Recipe feedback please!

[MamaBrew]

Hello!! I have been trying to branch out from the beer-kits and form some of my own brews but to be completely honest, I have little idea of what I am doing when it comes to actually creating a recipe My husband has requested a Smoked Butterscotch Porter (I know butterscotch flavor is normally a bad thing, but it is what he wants) and this is what he came up with. Any help and/or recommendations are greatly appreciated!

3.15 lbs. Organic Light LME

3.5 lbs. Weyermann Smoked Malt

1.5 lbs. Breiss Caramel Malt

.5 lbs. Simpsons Coffee Malt

.5 lbs. Breiss Midnight Wheat Malt

2 ounces Mt. Hood Hops

2 ounces Butterscotch Extract

1 oz Wyeast Scottish Ale Yeast

I am also considering throwing some werthers candies into the boil or during fermentation.... crazy I know :/ Maybe molasses? Open to ideas

 

[hendenburg2]

There are several different kinds of smoked malts out there. Cherry, peat, etc... That particular malt is smoked with beechwood, which is used in German rauchbeirs, which personally I find tastes like someone put bacon in a bottle (and not in a good way). I'd try and find either a rauchbeir or a smoked porter that uses it to see what it's like, just to be on the safe side.

Also, given your grain-to-extract, ratio, I'm assuming that you are doing a partial mash?

 

[MamaBrew]

See.. this is where I know nothing :/ I actually just looked at a ton of smoked recipes and guesstimated. I have really only done kits that say "add this, add that" I am very good at following instructions lol.
That being said... I will go read on what the heck a partial mash is and grain to extract rations
I also just got to the brewers friend website which is AMAZING.
Thank you in advance for your patience!!

 

[hendenburg2]

See.. this is where I know nothing :/ I actually just looked at a ton of smoked recipes and guesstimated. I have really only done kits that say "add this, add that" I am very good at following instructions lol.
That being said... I will go read on what the heck a partial mash is and grain to extract rations
I also just got to the brewers friend website which is AMAZING.
Thank you in advance for your patience!!

No prob.

Especially if you are fresh out of kit brewing (no shame, almost everyone starts there!), finding a commercial beer you like and looking for a clone recipe is a good starting point for learning recipe creation.

Partial Mash is basically where you get some of the fermentables from extract, some from mashing grains. You'll have to do a normal mash & sparge or Brew in a Bag otherwise your 3.5 lbs of LME won't give you a ton of fermentable sugar. It's helpful if you don't have a 10-gallon mash tun, for whatever reason. My stove, for example, can't handle the weight of a full 10 gallon pot, and my apartment complex doesn't allow anything with a flame on the patios.

 

[MamaBrew]

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[MamaBrew]

Yes!! After reading a bit, I am going for a partial mash Apparently that is what I normally do And I guess I also use the Brew-in-a-Bag method
I have brewed a few batches following recipes and they have turned out well, but I want to make one that I can say is mine! I always have guilt when people ask if it was me.... "No... it was someone else's I copiedThanks though!"
I think my main issue is that I have no idea what all these things are called I have use of my stove top or my Darkstar burner. I usually use my 6 gallon kettle for the boil starting with about 4 gallons of water. However, I think I normally have a higher extract to grain ratio... I am not sure how well 7 pounds of grain will fit into my pot lol.
Anyway... tweaked recipe:

Fermentables
3.15 lb Light LME
4 lb Briess Cherrywood Smoked Malt
2 lb Caramel Malt 60/L
1 lb Simpsons Coffee Malt
0.5 lb Midnight Wheat Malt
1lb Briess Light DME
11.65 lb Total

Hops
1 oz Mt. Hood Pellet 4.8 Boil 60 min
1 oz Mt. Hood Pellet 4.8 Boil 15 min

Other Ingredients
2 oz Butterscotch Extract Flavor
Werther's Candy

Yeast
Wyeast Scottish Ale 1728

 

[hendenburg2]

I recently did a BIAB that had 14 lbs of grain mashed into ~4 gallons of water using a 6 gallon pot, and it was fine. Actually, low headroom is actually good because it helps avoid heat loss. That said, water-to-grain ratio is more important, because of how pH affects amylase activity. I did a quick bit of searching and I found some guidelines that said for cherrywood smoked malt, ~20-30% smoked malt is a good rule of thumb, assuming the malt you get isn't old and hasn't lost its aromatics.

Another quick note: the rule-of-thumb conversion ratio is 1 lb grain = 0.75 lbs extract.

 

[MamaBrew]

Oh good! Ok... I think I am going to go ahead and order the stuff. **fingers crossed**
Thank you for all your help!!