Adding cocoa

JillC25 · 10-06-2005, 12:48 AM

I have to say- I never knew what a weird word "cocoa" was until I had to spell it out.

Anyway- I made an oatmeal stout that called for 1 oz of semi sweet chocolate in the boil. I didn't have this, so I substituted it with 1/4 cup of cocoa. I just read a post that adding chocolate makes a bittery taste. Is this true

?

ScottT · 10-06-2005, 12:50 AM

What was you OG and how much non firmentables did you have.

Choclate is bitter until you sweeten it. As long as your brew will firment out with remaining sweetness, it will ballence out the bitterness.

JillC25 · 10-06-2005, 12:55 AM

OG 1.058

7lbs dark malt ex.
1lb flaked oat
1lb rosted barley
1lb choc barley
1lb CaraMunich
1/4 cup cocoa
1 oz. Perle (8% AA, 60 min.)
.5 oz. Northern Brewer (8.5% AA, 45 min.)
1 oz. Perle (8% AA, 10 min.)

homebrewer_99 · 10-06-2005, 01:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScottT

What was you OG and how much non firmentables did you have.

Choclate is bitter until you sweeten it. As long as your brew will firment out with remaining sweetness, it will ballence out the bitterness.

I always thought cocoa was bitter until you sweetened it and it with sugar and milk to became chocolate?

Incidently, white chocolate is a misnomer if it does not contain cocao.

ScottT · 10-06-2005, 04:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JillC25

OG 1.058

7lbs dark malt ex.
1lb flaked oat
1lb rosted barley
1lb choc barley
1lb CaraMunich
1/4 cup cocoa
1 oz. Perle (8% AA, 60 min.)
.5 oz. Northern Brewer (8.5% AA, 45 min.)
1 oz. Perle (8% AA, 10 min.)

What brand of malt extract?

**Dude** · 10-06-2005, 04:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScottT

What brand of malt extract?

I doubt the brand of extract will really matter all that much in this context, will it?

ScottT · 10-06-2005, 05:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ORRELSE

I doubt the brand of extract will really matter all that much in this context, will it?

Yes it will in determining what level of dextrious malt it contains. For example, John Bull is down around 65 % fermentable while Coopers is up around 80% fermentable. This will determine how much residual sweetness (body) will be left after the yeast is done and what the ballence to total bitterness (hops and cocoa) will be.

**Baron von BeeGee** · 10-06-2005, 12:05 PM

I think you're going to wind up with a significantly different product than you would have had you used the semi-sweet chocolate, but I don't necessarily think it'll taste bad...it'll probably be quite good.

Cocoa powder is essentially "de-fatted" cocoa beans (the cocoa butter has been separated from the cocoa liquor). The cocoa liquor & butter combined with sugar and vanilla are what make up the semi-sweet chocolate you lack. So, you're probably going to miss some body from the cocoa butter, some sweetness from the sugar (would it have been fermented, anyways? I don't know), and a bit of flavor from the vanilla.

Clearly, you can add some vanilla to the secondary to taste (if you wish), and I suppose you could add some sugar (a good chocolate is usually ~65-70% cocoa, 30-35% sugar by weight). I'm not sure how to get around the cocoa butter, but again, at the end of the day, you're going to have a batch of beer regardless.

JillC25 · 10-06-2005, 12:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScottT

What brand of malt extract?

Made by Geordie in granular form.

ScottT · 10-06-2005, 01:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JillC25

Made by Geordie in granular form.

Jill, Geordie is a very fermentable DME and will finish out dry without residual sweetness.

Esentially, all you've done is add some bitterness with the cocoa. Hey, you added some with the hops too. I wouldn't worry. Just let it firment out and see what it tastes like. You could always sweeten it up later if needed.