Help me tweak this stout recipe please

[olotti]

Second time brewing this choc coffee oatmeal cream stout. After this last batch I found my ways to add choc and coffee so that's done but for me this recipe needs tweaking to get the body and color I'm after. Right now beer for me is on the thin side, good flavor but I like my stouts with more viscosity and thickness also when held to the light this version looks brown around the edges and I'd like something black like a Guinness or think a ris something that has that dArk brown head and looks like oil basically. So I'll put in the recipe and let me know your thoughts on how I can go about increasing the body/viscosity and color. This is AG.

Mashed at 154-155 for 90 min. OG 1.067 FG 1.016. Final abv 6.8%. 60 min boil.

Grains

9.5lbs 2 row
1.5lbs flaked oats
1.5 lbs victory
.84lbs chocolate malt
.56lbs c40
.56lbs c120
.56lbs roasted barley
.5lbs flaked barley
.5lbs lactose @ 10 min left in boil

Yeast is us-05 and I use beersmith for all my calculations. I'm not opposed to increasing the grain bill if it will increase the body. Most of the stouts I'm comparing this to are 7-8.5% anyway I thought I could achieve the effect with less abv but maybe that's not the case. Appreciate any feedback.

 

[te-wa]

my .02 - your recipe looks good with one exception.. i think the dark fruits of c120 will contrast the oaty and biscuity malt too much. how about nix it altogether in favor of 10oz c-80 (so the c40 and 120 go byebye)

black patent or blackprinz will darken it up right. midnight wheat might add that thick head you want.

 

[olotti]

my .02 - your recipe looks good with one exception.. i think the dark fruits of c120 will contrast the oaty and biscuity malt too much. how about nix it altogether in favor of 10oz c-80 (so the c40 and 120 go byebye)

black patent or blackprinz will darken it up right. midnight wheat might add that thick head you want.

Thanks for the thoughts. I originally mashed two recipes together to get to this point. So what About losing the victory too and just going with 2 row, flaked oats, c80 about 1lb and adding .5lb of black patent. I understand black patent can get pretty astringent at higher weights if I'm not mistaken. As far as the head its just an eye appeal thing but I like stouts that have that dark brown head as opposed to a whiter one but maybe the black patent would darken that too but it's not really a big deal.

 

[olotti]

Bumped for the Tuesday crowd.

 

[Crispy31]

Make sure your thermometer is accurate. I've had some thin brews because my mash temp was lower than I realized. My digital is reading 5F warmer than it should.

 

[olotti]

I dble checked it yesterday since I've been getting some lower fg's lately and it's reading 1deg low which I wouldn't think is that big of a deal but I'll start accounting for that now.