I got a Coope's Dark Ale hopped LDME but I got severl extra ingredients that I could use, so if you could help me with a recipe it would be great.
I have at least two pounds of:
Caraaroma
Black patent
Chocolate
Viena
Carared
Crystal 40L
Aemrican pale ale 2 row
Liquid Dark Malt Extract
Dry Light Malt Extract

And I have at least an oz. of:
Fuggles
Amarillo
Cascade

Would you think on turning it into a Stout or a Porter, or just making a more robust beer?

Cheers!

Hello, welcome to the forum.

I'm not familiar with the Cooper's products, but you can certainly do a partial mash, or add steeping grains, to the dark ale extract that comes with the kit. If the kit comes with sugar, I wouldn't use that for the type of beer you want to brew, I would simply replace those fermentables with extract or partial mash.

Just going off the top of my head, maybe steep the chocolate and crystal malts and add those. You could also do a partial mash with the 2 row and viena with the chocolate malt, crystal 40, and a little black patent. For a porter, or stout, I'd probably use the fuggles hops. I'd do most of the hopping at 60 minutes to balance the beer, but a small addition towards the end of the boil is fine too.

Great! Thanks man

A guy I know added some more extract, a bit of crystal and some chocolate malt and some more hops. He ended up with a great porter.

You could do a partial mash, but don't boil the prehopped extract, you could add it in right after flameout

I would say 2lb of light DME.
steep half lb of chocolate malt and a lb of crystal, bring to a boil, add the DME and an oz of Fuggle. Boil for 15 mins,cool, add the kit and top up with water to 23 litres.
Job, as they say, is a good un