Just rolling back to this one in case anyone sees it.

I’ve not practically finished drinking this brew, it turned out very well, but dryer, lighter on the palate than i had hoped. so I’ve adjusted the recipe for next time to skip the extra sugar, cut the chocolate malt back 50% and increased the oats and base malt to compensate, adjusted the mash up a couple of degrees to leave some dextrins and a target FG closer to ~1012 rather than the 1007 I ended at here. The beer I was basing it on is quite light and dry but I wanted a bit more body. I’d also swap to a traditional yeast for some more ester prescence, though the lutra did a fantastic job of fermenting quick and clean.

Flavour wise, it’s a touch darker and more roasted than I had hoped, not overboard though, but the use of cararoma (basically Special B) really added a nice raisin, dried fruit thing that works really well with the coffee and toasty flavors from the chocolate. the CaraAmber isnt doing much but I needed something to fill in the middle without using too much CaraAroma, so I’m keeping it in the recipe.

hops-wise, it was spot on, lightly hoppy balanced with the malts. I’ve added an extra couple of IBUs to account for some lost apparent bitterness I’ll get from reducing the chocolate malts and increased the whirlpool hops slightly for a tiny bit more fruityness in the middle.

It was a bit harsh and “black” at first since it has a very light dry finish it came through a bit more aggressively than it would in a sweeter beer, but after a couple of weeks in the keg it calmed down and was extremely drinkable. not my best work but it’s most of the way to a good dark ale.