Chocolate Cherry Stout

I am planning on brewing a chocolate cherry stout following the recipe from Midwest Supplies.

We recommend brewing this batch once a year to have around for special occasions. Even light beer drinkers can appreciate a mug of this stout. The smooth sweet flavor will put you to bed like a glass of warm milk. Our ingredients for this recipe include: 6 lb. Dark liquid malt extract, 4 oz. Chocolate Malt, 4 oz. Caramel 80L, 4 oz. Roasted Barley specialty grains, 1 oz. Fuggle, 1/2 oz. Willamette pellet hops, 4 oz. Cherry extract, yeast, priming sugar and a grain bag.

My questions is, I will be using Ultra Light LME instead of the Dark, where can I make up for the the color? Add some more of grains, and if so how much of what? I will not be using cherry extract, rather frozen cherries or cherry preserves. How much of what should I use and when and where should I add it? Primary? Secondary (or late in primary, dont' have secondary).

Lastly, how much chocolate should I put in? And what type of chocolate?

Thanks

Bakers chocolate (unsweetened) or cocoa powder will work for chocolate. You can add the cherries to the primary or secondary, but if you're worried about possible infection due to wild bacteria, i would add cherries to the secondary so the alcohol in the already fermented beer can kill any nasties or wild yeasts before they screw up your beer. cherry preserves are pastuerized so you can add that whenever and it won't hurt anything. to make up the color difference i would add extra chocolate and perhaps a tad bit extra roasted barley.

Awesome, thanks for the information. Few questions about your response. Any idea about how much chocolate or preserves I should add? Also, to get the extra color, were you implying extra actual chocolate, or chocolate malts?

Thanks again!

Use about 2.5 oz of dark Belgian chocolate (melted) and add it to the beginning of the boil. Up the Chocolate malt to 5 or 6 oz. Not sure how much on the cherries but home brewing is all about experimentation.

I used 3 cans of Oregon Puree cherries for my RIS which had an OG of 1.082 and its barely noticeable in the flavor and taste. I would use cherry puree and a dash or two of extract at bottling to get the "best of both worlds"