A winter blend

[Dr Slinkey McVelvet]

Hi All,

I want to make a final end of winter ale and have decided to go with coopers dark as a starting point and want to add some hops (goldings and fuggles) as well as some spices and some crushed chocolate malt.
Now the tricky part is that I'm a beginner at all this and need some basic questions answered!!
1) the crushed chocolate malt has to be steeped, right? For 30 mins or so at abut 60 degrees-then, do I add everything into the mixture to ferment or just the water from the steeping?

2) how much chocolate malt should I use? I've got a 500g bag but have read that using that much will be overpowering-is that true?-and in which case how much do you recommend?

3) does this chocolaty liquid count towards the 1kg of sugar (dme) I need to add to the kit? - so if I do add 500g of steeped chocolate malt to the mix do I then just need to add 500g of dme? Or is it still 1kg of dme and the chocolate malt is an extra?

4) do I have to steep the hops too or should I just chuck them in the fermenter?


Thanks in advance for your help!

Chris.