Suggestions on New Recipe

Hey guys! My first batch of all grain turned out pretty good. The only thing that I was confused by is it didn't have too much of a head to it. I am open to suggestions on how to fix that!
I am looking at brewing something that I've always wanted to try. I want to hear some feedback on what I have come up with so far. Not sure exactly what to call it but I'm going for a "chocolate cherry ale" I don't really like the body of stouts so I've decided to try my hand in an ale version.
2 Gallon Batch. (2.8 gallons pre-boil)

Mash: (155 F. for 90 mins.)
2 LBS. American- Pale 2 row
1 LB. American- Munich- light 10L
.8 LB. American- Caramel / Crystal 40L
.3-4 LB. American- Chocolate
.5 OZ. Cherry Flavoring
(Boil for 60 mins.)
HOPS
1.5 Oz. Calypso (35 mins. at end of boil)

 

Mash it at about 150 for 60 minutes. 90 minutes is not needed. No bittering hops? Are you using a recipe calculator? If so what IBU are you getting?

 

His mash temp appears to be 155, which definitely doesn't need the 90 minutes! Presumably he's looking for more body/residual sugars...perhaps this is meant to be a semi-sweet beer.

I'd be a little leery of boiling whatever "cherry flavoring" is for the full hour.

 

You shouldn't need it with an al-grain batch, but 4 ozs of carapils (dextrin) malt will help with head, and not affect the flavor of the beer.

155 F is pretty high. It will leave a lot of sweetness. That may be what you are after. I prefer drier beers, and would probably mash closer to 150 - 152.

With today's malts, conversion is pretty quick. Probably done in 20 minutes. I usually wait about 30 minutes before sparging; never had a problem with conversion in ~150 batches.

With that amount of Chocolate. I think I'd say that was a Porter, if you want to classify the beer as something. I'm not a fan of the Black or Roast malts either, and tend to use a lot of Chocolate and make Porters rather than stouts. I'll use a couple of lbs of Chocolate in a 6 gallon batch. I do have a recipe for a clone of Rogue Shakespeare Stout, which is primarily Chocolate and Oats, with little roast that I find excellent.

 

Want better foam retention?

Mash your base malts a bit higher near 152-155F and add hops with a moderately higher alpha acid content. The wort proteins will bind with the hop oils and if carbed properly it should give you some nice foam.
My early beers, even the ones brewed with wheat, had good carbonation but poor head retention until I added a higher AAU finishing hop. At the time I was only using small amounts of low alpha hops like Hallertau and Saaz, but got a bug on my tail after reading up a little about hop oil content being directly related to foam retention.

 

With the very small amount of chocolate I would call this one a darker pale ale. The Munich, C-40 and Chocolate should add plenty of sweetness hence my suggestion to keep the mash temperature low. Otherwise it might be too sweet. At 155 I would wager it would definitely be too sweet.

#2 for not boiling the cherry extract. Add it in the bottling bucket to taste.

With the crystal and chocolate you should not need anything else to give the beer a good head. I don't know the extract but used blueberry on a stout that was secondaried on 6 pounds of blueberries, then used 1/2 a bottle of blueberry extract. The flavor was still just a hint of blueberry. You may need more than .5 oz.

 

Sounds good! I am using a recipe calculator and the IBU its coming out to is about what i was aiming for, at 41.04. Orig gravity- 1.054 and final- 1.013.
After doing a bit more research I realized that you're also spot on with adding more flavoring as it takes a lot to actually come to a taste. I'll probably be using about 2-3 oz. of the cherry flavoring. I might even add a tad bit more of the chocolate, because i really want to bring out those 2 flavors. The only thing I am worried about is it turning out to be too sweet. This batch is all about experimentation! Haha

 

90 minute mash was a luxury, do a 60
Head on a beer is due to having proteins in there, proteins cause chill haze, it is a balance you need to find. Iff you did not doa protein rest then you should have had good proteins
proper cleanliness and sanitation make for good head on beer, as well as cleaned and rinsed serving glass
Proper co2 levels affect head
you can buy products to improve head from the homebrew store you use.
Good luchk and enjoy your beer