First Time Steeping Grains - Help

[Celtics76]

After brewing 2 mediocre Mr. Beer batches (The Irish Stout), I've decided to "raise my game" and start steeping grains. I'm still going to use the 2 gallon Mr. Beer keg, as I like doing small batches. Here's the recipe I've built:

2lbs Munton's Malt Extract Hopped Light
12 oz. Roasted Barley, Chocolate Malt, Crystal Malt steeping grains
5g Sufale S-04 dry ale yeast

Once grains are steeped, I will remove the bag, and turn the heat up. Once boiling, I'll remove from heat and add the extract. In the meantime, I'll fill my Mr. Beer keg with 4 quarts of cold water.
Next I'll pour the wort into the Mr. Beer keg, then add more water until I get to the 8 quart mark.
Once the temp of the keg is suitable (60-65 degrees), I'll pitch the yeast, screw the top on, and store appropriately.

How does this sound? Is 2 lbs of extract enough if I'm looking for 4-5% ABV? How do my other measurements (yeast, grains) look? Also, for a stout, I assume I need to allocate a higher ratio of roasted barley vs. the other grains?

Thanks!

 

[JimRausch]

Looks OK, although I have found that those hopped extracts are kind of nasty tasting. I think you would do better by using a regular extract, and using 1 oz. of hop pellets in the boil. For a Stout, use any English variety. I think you'll find it much better.
Yes for a Irish Stout I would use about 1/2 of your steeping grains as the Roasted Barley, then maybe 1/4 the chocolate malt and 1/4 crystal 60,90, or 120.
This is all off the top of my head- I haven't run your recipe through a formula creater. A free on-line one is 'Brewtoad.com'. There are others, both free and $, both on-line, desktop, and mobile. Using one makes it easier for you, and makes sure your recipe is within the parameters of the style you're shooting for. Good luck!
By the way- your planned procedure looks perfect. Steep the grains at between 140-150 for 1/2 hour and you're good-to-go.

 

[Celtics76]

Looks OK, although I have found that those hopped extracts are kind of nasty tasting. I think you would do better by using a regular extract, and using 1 oz. of hop pellets in the boil. For a Stout, use any English variety. I think you'll find it much better.
Yes for a Irish Stout I would use about 1/2 of your steeping grains as the Roasted Barley, then maybe 1/4 the chocolate malt and 1/4 crystal 60,90, or 120.
This is all off the top of my head- I haven't run your recipe through a formula creater. A free on-line one is 'Brewtoad.com'. There are others, both free and $, both on-line, desktop, and mobile. Using one makes it easier for you, and makes sure your recipe is within the parameters of the style you're shooting for. Good luck!

Thanks for the advice and for recommending Brewtoad. It likes my recipe for an Irish Stout, though with only 2lbs of extract it will only be roughly 3% ABV. So I'm going to bump it up to 2.5 lbs to get it up to 4%.