German Chocolate Stout?

like a true home brewer... i'm going out on a limb here and trying something not normally done.

5 gallon batch - ale:
6lbs Dark DME
3lbs Wheat DME
1/2lbs roasted barley
1/8lbs expresso coffee grounds
1oz chinhook 15min
1oz saaz 60min

now... im up in the air at this point about what I should use for the "german chocolate". Its chocolate and coconut flavor. I really dont want a cady bar tasting beer, but rather a nice rich stout that has slight flavors of chocolate (bitter cacao) and smooth coconut.

I have read a few posts where people used 1lbs unsweetened coconut for a 3gallon batch. Some people roast the coconut at 350° for 20 minutes to extract some of the oil, and get a roasted flavor. Other people use a bit of coconut extract at the end of the boil, and add a bit more during priming. Head retention is a concern with the oily coconut... but there have been reports that its not a problem if you bake it. Im not sure about extract, or now much I would need for subtle flavor in a 5 gallon batch. Maybe 1oz total?

As far as the cocolate is concerened, i'm pretty much set on cacao powder... straight up non-sweeteneed non-fattened. It may not come through like chocolate, but will add nice bitter roasted flavor.

any thoughts? Anyone have some advice for this batch?

Have you thought about using chocolate malt steeped with the roasted barley? I'm not sure exactly how much you'd need, but it may taste better than the cacao powder.

I wanted to actually use chocolate for this instead of using malt with somewhat silimar color and flavors. Cant really call it German Chocolate if its all malt... id probably use 1/2lbs of it though....

thanks for the input!

From reading your post I gather you are trying to imitate a German Chocolate Cake (as we know it)?

If that's the case I need to inform you and other readers that what we (in America) call German Chocolate Cake is actually called "German's Chocolate Cake". The bakers name was "German" who lived in England.

Think about it...chocolate and coconut...who brought them to Europe from the New World? Certainly not the Germans. It was the British.

My point is German Chocolate Cake is not German.

HAHAH... I didnt think it was actually german seeing as though there is coconut in there. Just happened to be called that. It is my favorite type of cake frosting though

I'll rename the recipe German's Chocolate Beer... hopefully people will still expect to taste a little coconut in there when they try it

sirsloop said:

HAHAH... I didnt think it was actually german seeing as though there is coconut in there. Just happened to be called that. It is my favorite type of cake frosting though

I'll rename the recipe German's Chocolate Beer... hopefully people will still expect to taste a little coconut in there when they try it

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you'll want some caramel taste in there, too. the cake icing is toasted coconut and caramel.

-walker

...and it's ALL GOOD!

homebrewer_99 said:

The bakers name was "German"

My point is German Chocolate Cake is not German.

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Yup and 'baker's chocolate' is not generic for bitter/semi-sweet chocolate used for baking, its some dude named 'Baker' and his chocolate company.

I've found a little vanilla in the secondary can help bring out the chocolate, about 1/2 oz.

Bjorn Borg said:

Yup and 'baker's chocolate' is not generic for bitter/semi-sweet chocolate used for baking, its some dude named 'Baker' and his chocolate company.

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Yep. I knew that too. (from Good Eats!)

david_42 said:

I've found a little vanilla in the secondary can help bring out the chocolate, about 1/2 oz.

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interesting... i may do that...

Another idea I had was to use German Chocolate Cake flavored coffee (Timothy's has it for $10/lbs, 20 shipped). I dont think i'll do this, but it would probably be easier, and taste correct.

I think chocolate, coffee, etc all sound good for a stout. I'm thinking the coconut doesn't sound good at all! But, my tastes aside- I used a little vanilla extract in the secondary of a beer. Maybe you could add a hint of coconut in secondary by using a coconut extract? Maybe try less than 1 teaspoon to a bit and see if it's got the flavor you're looking for. If so, add it to the secondary. Or add it at bottling. That way you can make your German's Chocolate Stout with the recipe you provided, and still have the coconut you're looking for.

I think that the idea of roasted coconut that you mentioned in the original post would probably not be very good. Roasted coconut just really doesn't taste very good. You could add some raw coconut meat for truer flavor, but that may be too oily.

Just my .02 cents.

Lorena

I really have been wondering how it will work myself. I have been searching around for other people's responses online... the vast majority of them have excellent things to say about it.

maybe the solution is to just use creme de cacao, cocnut extract, and carmel extract in the secondary...

German Chocolate Stout - 5.5 gallons

3lbs Light Extract
6lbs Dark Extract
.5 lbs Cracked Roasted Barley
.25 Finely Ground Expresso Coffee
4oz Herseys Cocoa Powder (unsweetened raw Cacao)
1oz Coconut Extract
1oz Pure Vanilla Extract
1oz Chocolate Extract
1oz Saaz Hop
1oz Chinook Hop
1 packet of yeast
2/3 cup Corn Sugar

Procedure
•Place one bag of roasted barley in 2 gallons of water and bring to 160°F
•Steep for 20 minutes – stirring regularly and vigorously
•Pull out grain bag – sparge with 170° water optional
•Add coffee bean and Cocoa Powder and stir until dissolved
•Add malt extract and and boil for one hour
•Add Chinook Hops at 60 minutes
•Add Irish Moss at 15 minutes.
•Add Saaz Hops at 15 minutes
•Add 1oz Pure Vanilla Extract, 1oz Chocolate Extract and 1oz Coconut Extract at end of boil
•Secondary, Rack, and bottle as you see fit.

I was going to origially use half an ounce of chocolare extract, and a half of vanilla but didnt realize I had 2oz bottles. Ended up with an ounce each so we'll see what happens with that. I added it to the end of the boil after hearing some words from my buddy. He told me that they can get very overpowering if you put them in the secondary, and it mellows out the extract flavors a bit if you add them prefermentation. I added a couple drops of each to one of my coffee stouts and agreed.

I was a bit surpised with the gravity. It came out to 1.074 OG...LOL... gonna be nuts if it gets down to 1.012 FG!!

The last batch I made similar to this I used 8lbs extract, like 3 pounds cracked barley and made 5 gallons, OG was 1.055 ended at 1.012. I figured I would up the extract a pound, add a half gallon more to the wort and I would end up around 1.060. I dunno how it will come out...lol...

Percent Alcohol By Volume (ABV): 8.58%

But like "Jello" or "Coke" Andre, it has become synonomous with that type of chocolate since it is also called "Baking chocolate".. Baker's Chocolate Company was bought out a century ago.

and off it goes... bubbling like a madman!!!

Andre Agassi said:

Yup and 'baker's chocolate' is not generic for bitter/semi-sweet chocolate used for baking, its some dude named 'Baker' and his chocolate company.

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Yeah, and you may not know this either, but "Milk Chocolate" actually has nothing to do with the dairy product. It's named for Harvey Milk, former City Supervisor of San Francisco, the first openly gay politician to achieve any sort of meaningful public office. :fro:

I didn't know Harvey was that old, milk chocolate has been around since 1876. Maybe your confusing this with the term "Milking it".

So, we're looking at Labor Day for this stout at the earliest?

Oh boy, I hope I don't have to clarify the joke-ful nature of my above post?

(And "milking" seems to come pretty directly from the act of milking- unless you, too, were making a joke?)

david_42 said:

I didn't know Harvey was that old, milk chocolate has been around since 1876. Maybe your confusing this with the term "Milking it".

So, we're looking at Labor Day for this stout at the earliest?

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well... it'll probably be aged enough by then but I'll absolutely try one a week after bottling

You are about right though...this beer will need AT LEAST 4 weeks to age. Its gonna have quite a complex flavor

I racked to secondary after 4 days because of the airlock explosion... its been about a week since then so I decided its time to bottle. My belgiun wit and dunkel are brewing now so I needed my second primary.

I gotta tell ya... I'm impressed with how it tases right from the get go!! Nice flavor, nice armona, great finishing taste. After a few weeks in the bottle these will be cherry! IDK if its gonna be a repeat though... my coffee stout and this oatmeal stout absolutely ROCK.

OG 1.072 - FG 1.016
Percent Alcohol By Volume (ABV): 7.75%

I'll keep ya informed!

homebrewer_99 said:

Think about it...chocolate and coconut...who brought them to Europe from the New World? Certainly not the Germans. It was the British.

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Where did you get the coconuts?
ARTHUR

Through ... We found them.
SOLDIER
Found them? In Mercea. The coconut's tropical!
ARTHUR
What do you mean?
SOLDIER
Well, this is a temperate zone.
ARTHUR
The swallow may fly south with the sun, or the house martin
or the plover seek warmer hot lands in winter, yet these are
not strangers to our land.
SOLDIER
Are you suggesting coconuts migrate?
ARTHUR
Not at all. They could be carried.
SOLDIER
What? A swallow carrying a coconut?
ARTHUR
Why not?
SOLDIER
I'll tell you why not ... because a swallow is about eight inches long and weighs five ounces, and you'd be lucky to find a coconut under a pound.
ARTHUR
It could grip it by the husk ...
SOLDIER
It's not a question of where he grips it, It's a simple matter of weight - ratios ... A five-ounce bird could not hold a a one pound coconut.
ARTHUR
Well, it doesn't matter. Go and tell your master that Arthur from the Court of Camelot is here.
SOLDIER
Look! To maintain Velocity, a swallow needs to beat its wings four hundred and ninety three times every second. right?

ARTHUR
(irritated)
Please!
SOLDIER
Am I right?
ARTHUR
I'm not interested.
SECOND SOLDIER
(who has loomed up on the battlements)
It could be carried by an African swallow!
FIRST SOLDIER
Oh yes! An African swallow maybe ... but not a European swallow. that's my point.
SECOND SOLDIER
Oh yes, I agree there ...
ARTHUR
(losing patience)
Will you ask your master if he wants to join the Knights of Camelot?!
FIRST SOLDIER
But then of course African swallows are non-migratory.
SECOND SOLDIER
Oh yes.
FIRST SOLDIER
So they wouldn't be able to bring a coconut back anyway.
SECOND SOLDIER
Wait a minute! Suppose two swallows carried it together?
FIRST SOLDIER
No, they'd have to have it on a line.
Stillness. Silence again.

I got impatient and tried one of the Stouts. It still needs A LOT of aging, but its nice. I can definitly taste the alcohol which I really wasnt going for. After the alcohol taste peels away, I notice the dark chocolate flavor, then a roasted grain/nut flavor, and the beer finishs off with a nice bitter hop. I'm almost tempted to say these would be better warm, and you gotta drink it slow to get all the flavors. Its real heavy so the different tastes develop slowly... over id say 30-45 seconds. My stomache is warm like I just did a shot of whiskey, LOL....

This sounds like a good stout.

And Cheese needs to change that avatar...should be punishable by jail time!