Chocolate Ale!

Hello all, first of all I'd like to say I'm glad and excited to be part of such an active homebrew communtiy.

After my recent all-grain batch, which wasn't exactly a failure, but definitely wasn't a success (due to lack of proper equipment), I'm stepping back to extract and partial mash until I can get my hands on some gear.

I'm thinking of simple chocolate ale, using a recipe something like the following:

7-8 lbs Amber LME
1 oz Goldings hops (flavour)
1/2 oz cascade hops (finishing)
1.5 lbs low fat cocoa
1 lb lactose (if I can get my hands on any)
1 packet nottingham yeast

Looking for any suggestions/advice/obvious problems I may encounter.
Specifically, what could I use to sweeten in the absence of lactose? I was thinking maybe brown sugar.

edited....

Alternative Brewing Sugars

Yeah, that's what I was afraid of.

i'd add about .5lb of malto dextrin to it

Malto dextrin instead of lactose? Or in addition to?

EDIT: Thanks for the link, lowlife. Very helpful.

That's about triple the amount of cocoa I'd use. I'd cut it to 8 ounces, then steep 4 ounces of chocolate malt and 8 ounces of C40L.

Maltodextine isn't very sweet, but it's good for mouthfeel and body; both pluses in a chocolate ale. The C40L will give you a sweet caramel flavor to backup the chocolate.

Thanks for your advice david. I'm a little hesitant to cut the cocoa by that much. IK'm looking for a fairly strong chocolate flavour, but maybe I'll cut it to 1 lb and see how that turns out. By C40L I'm going to assume you mean Crystal Malt 40L.

Right or Caramel 40L, whatever is in stock.

+1 I'd cut the coco in half and suppliment with chocolate malt, i think the flavor your going for will be there. And the malto dextrine will keep it from being too stringy or efervescent(not spelled right i know).

Thanks for all your advice guys. Any suggestions in the way of hops? That's one area where I'm especially inexperienced; I have no idea what hops would go best. I'm not a fan of incredibly bitter beers (I had a Rogue Shakespeare last night at a pub, it was too much).

For hops, probably something like fuggles or goldings.

Another way to add some chocolate flavor is cocoa nibs in secondary. I used about 4oz in secondary on an imperial stout I did last year. Damned good.

If you'd like to try a beer that in my opinion went overboard on the Chocolate, grab yourself a Harpoon Chocolate Stout. I like a lot of Harpoon's offerings, but the Chocolate Stout has only cautioned me to err on the side of less is better when I get around to making my own.

I just bottled a chocolate "Vienna Lager" kit beer. I ended up using 3oz Hersheys cocoa mixed with enough E&J Brandy to make a slurry that I added in the secondary. Taste at bottling was quite robust in the chocolate department, so much so that my non-beer enjoying, but Chocolate loving wife thought she might like this one.

I'd second fuggles for the hops. I reckon their earthy-spicy character will go great with the chocolate.

On another note, I made a chocolate stout a while back and used artificial chocolate extract in it. About 30ml in a 20L batch.

Two-three weeks after bottling it was fabulous, with a great chocolate flavour and aroma. The flavour has been fading since, though the chocolate aroma still comes through strong. Next time I do a chocolate beer I think I will go with some actual cocoa to try and keep the flavour holding up, but I'll definitely still go with some extract because of the great aroma it's provided.

Great advice guys, lovin this forum so far. Thanks all. I can't wait to brew it.

I also have been looking for the ultimate chocobeer recipe. I basically stole yours because its so great. Im very new to brewing. But heres my (or your) recipe. If you guys wouldnt mind checkin for me if this recipe will work?

8 1/4 lbs. Amber DME (I chose DME because my homebrew shop is out of LME)
16 Oz. coco ( 0%fat bakers chocolate)
8 Oz. Caramel 40L
4 Oz. Chocolate malt
1/2 lb. lactose
1/2 lb. malto-dextrin
1oz. golding hops
1/2 Oz. cascade
1 habanero
dont know what kind of yeast

I dont know if this is the exact same as what was first planned in the beginning of the thread (aside from the habanero), but Im just wondering if what Ive got will work out all right? whaddaya think? Normally I would just wing it, but Im super super short on money and I want this one to work out.

I do want a thick chocolaty beer. Im not sure how high the ABV will be, but something around the 8% is what I want. I was hoping I wasnt going to have to ask this but... how can I get that ABV? Damn Im more of a n00b than I thought

Cheschire, that's almost exactly the recipe I've ended up with (minus the lactose cause I can't get it anywhere and the habanero cause that's not really what I want), but I'm gonna be using 1 oz Fuggle hops instead, maybe a little bit of cascade as finishing hops.

After reading your post I'm kindof inclined to go for a high ABV as well. As far as I know, in order to achieve that one should use more fermentable sugars, and maybe pitch more yeast (? not sure about this, and always wondered).

ABV is OG - FG X 1.31 (? corrections coming ?) in short the more it has to eat, and the more of that which the yeasties actually eat the higher the ABV. More yeast won't really boost it, except for any extra attenuation it might get just by having more munchers in there..

I bottled my double chocolate oatmeal stout about 10 days ago. Another 10 or so and I can crack one open. I used a can of fat-free cocoa powder and ended up with a SG of 1.070. Should be a decent ABV and a good amount of chocolate.

My wife loves chocolate, but only milk chocolate and not the dark stuff, so I don't think that this'll tempt her to try my beer yet.

BrewStooge, that reminds me, I'd love to know how to calculate IBU and SRM without some kind of measuring device, if possible.

last batch of chocolate stout used Scharfenberger Chocolate.
Yummy.

I did a batch of My SnowPlow clone last year with chocolate and it was quite nice as well.

If you are having a hard time sourcing lactose -- try a Health foods store.
I can't imagine a decent online vendor NOT having lactose... but who knows.

must be the season for chocolate brewing... I've been considering a chocolate beer as well..... hmmmmm...

Man this forum rocks! I can get an answer to anything. Thank you very much

I am brewing an all malt pilsner and was going to add cherry flavoring before bottling. How could I make this a chocolate cherry pilsner? Could I add 4oz of hersheys cocoa in the secondary? Or by adding chocolate and cherry am I going to turn into something ass-like?

Jamil's podcast on specialty beer focused on a chocolate and cherry stout and he had some good info on using fresh cherries vs canned vs cherry extract that was really good.
The Brewing Network.com - :

I brewed this up last night. Everything went fairly well, and it smelled heavenly during the boil. Since my hydrometer broke, I can't give any SG readings, but I'd guess around 1.060-1.070 OG. It appears to be fermenting away happily, albeit slowly. Can't wait to drink it.

I brewed mine aswell and Ive just racked to secondary. I went with 8 oz. coco instead of 16 and Im glad for that... One tip. MORE HOPS. Mine needs more at least. OG 1.092 - FG 1.020. ABV 9.4%. Extreme on the malty side. Too malty. But hey, live and learn. Im sure it'll be a little easier to stomach the longer I wait.

I tried one of mine two weeks ago (two weeks in the bottle) and it was off to a good start. Still a bit young and still a little on the boozy side (it had a 1.070 OG). I have another in the fridge since wednesday that I'll be trying this weekend. Once the alcohol mellows JUST a touch, it'll be perfect I think. It was certanly drinkable 2 weeks ago. Just for reference, I used 2oz of fuggles at 60 mins, no other hops. I just wanted the bittering to make sure it wasn't too malty and nothing to interfere with the chocolate aroma at the end.

I see. I would've added more bittering hops to mine. and YES your right about it being boozy flavoured right about now.

It was good 2 weeks ago, though. Not hot like rocket fuel fusel flavor. Just tasted more like... a 10%ABV chocolate RIS or something. About the same alcohol flavor as The Abyss or something along that line. Plenty tasty, just not something I'd be quite ready to drink two or three of just yet.