Dark Chocolate Stout
 

2009 Alamo City Cerveza Fest Gold Medal Winner

Ingredients
Brewhouse Efficiency: 82.00%

7 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 69.77 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 9.30 %
1 lbs Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 9.30 %
8.0 oz Roasted Barley (500.0 SRM) Grain 4.65 %

2.00 oz Crystal [3.10 %] (90 min) Hops 20.9 IBU
0.50 oz Crystal [3.10 %] (30 min) Hops 3.8 IBU

0.60 oz Chocolate Extract (Bottling 0.0 min) Misc
8.00 oz Cocoa Powder (Boil 0.0 min) Misc
12.0 oz Milk Sugar (Lactose) (0.0 SRM) Sugar 6.98 %

1 Pkgs Nottingham (Danstar #-) Yeast-Ale

Mash Profile

Single Infusion
60 min Mash In Add 16.00 qt of water at 163.3 F 154.0 F
10 min Mash Out Add 8.00 qt of water at 199.2 F 168.0 F


This beer is for dark chocolate lovers. It has a distinct bitter dark chocolate flavor, full body and amazing chocolate aroma. The addition of the lactose is a must, without it the body will be lacking and the beer will be too bitter to enjoy, and the extract at bottling is what really make the aroma pop. Back off on the IBUs by about 8 and bump the lactose up to a full pound, and you will have a great clone of Youngs Double chocolate.

This...looks...GREAT! I love the chocolate malt/roasted barley combo in stouts. I think the chocolate extract at bottling is what i've been missing. Hows the body? I might wanna mash at 156-158F.

The large amount of dark grains adds a slight bitter note that really helps the dark chocolate flavor come through. Any noble hop variety could be used, I had Crystal laying around this time and it's close enough, you just don't want a whole lot of hop profile coming through in the final beer. Also, more than the hop used, I think the BU:GU ratio is the most important thing here, keep it around 0.46 - 0.48.

The lactose adds a significant amount of body to the final beer. That said, I realized my thermometer was a couple degrees off last time I made this beer, so my mash temp was probably more like 156 anyway, and it was the best batch yet.

Has anyone else tried brewing this?

I brewed up a batch pretty close to your recipe, and I intended to take your advise and go with a full pound of lactose and bit lower IBUs for a Youngs Chocolate Stout clone (My wife fell in love with Youngs a couple months ago at the Yard House). As I mention in this post, my yeast kinda petered out for an FG of only 1.023. I just racked it from primary into a keg last night and it still hasn't lowered any more.

Questions:

Should I still use a full pound of lactose, back it down a bit, or not even use it since there seems to be other left over sugars already there? I planned to add it and a half an oz. of chocolate flavoring when I racked it to the keg, but I haven't yet.

Should I rack it to another keg in a week or so? I usually don't use a secondary, but I thought maybe I should just to reduce chocolate sludge.

Also, I've read that these chocolate stouts need some age to mellow out. How long does it usually take you from grain to glass?

I'm anxious to try and impress the wife with this so hopefully it'll turn out.

Thanks in advance! :mug:

What do you guys use for the chocolate extract for bottling?

Not sure what anyone else uses but I am going to use this when I brew this recipe.

I bought the chocolate extract from Northern Brewer when I bought my ingredients. Haven't brewed yet though, so I can't tell you how it is.

Does this really make six gallons of beer? You're only using six gallons of water between the mash and sparge water, so I would expect the actual yield to be significantly less - how much do you generally get from this recipe?

carrotmalt, how did it turn out? Sorry I didn't respond sooner, I imagine you have already decided what to do at this point. The first pint or two after kegging is gonna have some chocolate sludge in it but after that it will be fine. Grain to glass is usually two weeks, 10 days in the fermenter then a couple to crash and then carb in the keg.

Any chocolate extract from the store should be fine. I either get mine from Whole Foods or order it online from http://www.adamsextract.com/.

Putz, sparge water isn't listed in the recipe, just mash water and then a little to bring up the temp to mash out (which I actually don't use now that I'm using a HERMS). Sparge until you hit you necessary pre-boil volume, for me about 7.5 gallons to get 6 after the boil, leave .5 behind with the trub to get 5.5 into the fermenter, then leave another .5 behind with the yeast to get 5 gallons of finished beer into the keg.