How Can I Make An Ag Dark Ale Chocolatey Rather Than Smokey?

[Kai]

Look for the Carafa "Special" malts they are the dehusked ones and smoother tasting than the normal Carafa, also use the I not the II or III

Fair points, though I didn't realise we could get the regular carafa here as I've never seen them.

 

[anc001]

Hi anc001,
Keep it simple, remember the Buster is a commercial brew - we gotta put food on the table too, you know!

Well I'm not trying to compete with you guys, just using this great brew for inspiration to try to brew a new style.
Believe me if your brews were available this far up the river I'd brew less often.

Use a good amount of base malt (Maris), and a dash of dark crystal, and a smidge of roasted barley.
Save the choc malts for a porter or stout.

thanks that makes sense, just enough dark crystal to provide the colour I want might be a nice starting point.

Dump the Aussie hops. Just use some challenger and EKG's.

Yeah, the hops in this recipe were just using up some old stuff and the POR was the highest aa I had around.
Pretty much just using EKG Fuggles and NBrewer these days, with occasionally something with high aa for bittering or a touch of saaz with the others for finishing.

Think about your kettling technique - this is where you can develop some complexity. Really. Think about it.

well Ok, I admit it, my technique mostly just involves gathering stuff together in a big pot and swearing alot while I wait for it to boil on my pesky electric stove.
What sort of thing should I be thinking about?
(other than getting a burner obviously)

Something like this would be possible with my current setup.

 

[kook]

Anc, a longer boil can promote melanoidin development, as well as caramel-like flavours. If you're trying to replicate that particular beer, I don't think you're going to get much better advice than from Andrew himself!

edit: Another option for developing kettle flavours is to take a few litres of your first runnings, and furiously boil it down, adding it to the kettle in the last 10 minutes of the boil. Boiling down a portion of the wort to a concentrated syrup can develop some real caramelisation that might help obtain the flavours you're looking for.