My first recipe - Thoughts?

[car421]

I posted this in the Extract thread but thought I would cross-post here. I have been brewing for 2 years but this is my first recipe so I thought it would be appropriate to cross post here as I am a beginner in this field.

So I put together my first recipe - a Chocolate Milk stout and would love some input as I can go in 2 directions with this brew, here it is :

• 6 lbs. Dark DME
• 8 oz. Black Malt
• 8 oz. Chocolate Malt
• 4 oz. Carapils
• 2 oz. Roasted Barley
• 1 oz. East Kent Goldings @ 60 min
• 1 oz. East Kent Goldings @ 30 min
• WLP002 English Ale Yeast
• 4 oz. Cocoa Nibs in secondary
• 1 Vanilla bean in Secondary
• 12 oz. Lactose in Secondary

This is my current plan but am wondering if I should split the nips between the boil and the secondary as was suggested by my LHBS today when I picked up the ingredients.

Also wondering about the Lactose, too much/not enough? I do have 1 lb.

Plan is to soak the nibs/vanilla bean in vodka for a day before adding to secondary for 5-7 days and then bottle.

Thoughts?

 

[mrgrimm101]

1 lb of lactose should be fine. Add it at the last 10 minutes or so. You may have to dissolve it in some water before adding it to the boil, I'm not 100% on that.

I've successfully made vanilla extract using a vanilla bean and it worked well. I used 1 bean (should have used 2). I gathered 4oz of plain vodka in a container and then split and scraped the bean into the vodka. After I got all the seeds/meat out, I chopped the bean husk into little pieces and put them in the vodka as well. This sat for 3 weeks and then I added it to the bottling bucket with the priming solution and racked the beer on top. The vanilla flavor fades quick (which is why I should have used 2 beans) so I added it at bottling rather than in secondary.