My first Extract recipe - thoughts?

So I put together my first recipe - a Chocolate Milk stout and would love some input as I can go in 2 directions with this brew, here it is :

• 6 lbs. Dark DME
• 8 oz. Black Malt
• 8 oz. Chocolate Malt
• 4 oz. Carapils
• 2 oz. Roasted Barley
• 1 oz. East Kent Goldings @ 60 min
• 1 oz. East Kent Goldings @ 30 min
• WLP002 English Ale Yeast
• 4 oz. Cocoa Nibs in secondary
• 1 Vanilla bean in Secondary
• 12 oz. Lactose in Secondary

This is my current plan but am wondering if I should split the nips between the boil and the secondary as was suggested by my LHBS today when I picked up the ingredients.

Also wondering about the Lactose, too much/not enough? I do have 1 lb.

Plan is to soak the nibs/vanilla bean in vodka for a day before adding to secondary for 5-7 days and then bottle.

Thoughts?

Two quick thoughts:

You begin with Dark DME and then add lots of Black and Chocolate and Roasted Barley on top. I'd start with Light extract.

You don't need carapils as you have lactose. Even without either, you probably wouldn't have any body issues.

Dark DME usually has Caramel 60 and black malt in it already, plus one or two pale malts. I'm not sure on the proportions. Add specialty grains with that in mind, maybe just the barley and chocolate malts. No carapils, but you can use a full pound of lactose if you want (maybe add it during the boil?). EKG hops look good, but the 30 minute could be moved out a little if you want, maybe 20 or 15 min.

Northern Brewer has a chocolate milk stout that I think is one of their best sellers. Take a look at their recipe - I think it's really close to what you're doing.

Rootski said:

Dark DME usually has Caramel 60 and black malt in it already, plus one or two pale malts. I'm not sure on the proportions. Add specialty grains with that in mind, maybe just the barley and chocolate malts. No carapils, but you can use a full pound of lactose if you want (maybe add it during the boil?). EKG hops look good, but the 30 minute could be moved out a little if you want, maybe 20 or 15 min.

Northern Brewer has a chocolate milk stout that I think is one of their best sellers. Take a look at their recipe - I think it's really close to what you're doing.

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I second this. You'll probably end up with lots of unfermentables and a higher FG than expected, i.e. sweeter beer. Checkout northern brewer recipes, they have ingredients listed as a pdf on the recipe under additional instructions and just copy one.