Cinder Toffee Smoked Porter (Help)

[CraftySamurai]

Hi Guys, first time posting here just need a little guidance/help perfecting this recipe.

Disclaimer: this started out as an attempt to follow a recipe for a Beavertown Smog Rocket Porter (Clone) which I made some substitutions to and threw some Cinder Toffee into.

Volume 5L
OG 1.05
FG 1.01
Boil time 60 mins
Fermentation temp 19℃
Mash temp 66℃

380g Crisp Best Ale Malt
390g Thomas Fawcett - Medium Peat Smoked Malt
140g Weyermann Munich Malt II
100g Malted Oats
75g Crisp Brown Malt
75g Dark Crystal Malt
75g Crisp Chocolate Malt
25g Crisp Cara Malt
15g Crisp Black Malt
6g Chinook
2g Northern Brewer
Safale US-05 Fermentis
Homemade Cinder Toffee (15 min addition)
Homemade Cinder Toffee ("Dry Hop")

The beer turned out really well for what was a rushed experimental brew. The smoked malt was the best I could get at the time and the peaty element wasn't something I was keep on going into the brew. The finished product tasted great and the peaty taste was actually fine although id like a more smokey non peaty flavour on my second attempt.
So here's a few questions that I'd like some input on if possible.

What's the best dry smokey yet non peaty malts for the second batch?

The Cinder Toffee element was great as an idea but as to how much flavour it imparted I'm unsure, also is the cinder Toffee fermentable or not? I'm unsure to be honest.

I would like to have a smoother sweeter taste with hints of that toffee caramel flavour is there something I can do with the malt bill to achieve that?

I have a bag of cacoa nibs (100g) I'm thinking of re brewing this recipe in 20-25L volume, I'd like to add them maybe to the brew too for a chocolatey smokey caramel toffee flavor. How much should I add?

Any thoughts tips or opinions would be appreciated. This is my 5th brew from scratch and I usually work with a friend who is more technical minded and into the numbers and science but lockdown means we are a bit snookered and can't brew together like we would have been able to.

 

[Sadfield]

Weyermann Rauchmalz the easiest to find in the UK, its German Beech smoked malt.

As for Toffee flavour, its a question of using the right Crystal malt. Lighter Cara Malts are too subtle and nearer to honey sweetness, Dark crystal gives more of a burnt sugar, raisin flavour. What you really need is Medium crystal of around 70L, 95 SRM 185 EBC for maximum Caramel, Toffee flavours. The recommended usage 10-15% percent is normally suggested to avoid beers being too sweet and toffee tasting. Technically, 100% crystal will still make a beer, so don't be afraid to push to, or past the high end. It looks like you had around 8% in the original recipe, perhaps try double that.

 

[CraftySamurai]

Weyermann Rauchmalz the easiest to find in the UK, its German Beech smoked malt.

I'm fairly sure I used this back when I did my first grain brew, thanks I'd forgotten about it will see if I can source some.

 

[fury_tea]

The cinder toffee will be mostly fermentable. It will leave a slight taste but not much and under dark grains it could be lost.

You can try adding lactose for sweetness too, 200g to 300g will contribute a good amount of unfermentable sweetness.

You could try out some flavour drops too but I would err on the side of caution. Maybe wait until the beer is finished and try adding 1, 2 or 3 drops to some 1/4 pints then if you like the flavour scale up to your full batch. Always remember that what tastes good in small quantities can get sickly after scaled up so keep it subtle for a better result.

 

[CraftySamurai]

Thanks I'm keen for it not to be too sweet as you say, some beers can be nice in moderation but sickly after a bit. I was really happy with the recipe above but it definitely needs twerking, I have some lactose in stock so might use that just to add that little bit of sweetness thanks for the tip.

 

[Sadfield]

Vanilla is a good way of adding the impression of sweetness, without adding sugar.

Hop bitterness on the other hand is useful to balance out sweetness. To avoid your beer becoming too sweet after changing the malt bill of the new recipe, you can adjust the bittering hop addition to match the BU:GU ratio of the original brew.

To calculate the BU:GU ratio, simply multiply the original gravity by 1000 then subtract 1000 to get the gravity units: (1.050 * 1000)-1000 = 50. Another way to say this is move the decimal place over three spaces and get rid of the “1” on the left. Now divide the IBUs by the gravity units to get the BU:GU ratio.