White chocolate pale ale?

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czeknere

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Found a recipe in the byo.com archive for a white chocolate pale ale I was interested in trying and was wondering if anyone has done something like it before. Everyone I've spoken with so far has looked at me like I'm crazy for wanting to try a recipe like this and although it does seem a little out there, I feel like it might be pretty good. Any thoughts?

Here is the recipe:


5 gallons, extract with grains OG = 1.048, FG = 1.012, IBU = 24

Ingredients:

8 oz. light crystal malt (30° Lovibond)
4 oz. malted wheat
5 lbs. light dry malt extract
8 oz. white chocolate chips
4 AAU Cascade hops (2/3 oz. of 6% alpha acid)
4 AAU Willamette hops (2/3 oz. of 6% alpha acid)
2 AAU Tettnang hops (1/2 oz. of 4% alpha acid)
1 pint starter American Ale yeast (White Labs WLP008 or Wyeast 1272)
1/2 cup dry malt extract to prime
1 cup white creme de cocoa
 
The only problem I see coming up is that white chocolate has a lot of cocoa butter in it, which will very likely kill any head retention you would have had, and may possibly affect the mouthfeel. When making a regular chocolate beer, you are using cocoa powder with the butter removed, this is basically the opposite of that, with no cocoa powder, and mostly cocoa butter. I think it could be a very interesting taste though.

Also, unless there is sugar in the creme de cocoa, that probably isn't enough DME to prime with.
 
Good point, BarleyWater, I didn't even think about that. Anything you could suggest to try and avoid the problem? I'm not sure of anything I could replace the white chocolate chips with.

As far as priming with the DME goes, how much do you think would be enough? I've never primed using DME before. I'm assuming that the creme de cocoa has sugar in it, but I could very easily be wrong.
 
The thing is that white chocolate basically is cocoa butter - it's had the cocoa removed, of course - so if you take the fatty/greasy part away, you are left with either nothing, or vanilla flavoring, sometimes (check the list of ingredients on the bag). Given the negative effects of even small amounts of oils (as with coffee porters) there's a reason that people regard this one as a bit nutty.

Two choices, really:

Brew it and see what happens, or switch to a vanilla flavored brew.
 
The main flavor in "white chocolate" is vanilla. The white creme de cocoa is probably providing more flavors than the "white chocolate", you could just add to taste in the bottling bucket.
 
That idea popped into my head this morning david 42, and I think that's the way I'm leaning (just glad to hear someone else came up with it too). Now, in adding the creme de cocoa during bottling do I run the risk of over carbonating and blowing some tops or will increasing the amount not add anything except flavor?
 
I don't know the exact answer, but I would guess there's not that much sugar in the creme de cacao. In regard to the white chocolate chips, I doubt that 8 oz. would even add that much flavor to 5 gallons.

Actually take that back. A cup may be about 120 grams of sugar, so close to 4.5 oz of cane sugar.
 
1/2 cup dry malt extract to prime
1 cup white creme de cocoa

I don't usually prime with DME, but I think it is more like 1 full cup, so if the recipe is accounting for that in the creme, you could probably assume that 1cup of creme de cocoa is about equall to 1/2 cup of DME, so maybe if you used 2 cups of creme de cocoa, you would need no other priming sugar. You should probably check the label on the stuff to see how much sugar there is in it before you use it, because I really have no idea.
 
Excellent, thanks for the help. Will aim to start it tomorrow and will let you all know how it worked out.
 
I am new here, and honestly new to brewing. My first batch of IPA is in the primary now.

I have been playing with an idea of doing a Coffee Stout and using white chocolate POWDER instead of priming sugar. I work for a coffee roaster and we supply Ghirardelli white chocolate powder to our customers. I am going to take a look tomorrow to find out what amounts of sugar it contains and what amounts of oils as well. I figured the powder is going to have similar propertys to the cocoa powders used in some recipes.

Am I crazy?
 
I work for a coffee roaster and we supply Ghirardelli white chocolate powder to our customers. I am going to take a look tomorrow to find out what amounts of sugar it contains and what amounts of oils as well. I figured the powder is going to have similar propertys to the cocoa powders used in some recipes.
Am I crazy?
big bump:mug: i don't know who you are WIP but you're not crazy! i just made a white chocolate ale and i used 3+ lbs. of ghirardeli sweet ground white chocolate. the OG was 1.082 and i've continued to add the white chocolate which is loaded with sugar. it is ultra light in color, but not the dunkin donuts white hot chocolate i was going for. in my head i imagine a solid white beer such as a stout would be black. is it possible? a solid white beer and loaded w/ white chocolate:D anyone have any ideas on how to make a beer glow white? i've done everything possible to keep is light but it looks like cream soda. very light tan and clear thanks to the WL002 english.
 
Yes. I am super excited about doing a white-chocolate stout and thinking about logistics now. Please, keep us posted on how this baby turns out.
 
62038_300.jpg
<<there's the backbone behind this recipe. i just bottled my version of the white chocolate ale the other day. the FG was 1.003 and still had a some visible activity. the flavor is not dry at all, though. it's lacking the full on white chocolate flavor i was going for with the ghirardelli and vanilla beans, but that's where the creme de cacao came in. the beer was in primary for 5.5 weeks and no secondary; OG 1.082 b4 adding 2 lbs sweet ground white chocolate. i should've secondaried since there is some sediment that got in due to the ghirardelli coagulating and floating on top the whole time in the primary (like a krausen). it was strange actually, never seen that happen before:confused:

carbed with 1 oz of vanilla sugar and 375 mL of clear creme de cacao
dr-oetker-original-vanilla-sugar.jpg

5246.jpg

abv = >12%. end color is not white at all, but rather tan like the aformentioned creme soda. tastes great thus far and is sure to only get better. it's a whopper with the booze content, too! should be an excellent desert beer in a few months if it doesn't get overcarbed. i have no idea how much sugar is in the creme de cacao! oh, and i looked into getting it white and here's the thread with suggestions:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/how-whiten-my-beer-180675/
 
big bump:mug: i don't know who you are WIP but you're not crazy! i just made a white chocolate ale and i used 3+ lbs. of ghirardeli sweet ground white chocolate. the OG was 1.082 and i've continued to add the white chocolate which is loaded with sugar. it is ultra light in color, but not the dunkin donuts white hot chocolate i was going for. in my head i imagine a solid white beer such as a stout would be black. is it possible? a solid white beer and loaded w/ white chocolate:D anyone have any ideas on how to make a beer glow white? i've done everything possible to keep is light but it looks like cream soda. very light tan and clear thanks to the WL002 english.

3+ lbs of white chocolate powder???? WOW! How was the brew? How was the head retention? When did you add said powder? Mind supplying the recipe?

Cheers!
 
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