johnnytaco

Recipes 

8lb Great Western Two-Row Pale
7lb Maris Otter
2lb 10L Munich
1lb "Special B"
1lb Flaked Oats
1/2lb Black Patent Malt
1/4lb Chocolate Malt

70 minute mash @ 152F
Sparge with 170F liquor up to 6.75 gal
120 min boil schedule

2oz Nugget 12.9%AA 4.8%Beta @ 90 min
1oz Wilamette @ 60 min
1oz Citra 15.6%AA 3.5%Beta @30 min
.28oz Northern Brewer @15 min
1tsp Irish Moss @ 10 min

6lb Dark Cherries
1 Campden Tablet
8oz Cacao Nibs

Pitched yeast @ 70F for 10 days. On ninth day, placed 6 lbs Dark Cherries in 6 gal fermentor with 1 chushed Campden Tablet. After 24 hours, racked onto cherries for 21 days. Racked to terciary fermentor with 8 oz cacao nibs, then bottled.
That's where I am today. Will comment in a few weeks on what is tasting like. One of my best beers yet, and that's flat and unconditioned.

johnnytaco

Recipes 

I wrote the wrong thing about how long it sat on the cherries in instructions, but I can't figure out how to fix it, will do asap. If trying, use notes from bottom

advogold

Recipes 

Can't wait to hear feedback.
My buddy has gooseberries n blueberries. Stouts aren't really my style but all in learning the craft and certainly trying new things. I brewed evil jays and it's fermenting now with pacman yeast. I'm ready to experiment with different additions. Not really sure how to add them yet.

johnnytaco

Recipes 

How is the Pacman yeast? I haven't seen it out this way. Stouts all have early hop additions, so they lend themselves to fruits and chocolate. I had a Firestone-Walker Parabola for my birthday and this was my way of trying to re-create that beer without having access to wooden barrels and not wanting to wait a year to try it! I have also done a raspberry belgian stout. From what I've read and tried, if you add the fruit to the boil or primary, it comes out wine-like and unless that's what you're going for, I don't reccommend it. I tried to let this one ferment almost all the way before adding the fruit because I was pushing the alcohol tolerance of the yeast and still got a big second push when the cherries were added. 10% is low for the Wyeast Irish Ale yeast, since I got mine well over 11% I have made blueberry beer, but would love to try goseberry. I jumped in headfirst with my first four beers having some kind of addition to them and almost all have turned out great. Let me know if you need any help.

advogold

Recipes 

Hell yeah!
This is my first time using pacman just got another smack pack for next brew. It's supposed to ferment well from 60-72 and high alcohol tolerance fruity finish apparently it's what rogue uses in all their beers. I like rogue chocolate stout that's what's turned me on to brewing stouts. I want to do a Baltic Porter in my next few brews also trying pacman. I'm basically stealing eviljays recipe maybe a tweak here n there but it's the backbone of my stout experiments lol

D_Nyholm

Recipes 

Hmm, got here from the other Choc cherry stout recipe and this one looks good too.

johnnytaco

Recipes 

Thanks. It's still conditioning, but every day it gets harder to wait. I have made chocolate beers with cocoa powder and think the flavor isn't as nice as cacao nibs. Gotta love Imperial Stouts as the weather changes. I woke up to an inch of snow on my porch today!
-JT

advogold

Recipes 

Gosh this looks so good

advogold

Recipes 

JT I was thinking of adding some pureed figs to a Christmas stout and oak chips to secondary. Not sure how to puree the dried figs from bulk section of grocery store. Thanks for any help.

johnnytaco

Recipes 

As a chef, I would take the figs and put them into some wort and bring it to a boil, then let them sit for an hour or so to re-hydrate. Quarter them and return to a boil. Place figs and wort into a cleaned and sanitized fermenter while still at a safe temperature, put on airlock and let cool before racking primaried beer onto them. I wouldn't puree the figs, unless you have a filter set up. Purees are hard to get out of beer from my experience. Also, I have noticed that dark beers kind of hide the subtle flavors of some fruit because of the roasty/burnt flavors in the malt. Fig isn't the strongest flavor out there. I made a pumpkin pie porter a month ago and it totally hid the pumpkin flavor. The spice comes through fine, but am going to try next time with a lighter brew. Your idea sounds like it would be awesome as a barley wine.
Now that it's conditioned, this beer rocks my world. It has a beautiful ruby/black color and a pinkish head that doesn't quit. The cacao adds a nice bitterness that almost dissappeared after the cherries were done fermenting. It definately has a cherry wine taste to it and finished at 11.7%. I've brewed it again and I've only let the cacao nibs sit for four days before bottling and added a half tsp of organic vanilla with the priming sugar. As of bottling, the vanilla filled a gap in the flavor profile I was shooting for without detracting from the stoutieness(is that a word yet?) I hope you can forgive me for putting a recipe up here without trying the finished product. I have no need to change this recipe from here on out. Enjoy all!