Young's Double Chocolate Stout...

Pelikan · 10-30-2008, 06:15 AM

EDIT: I've made a few changes to the recipe based upon the Young's email and input I've gotten.

Young's DC is one of my favorite beers, without any doubt in mind. A holy grail for me would be to come somewhere close...it wouldn't even have to be dead on, just close.

I've seen a few recipes out there, and I've put together an extract version that I think is a good compromise between them all. Let me know what you think...this is for five gallons, with a three gallon initial brew size..all of these are estimations based upon calculator plug-ins:

Yeast: Wyeast London Ale
OG: 1.054
FG: 1.014 (assuming about 75% attenuation)
31 SRM
23 IBU

Extracts, etc:
Light DME = 5 lbs
Lyle's Dark Syrup = 1 lb

Special Grains (steeped at 150ish*F for 30 minutes or so):

British Chocolate = 5 Ounces
Roasted Barley = 4 Ounces
Flaked Oats = 12 Ounces

Hops:

Willamette (6.4%) Whole, 1.5 ounces at 60 minutes.

Additives:

Yeast Nutrient Cap = 1 (10 minute boil)
Burton's Salts = 3 tsp (I use RO water to brew)
Chocolate Extract (alcohol based) = 2 ounces at racking/priming
Lactose = 1 lb at racking/priming

One question I have...with a recipe like this, could I boil all the extras (yeast cap, salts, etc) in a small pot separate from the wort..maybe a gallon or so...so as not to interfere with hop boiling? I boil all the water I use anyway (of course making sure to cool it), so I inevitably have a pot or two of clear water boiling on the stove in addition to the wort.

Any insight, in general, is greatly appreciated.

BarleyWater · 10-30-2008, 06:47 AM

This is one of my wifes favorite brews, so I had to come up with a recipe to approximate it. I honestly just brewed this beer today, it has been in the fermenter for about 8 hours.

Anyway, I have made it a couple times, and it always comes out great. One thing I noticed about your recipe is no lactose. You can get a good chocolate stout without lactose, but if you want it to be like youngs double chocolate, you will need about 3/4 lb, or 12oz, of lactose added at bottling time to get the thick chocolatey sweetness that Young's has. The Malto Dextrine may help with this, but no to the extent that lactose will.

No reason you can't boil that stuff seperately, it just needs to be sanitized in boiling water basically, so if you don't have room in the boil pot, you couild boil it all on the side for a few minutes.

Pelikan · 10-30-2008, 08:02 AM

So, for the sake of clarity, skip the Malto and throw in approx. a pound of lactose? Or keep the Malto but add about a pound of lactose?

Also, I had always assumed malto was boiled...would it be added at bottling as well?

Mosa · 10-30-2008, 08:42 AM

keep us updated. i tried to make a version of youngs but came nowhere close. tasty, but not close at all. i'm interested to hear how yours turns out. good luck!

DaleJ · 10-30-2008, 11:53 AM

Drop the Malto Dextrin, add 1# Lactose.

And no reason you can't just add the Cocoa to the boil, it only needs a minute or two right at the end. So, no worries on it interfering with anything else.

Looks like a good recipe!

Pelikan · 10-30-2008, 06:43 PM

Hey guys, here's a copy of an email a guy from Young's sent. I didn't think he'd answer about the nature of the brew..

Quote:

Many thanks for your e-mail and kind words regarding our Double Chocolate
Stout. This beer is also a firm favourite of mine and I am very pleased
that you enjoy it too.

As it's name suggests, there is more to this brew than just adding chocolate
to the fermenting vessel and I regret that reproducing it at home could be
tricky. I am also a keen home brewer (admittedly I prefer brewing wine to
beer) and I would not attempt to brew Double Chocolate Stour in my cellar!

For your information however, the grist is made up with about 3% Roasted
Barely, 3% chocolate malt, 8% oats, 9% dark fermenting syrup (of high
molasses content) and 77% Pale Ale malt. (figures by extract).
We then add a small amount of chocolate to the boil (we tend to use
plain-high cocoa solids varieties).
After fermentation and filtration we add a small amount of chocolate essence
to give aroma.

As I said this is a complex beer. It's colour is derived from the dark
sugars, roasted barley and chocolate barley, it's body is helped by the oats
in the grist. It's flavour comes mostly from the chocolate malt which is
quite bitter and the overall effect is boosted by the extra chocolate aroma
which gives the drinker a heightened sensation of chocolate.

As I mentioned earlier, re-producing this beer on a domestic scale would be
very difficult but luckily you can always rely on Young's Brewery to keep on
supplying your favourite tipple!
Kind regards

From
XXXXXX
XXXXXXXX
Young & Co.'s Brewery, P.L.C.
The Ram Brewery, Wandsworth, London SW18 4JD

In light of this, I'm wondering if I should just drop the cocoa in the boil. I think that even the addition of chocolate (to the boil) on Young's part is perfunctory, and that most of the aroma and favor comes from the essence at racking.