British Brown Ale recipe suggestions

[Brewsncrabs]

My club held its annual Fantasy Beer draft, where club members all drafted ingredients sort of like our NFL Fantasy Drafts. I can only use these ingredients and no others per the contest rules. My ingredients that I chose are as follows:
Optic Malt
Dark Crystal
Black Patent (I chose for color only)
Fuggles
EKG
Vanilla
Molasses
London Ale yeast
I have to use Optic and London Ale. I can choose between or use both EKG and Fuggles. I can choose between or use both Dark Crystal and Black Patent, which I am leaning towards both. I can choose between Molasses and Vanilla or use both.
I have decided to brew a British Brown and have the following recipe so far:
9lbs Optic
8oz Dark Crystal
5oz Black Patent(for color)
1 oz EKG at 60 min
1 oz Fuggles at 5 min
I am not sure what to do with the Molasses or Vanilla. I know they really don't belong, but I need to use one or both of them. What are your thoughts on the recipe and where do you see the molasses and/or vanilla fitting in?

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[Northern_Brewer]

Well - to my eyes if you're using dark crystal and molasses, that already sounds like you're heading more towards porter or stout. Then consider that last year's Champion Beer of Britain was Bingham's Vanilla Stout, and you can see which way my mind is drifting...

 

[Brewsncrabs]

Hmm didn't think of it that way. It doesn't have to be a brown. I will research that stout.

 

[McKnuckle]

Agreed on the porter suggestion. A brown ale normally has some medium roast components in the grist, like amber, brown, or at least a Victory/Biscuit type of malt. Your ingredients are only very dark roast and a dark crystal. You don't have any other malts to layer in there and smooth out the flavor "gradation" from base malt to highly kilned malt, and there are no medium crystal components either.

I think the 92% base, 5% crystal, 3% patent sounds like a good blend. You could certainly add molasses at the end of your boil to add some depth. I just kegged an old ale brewed with treacle; it tasted good in the hydrometer but final results remain to be seen. I used 0.1 lb per gallon and added within the last 5 minutes of the boil. Save the vanilla to add at packaging time.