Questions about Brewing with Chocolate

Greetings to everyone...

I have been reading a lot around here lately because I'm getting ready to brew my next batch, which will be a chocolate oatmeal stout. I have a lot of questions about brewing with chocolate, and I haven't really found a lot of definitive answers. I just see what people are doing... It seems that cocoa nibs and cocoa powder seem to be the favorites from what I can see. I see cocoa powder going in near flameout and cocoa nibs (soaked in vodka) going into the secondary in some cases.

Question 1: What kind of chocolates are NOT acceptable to use in the brewing process? I have read a couple places that some of the oils in chocolates can hamper the fermentation process.

Question 2: What are the advantages/disadvantages of adding chocolate at flameout as opposed to going in the secondary fermenter?

Thanks in advance

I don't have any information for you but a question. What is a cocoa nib and more importantly where do you get them?

Cocoa nibs are like crushed cocoa beans, but just crushed.. not powdered... I'm not sure where to get them just yet. My local natural food store didn't have any. I haven't looked for an online source for them yet.

Hello beer lovers and guzzlers. I'm also curious to see a response to these questions. I've got a jar of cacao seeds my friend and I picked, fermented and roasted while in Trinidad. I just need to crack the shells off of them and grind them up. I was going to use them to make some sort of a chocolate stout but would seriously hate to have the chocolate go to waste if it ruins the batch.

I previously made a version of Papazian's Goat Scrotum Ale and used hefty amounts of organic baker's cocoa and it turned out oh so tasty. I didn't notice any significant oil separation and the beer ended up with great head retention. I added the chocolate at the beginning of the boil. I'm not sure how the flavor would have been affected if I had added at a different point in the process.

JippZ said:

I previously made a version of Papazian's Goat Scrotum Ale and used hefty amounts of organic baker's cocoa and it turned out oh so tasty. I didn't notice any significant oil separation and the beer ended up with great head retention. I added the chocolate at the beginning of the boil. I'm not sure how the flavor would have been affected if I had added at a different point in the process.

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This is good to know... What brand and type of cocoa did you use?

I made the Goat Scrotum beer too and used an 8 ounce can of Hershey's cocoa. I put some in at the end of boil and some in the secondary. It turned out fantastic.

On a side note, my guys wouldn't let me say or tell anyone the name so it was labeled as "The Brew That Shall Not Be Named". True story.

The cocoa I used was an organic fair trade baking cocoa I picked up from whole foods.