High Alcohol and Chocolate

I'm working on recipes for my January brews. I'm wanting to start some long term brews to be ready next Christmas. Anyone have any advise on brewing really high ABV beers? I'm thinking (17%-22%). Also I do a chocolate stout every year. I've always used unsweetened bakers cocoa, but I've heard a lot of chatter about cocoa nibs. Any ideas on how to use them and the difference in the results. Experience and links to articles are both welcome. Thanks in advance.

I'll be keeping an eye on this thread. I've been drinking a Muskoka Brewery double chocolate cranberry stout. I would like to brew it for next Christmas. They list cocoa nibs as an ingredient.

No one? Sad...

larrydcarter said:

I'm working on recipes for my January brews. I'm wanting to start some long term brews to be ready next Christmas. Anyone have any advise on brewing really high ABV beers? I'm thinking (17%-22%).

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Why? The highest I have ever done was 13%, and it is too much. The beer is great, but it is way too much alcohol for me, and I'm no slouch when it comes to drinking my share. I started off with 70 bottles a couple of years ago, and probably still have 50 of them.

When yoi think about it, 3 beers at 17% is equal to half a case of standard American lager.

Good luck with it. All I'm trying to say, is make sure you really want several galons of beer at that strength.

I can't help with any advice on that gravity. I think I could do 14 or 15% at a push, but higher would be a real challenge.

I can't help with the nibs; l have only used cocoa powder

^I guess it all depends how smooth you can make the chocolate taste. This is the picture im going for - I eat a big dinner, and want a real small chocolate stout to sip on. Very rich aged taste (The taste I am picturing is a milk chocolate, hot chocolate, with cool whip on top). Now before someone replies saying to just buy a hot chocolate, I was just using that as a mental picture painter. Is that even a possible scenario? I have had many chocolate stouts, but none described the picture from my above text.

You will have to really go heavy on the chocolate, I would recommend in both the boil and secondary. And maybe consider when you go to drink this you pour it over a shot of espresso to help cut the alcohol. Just a thought.

^the other thing I was thinking was it would have to be chocolate flavoring because anything that is sweet chocolate will get the sugar eaten by the yeast

the really big beers are just a pain in the ass and not really worth the effort. you'll need to start with a highly tolerant yeast (001, 530, etc), add in a starter of 099 during ferm, add tons of oxygen & nutrient, and generally incrementally feed it up to the desired strength. its cool to try, but a full batch is just kinda a waste of bottle/keg space after awhile. I brewed a 19% IPA a few years ago, split the batch with a friend as I knew it'd be too much, and I still have half of it left. Great beer that keeps getting better, but it's just so strong I rarely ever wanna have one. 12-15% is a good high range, after that's its more challenge than its worth IMO/IME.

if you still wanna push it that high, look for the utopias and DFH120 threads on here for more info

I will second that as I did my version of a dfh 120 ended up at 15.5% and I can only drink 2 26oz mugs before my wife shuts me off. I used a 2L stepped up twice of 1056 pitching about 100ml of slurry then did a 099 2L stepped up twice and the yeast had no issue. I save the trub from the primary so I have a very high attenuating ale yeast now.

This is why I told you to go with a lot of chocolate and maybe cut it with coffee because as much as it's a good beer and I used something like 11oz hops the alcohol still comes thru.

I'm really just looking to try something new and challenging. I'm still have a couple lower ABV beer planed in the coming months as well as some mead.