Need help with a beer recipe for SWMBO

[Valtyr]

So, here's my disclaimer...I've never used most of these ingredients, so I'm fairly certain that most of my numbers will be off by quite a bit. I've only done extract kits in the past, and have only recently started coming up with all grain ideas to try when I get my kit put together.

That being said, I saw a post recently about using cake mix in a beer, which got me thinking about trying to do some sort of chocolate cake beer for the wife. Without the mix.

Here's what I've been toying with. Any suggestions, help with the numbers, or anything like that will be very helpful.

3# Pearl Malt
3# Two-Row
1# Chocolate Wheat
1# Wheat
.5# Honey Malt
.25# Malted Oats
1# Lactose
Probably a couple hadfuls of rice hulls to help with the sparge (I plan to batch sparge, if that makes any difference)

2-3 oz Hallertau @60 min

Vanilla bean and cocoa nibs in the secondary, but I don't have any idea on the ammounts.

I definitely plan on doing a few much easier recipes until I get the hang of all grain brewing. After spending most of my deployment on here reading up on stuff, it shouldn't be too hard to jump into it. You guys are a very knowledgable group.

 

[Slainte-brew]

I think it looks good as a base to start with. I would say you are somewhere between a dunkel and a porter. The Pearl malt is a good choice, any of the english base malts will help add some breadiness to the flavor. You could also use some biscuit or Crystal/Cara malts to up the maltiness.

I think 2 oz of Hallertau would be good start, somewhere around 20-25 IBUs. Depends on what SWMBO likes. Also it will be a balancing game with the vanilla and nibs vs the bitterness. I would recommend starting with 2 whole vanilla beans, split and scraped then soaked in some vodka added to the fermenter. Throw maybe 1-3 oz of nibs in with the vodka for a couple days too. I have only used nibs twice and in 2 different recipes so it is dificult for me to pin point a good amount with this grain bill. I personally would rather start on the low end of flavors and still have a good beer, than have a flavor explosion and have to let it sit for 6 months. You can always brew this again and tweak 1 or 2 things.

 

[Valtyr]

Thank you for your help. I had considered biscuit as well as a darker crystal, maybe 80, or so, but wasn't sure if they would fit in well. How much would you suggest? Maybe a couple ounces, or so?

I didn't want to go too overboard with the bitterness, but I figured that should give me something to work with to balance out the other flavors a little bit. She's not big on bitterness, so I'm hoping to balance it out with everything else. I'm just worried about the sweetness being too cloying, though I'm sure she wouldn't mind it at all.

I was thinking the same thing with the vanilla, based off of a lot of the other things I've read on here. I haven't read enough about the cocoa nibs to have a good picture yet, though. I definitely want to start on the low end of flavor. It's fairly easy to add more, but quite difficult to remove it once it's there.

Thank you for your input. At least this gives me a starting point.

 

[Valtyr]

Any ideas for what type of yeast? I'm leaning towards a British ale yeast. Maybe 1098, or wlp005?