Chocolate Stout Recipe?

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Homercidal

Homercidal

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My wife thinks she wants a Chocolate Stout. The more Chocolate, the better! Now I'm not convinced she will actually drink it, so I've bought a few bottles of different brands to check her taste buds. She remembers having one or two samples at a beer festival before.

So yesterday I cracked a Brooklyn Brewing Dark Chocolate Stout and let her try it. She said it was too bitter. I liked it, but there wasn't as much "chocolate" flavor as I've had before.

I think she had an Imperial Stout before, but I can't remember which brewery made it. I am sure it was a Michigan brewery.

At any rate, I'm looking for a recipe with a ton of chocolate. I'm sure that even if she doesn't end up liking it (She has a habit of liking a beer for about 4 swallows) I will still drink it or I can give it away to some guys at work. It's got to be low on bitterness, but I'd like it to be fairly high ABV. And creamy. I'm thinking some oatmeal for silkiness.

So a Double Chocolate Oatmeal Stout! Anybody got one, or can help build one? BrewerinBR I KNOW you got some ideas!
 
Terrapin's Moo Hoo is very good. It's a milk chocolate stout just above 6% IIRC. Maybe let her try one of those, or something similar. It's not at all bitter. At least thats my opinion.
 
I don't know if I can get there here. Maybe if I can get to Grand Rapids soon. I didn't think the Brooklyn Stout was much bitter, but my wife doesn't even like real coffee, soo...
 
haha. my wife is the same way. her beers of choice are wheats, lagers and ciders. has yours tried Young's double chocolate?
 
Maybe tweak a BB DCS clone to add more chocolate. Or maybe lower the amount of bittering hops. You also might be able to use 50% or more RO water to mellow the bitterness or adjust the water profile. I've had it on tap and bottled, off the tap I thought tasted better with more chocolate flavor.

I dislike Young's
 
KingKlong said:
haha. my wife is the same way. her beers of choice are wheats, lagers and ciders. has yours tried Young's double chocolate?
Click to expand...

My wife's favorite styles are Mountain Dew and ... Mountain Dew...

Seriously, I've had her try a few of my lighter beers and she likes the first few tastes and then I finish it for her. She is slowly getting used to coffee. She likes the cappuccino coffees from the gas station but a Premium Roast coffee from McDonalds would probably make her gag.



Steelie211 said:
I don't know if you tried the Southern Tier Choklat. This is an imperial Stout 10% but has tons of chocolate flavor.
Click to expand...

That sounds good! I know Siciliano's Market in GR has than one. I've seen 750s of it recently.

Well what kind of chocolate do I use and when/how do I use it? I've never done chocolate before.
 
I usually do cocoa powder, either in the boil (this might lend too much bitterness for her) or at bottling, to taste. If you want the chocolate flavor without all the bitterness, you might want to just use a chocolate milk mix, rather than straight cocoa powder. I haven't done this, and haven't checked the ingredients list, but I imagine there's some maltose in there, that would likely lend a little extra body, too. I would definitely use some oats for smoothness.
 
I just made an awesome chocolate milk stout (chocolate stout based on a "sweet stout" with lactose). I haven't got scores back from comps yet, but it's a little outside of style on sweetness, but that makes it an incredible dessert beer. It's not "imperial" but it's a moderate to moderate-high abv, just very sweet and super chocolaty with a great balance of roasted malt flavors. It uses cocoa powder in the boil and secondary with cacao nibs and vanilla beans. Having made it once, I have some tweaks I'll be making for my own personal taste, but I'm happy to post both versions here if you're interested.
 
i'd love to see your recipe daksin. i'm going to brew a choc stout soon and i just want to nail down the recipe
 
I would definitely find a Young's Double Chocolate Stout — in the can. If you can. It's my girlfriend's favorite chocolate stout. It is, in my opinion, the most chocolate and least bitter chocolate stout I've had. It's pretty much chocolate milk.

IMG_3678.JPG
 
daksin said:
I just made an awesome chocolate milk stout (chocolate stout based on a "sweet stout" with lactose). I haven't got scores back from comps yet, but it's a little outside of style on sweetness, but that makes it an incredible dessert beer. It's not "imperial" but it's a moderate to moderate-high abv, just very sweet and super chocolaty with a great balance of roasted malt flavors. It uses cocoa powder in the boil and secondary with cacao nibs and vanilla beans. Having made it once, I have some tweaks I'll be making for my own personal taste, but I'm happy to post both versions here if you're interested.
Click to expand...

Man, I don't know if I can do something that sweet. I've had a milk stout before and they are just gross to me. If she doesn't like it that means I'm stuck with it.

RCBIV said:
I would definitely find a Young's Double Chocolate Stout — in the can. If you can. It's my girlfriend's favorite chocolate stout. It is, in my opinion, the most chocolate and least bitter chocolate stout I've had. It's pretty much chocolate milk.

I haven't seen the can around here. I do have a bottle of it in the fridge. It was on my agenda very soon.
Click to expand...
 
Leon made a chocolate stout this winter, I believe. I didn't sample it, but he told me he used Young's as the model for it.

Maybe send him a PM and ask him- he probably has it on Beersmith and can email it to you. He's supposed to stop over later to make the opening of my new MLT a bit larger (he's got all the cool tools) so I can ask him if I remember.
 
That'd be great!

I have a basic recipe in Beersmith now, but I got to figure out how to make it lightly roasty without being too bitter. I started looking at the different roasted malts but they all have the same description at the places I've looked. I know some are more burnt tasting, while others are lightly roasty.

What if I put some cocoa powder in at flameout, right before I run through the chiller?? Or maybe right in the fermenter and let the chilled wort pour right on top of it?
 
Here is a "wife approved" chocolate cherry stout. Just leave out the cherry, it is amazing without it as well. My wife is not a drinker, and for sure not a beer drinker BUT she will drink this and actually asks me to brew it. Just did a batch 1 week ago!

I will try to update my on line brewing log with the notes from the brew, but I think you wife will be happy with this!

Here is the recipe I used last time. I have used quite a few English ale yeasts with this all to no complaints from the wife. I just happened to have the yeast used on hand and needed to use it, hence it made the list for this brew of this recipe.

ENJOY!

Santa's XXX Cherry Poppin Stout
Brewer: Dustin Norlund
Asst Brewer:
Style: Sweet Stout
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 7.48 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.98 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.057 SG
Estimated Color: 36.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 36.2 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 68.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 71.1 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
1.50 tbsp PH 5.2 Stabilizer (Mash 60.0 mins) Water Agent 1 -
10 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 79.2 %
1 lbs 4.0 oz Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 3 9.4 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 30L (30.0 SRM) Grain 4 7.5 %
8.0 oz Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 5 3.8 %
2.0 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.30 %] - Boil 60.0 Hop 6 36.2 IBUs
0.28 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 7 -
8.00 oz Cocoa - Non Milk Based (Boil 1.0 mins) Spice 8 -
1.0 pkg Windsor Yeast (Lallemand #-) [23.66 ml] Yeast 9 -
3.85 oz Cherry Extract (Primary 5.0 mins) Flavor 10 -


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 13 lbs 4.0 oz
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 7.30 gal of water at 165.5 F 156.0 F 75 min

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun, , 4.14gal) of 168.0 F water
Notes:
 
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/vanilla-oak-chocolate-bourbon-stout-308656/

There's a link to my fine tuned stout recipe that is freaking delicious. Add 8 oz of cocoa w/ 5 min left and 6-8 oz of cacao nibs in the secondary (or primary...) for a week and you and your wife will be enjoying the results before you know it.

I would obviously leave out the oak and bourbon if you want her to drink it though... the vanilla bean can be a nice addition, but too much leaves a vanilla bomb for the first 6 months or so.

Any questions on the recipe let me know, you can leave out the DME to lower the ABV of course.

Cheers.
 
My wife and I both enjoy "chocolate beers".
We have one in the fermenter right now, and have brewed several variations before getting to this final evolution...

What we do is this:

Brew a milk stout (like Lefthand), then add 2oz chocolate extract at the end of the boil.
(at flame out before cooling). At kegging, we add an additional 2 oz chocolate & 1/2 oz vanilla.
(that's a 5 galon batch). We leave it in the primary for a month, then age in the keg for four.

Tastes like chocolate milk beer.

We've used cocoa powder, extract prior to ferment, while they were good...
they weren't what we were after. The cocoa powder results in less sweet.
The extract only in the ferment, results in a "background hint" of chocolate.

Hope this helps. Riverhorse made a "brewers reserve" this year that was what they
called a "Chocolate Porter". It was amazing if you like this type of beer.
It really wasn't a "porter" though, it was a " milk stout chocolate" as described above.
It's great on CO2 & incredible on nitro! They went from cocoa powder to chocolate nibs,
before settling on the extract.
 
tradewindsbrewing said:
Here is a "wife approved" chocolate cherry stout. Just leave out the cherry, it is amazing without it as well. My wife is not a drinker, and for sure not a beer drinker BUT she will drink this and actually asks me to brew it. Just did a batch 1 week ago!

I will try to update my on line brewing log with the notes from the brew, but I think you wife will be happy with this!

Here is the recipe I used last time. I have used quite a few English ale yeasts with this all to no complaints from the wife. I just happened to have the yeast used on hand and needed to use it, hence it made the list for this brew of this recipe.

ENJOY!

Santa's XXX Cherry Poppin Stout
Brewer: Dustin Norlund
Asst Brewer:
Style: Sweet Stout
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 7.48 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.98 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.057 SG
Estimated Color: 36.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 36.2 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 68.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 71.1 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
1.50 tbsp PH 5.2 Stabilizer (Mash 60.0 mins) Water Agent 1 -
10 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 79.2 %
1 lbs 4.0 oz Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 3 9.4 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 30L (30.0 SRM) Grain 4 7.5 %
8.0 oz Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 5 3.8 %
2.0 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.30 %] - Boil 60.0 Hop 6 36.2 IBUs
0.28 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 7 -
8.00 oz Cocoa - Non Milk Based (Boil 1.0 mins) Spice 8 -
1.0 pkg Windsor Yeast (Lallemand #-) [23.66 ml] Yeast 9 -
3.85 oz Cherry Extract (Primary 5.0 mins) Flavor 10 -


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 13 lbs 4.0 oz
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 7.30 gal of water at 165.5 F 156.0 F 75 min

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun, , 4.14gal) of 168.0 F water
Notes:
Click to expand...

Wow that looks like a lot of Roasted Barley.. She seems sensitive to the bitter roast flavors. Should this be cut back some?



HawksBrewer said:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/vanilla-oak-chocolate-bourbon-stout-308656/

There's a link to my fine tuned stout recipe that is freaking delicious. Add 8 oz of cocoa w/ 5 min left and 6-8 oz of cacao nibs in the secondary (or primary...) for a week and you and your wife will be enjoying the results before you know it.

I would obviously leave out the oak and bourbon if you want her to drink it though... the vanilla bean can be a nice addition, but too much leaves a vanilla bomb for the first 6 months or so.

Any questions on the recipe let me know, you can leave out the DME to lower the ABV of course.

Cheers.
Click to expand...

That doesn't look too bad. Although I might (probably) pour a capful or two of Bourbon in my own glass.

What kind of nibs would I use?
 
My recipe is over at https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/chocolate-stout-recipe-advice-315582/ (basically I didn't take anybody's advice and the beer turned out excellently).

I secondaried with 6oz of nibs and two vanilla beans (nibs and vanilla in vodka for a few days) and used the amount of lactose in the posted recipe. The vanilla really adds heavily to the perception of sweetness in the beer. I would definitely do 1 vanilla bean (or less) making this again as it's very apparent (it almost dominates the chocolate and I only intended it to bring out the chocolate flavor. I would also definitely cut down the lactose by at least 4 oz (to 1/2lb or less). That said, I love the beer, it's delicious, just not exactly what I was going for on the first try.

The beer is EXTREMELY sweet and finished around 1.020 (as predicted)- I'm calling it a dessert beer. If you cut out the lactose entirely you will probably also want to cut down on the chocolate malt or roasted malt (maybe both) as it is pretty well balanced in that regards now. The roastiness comes through the sweetness but doesn't dominate.
 
Homercidal said:
Wow that looks like a lot of Roasted Barley.. She seems sensitive to the bitter roast flavors. Should this be cut back some?
Click to expand...

I just looked back at my records and I have always used 1lb 4oz. I thought maybe the transition to Beersmith 2 messed something up, but nope. No complaints from her or from my taste buds.

Cheers
 
Homercidal said:
That doesn't look too bad. Although I might (probably) pour a capful or two of Bourbon in my own glass.

What kind of nibs would I use?
Click to expand...

I definitely recommend the bourbon!!!

As far as the nibs go, I usually get them at Whole Foods. Just make sure they are raw cacao nibs and you should be fine w/ either 6 or 8 oz of them. If you want your wife to make the bitter beer face give her a handful of raw nibs to chew on... oh and get your camera ready lol.
 
Some very good information here, thanks. I'll have to let her try a few more commercial examples since I have them and then finish formulating the recipe.

I know she's going to want it to be fairly sweet, since that helps with the chocolate flavor, but maybe I won't need it to be so low on the roasty flavor if the sweetness can come through to balance it.

I certainly think I'd dig a bit of bourbon in mine and I might try that tonight if we sample some commercial. I'm not a big fan of hard liquor, but I do like the flavor of bourbon when it's not burning my throat and making me want to vomit.
 
Well, she tried the Youngs from a bottle and wasn't impressed. I enjoyed it, but it wasn't like what I expected. There is a definite chocolate flavor mixed in, but the texture was not creamy and I don't think there was enough sweetness for her.

So I'll try and find it in a can and I want to try that Chokolat as well.

Does anyone make a milk stout I can find? I think that might be something she should try. And I'm wondering if the beer she tried at the festival was an Imperial Chocolate. Imperials are very often sweeter than the regular strength stuff, and when aged well also has little hop character.

Odd. I can distinctly remember standing at the taps and having a taste, but I can't remember which brewery was at that spot. If I could get my hands on the tent layouts I am POSITIVE I could figure out which brewery it was.
 
I would start with something like a oatmeal or milk stout base. You can always add maltodexterin, lactose or oatmeal to any of them. You could also do cocoa nibs in the secondary. I think that vanilla helps the flavor come out too.
 
I bought a Left Hand Milk Stout last night and it was excellent! But it wasn't much different than most any other stout. I kind of expected a bit more sweetness. My wife said it was bitter...

o_O
 
I just kegged this and my girlfriend loves it:

14# 2-row
.75# Roasted Barley
.75# Crisp Chocolate Malt
.5# Flaked Oats
.5# Crystal 120
.25# Black Malt

2oz Nugget FWH
.5oz Williamette 15
.5oz Williamette 0

I'm probably going to go with 1# chocolate and .5# roasted next time, maybe .75# crystal 120 - I don't want to overpower this with chocolate, but so far it's really good.
 

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