HELP! Creating my first extract recipe

[spencerholm31]

Howdy. I brewed two extract kits from Brewer's Best so far, the Oktoberfest Lager (fermented at ale temp) and the Pumpkin Spice Porter (I added real pumpkin). These kits are great, but I'm eager to create something to suit my own seasonal taste. I'm thinking about going with a flavorful American stout.

Here's what I've got so far:

10 gallon stainless kettle (borrowed from my buddy), so I'll steep in 3 gallons of spring water, 30 minutes at 154 F
-12 oz Briess 6-row caramel 50L
-9.5 oz Chocolate Malt
-8 oz Roasted Malt
-4 oz Black Malt

I'll add 2.5 gallons to bring the wort size to 5.5 gallons and boil for 45 minutes
beginning of boil:
-4 lbs of Light Dry Extract (45 minutes)
-1.5 oz Northern Brewer 10.3 Alpha 5.1 Beta hops (40 minutes)
-3.3 lbs Light Liquid Malt Extract (15 minutes)
-1 lb Maple Syrup (2 minutes)

I'll borrow my buddy's wort chiller and pitch 1 vial of White Labs 0005 Liquid Ale Yeast

Ferment for 10 days @ 68 F
14 days secondary
Bottle Condition


My extract brews came out somewhat thin, even though they were supposed to be somewhat heavy beers. I read that adding the Liquid Malt Extract within the last 5 minutes (unless it's hopped LME) will reduce that "thin" taste to the final product. Also, since I'm not using any aroma hops (unless I use my leftover .5 oz Northern Brewer to dry-hop for a day) I don't need to boil for such a long time. 60 minutes seems like an awfully long time to boil extract/already broken down malts. So I'm experimenting with the 45 minute wort boil.
The Maple Syrup isn't for flavoring, but it will boost the OG up to about 1.071 (FG 1.020). I've read that maple syrup is entirely fermentable sugars, so I'm thinking about adding trace amounts of maple extract, coffee, and or vanilla to the secondary fermentation and/or wort boil. Any tips?

I've got my hands full with this recipe, but I figure that the only way to get better at brewing is to experiment. Let me know what you think!
Thanks
-Spencer

 

[chickypad]

I think that's supposed to be roasted barley, right? I can't comment on the maple syrup but looks pretty good to me otherwise. Do you have the IBU's? I think the yeast choice is good, but not an American strain if that's what you wanted. I'd definitely do a starter. I don't see any reason to secondary but maybe I shouldn't open that can of worms.


Edit: I see you might want to add something to secondary so maybe that's why you have it. I don't see where you'd need it to add coffee or extract, but maybe if you're doing vanilla bean.