New to recipe creation... looking for feedback

[alanwelam]

Good morning/afternoon/evening.

Here is the current recipe I'm working on. Definitely a work in progress.
The goal is to obtain something similar to Chocolate Oak Aged Yeti, Rogue Double Chocolate Stout, or the ommegang chocolate indulgence. As a side note, I enjoyed the chocolate indulgence, and never had the problem with the lack of chocolate flavor that others had. maybe I just got lucky with a good batch, who knows...

So all these have higher alcohol content (around 10%), have a smooth mouthfeel with a heavy body, almost akin to a milk stout. Large chocolate flavors present in the beer. want to make sure there is not too much coffee flavor in the beer. I guess this would technically qualify as an Imperial (double) Chocolate Stout.

So, here is the recipe I have put together, using BeerTools.com:
0.5 lbs. Roasted Barley
1.0 lbs. Chocolate Rye Malt
0.5 lbs. Crystal Malt 120°L
0.5 lbs. Dextrine Malt
0.5 lbs. British Black Patent
8 lbs. Dry Dark Extract
1.0 lbs. Lactose
1.0 lbs. Lyle's Golden Syrup
1.0 oz. Brewers Gold (Pellets, 9 %AA) boiled 60 min.
6 oz. Chocolate (dark) (not included in calculations)
12 oz. Chocolate (dark) (not included in calculations)
Yeast : White Labs WLP004 Irish Stout

OG predicted: 1.098
Terminal gravity:1.031
Color: 36.52
Bitterness: 22.4
Alcohol %: 8.9

So here is my reasoning for some of the selections, please educate me as you see fit:
8 lbs of dry dark to start... builds the body and aids to increase the gravity for the higher alcohol content
1 lb of lyles golden to increase the alcohol content without increasing the body too much
1/2 lb of dextrine to increse the body
1/2 lb of crystal to help with head retention/body, and add a slight carmel flavor.
1 lb of lactose to increase the smoothness of the beer, put in at or around knockdown
specialty malts were almost a shot in the dark. tried to pull together about 19124 different "clone" recipes which almost all called for something different.
6 oz of chocolate put in at knockdown (cocoa powder)
12 oz of chocolate racked into the secondary (nibs)

till trying to figure out the chocolate additions... read a lot of good info on that today.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/what-you-need-know-about-chocolate-brewing-94804/
http://www.maltosefalcons.com/tech/formulating-and-brewing-winning-chocolate-porter

still working on the recipe... reviews would be greatly appreciated

 

[mkling]

First comment that I expect you'll get a lot of is . . . switch the dark extract to extra pale extract. You're already steeping grains -- get your color & flavor from those, not some mystery dark extract that it is not possible to know what went into it to make it dark. If you want it darker than you get from your current steeping grains, up them a bit to make up for the lost color/flavor from the dark extract.

 

[alanwelam]

thanks... suggestions to add or increase any of the specific grains in order to maintain the chocolate and not bring onboard a coffee/roasted flavor?

changes (?):
5 lbs dark dry extract
3 lbs dry light
1 lb roasted barley
1 lb British black patent

 

[mkling]

Personally I'd go with 8 lbs of dry light malt extract instead of the dark extract and not add any other color grains. You've got 2 lbs of dark roasted grains in there. That is plenty for a big imperial stout. (This is presuming that the Chocolate Rye is at least 350L -- I've never used it and don't know anything about it.)