Chocolate Stout, with some peppers

I brewed up my first stout a few months back, and fell in love with it. the recipe was from stagstout, and it was pretty great (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/critique-my-recipe-128466/). I have been brewing for a while now and am feeling a bit more ambitious. I was thinkng:

8 lbs mariss otter
1 lbs veinna
1 lbs roasted
1 lbs cholcolate
0.5 lbs crystal 40

w/ 2 oz williamette , irish ale yeast, mash @ 154 for an hour.

dry hop either jalepenos or habeneros. no clue how much for a five gallong batch.

I did not find the lb of roast to be anything but wonderful. I just want to make it have a lot more chocolate flavor, with a spicy kick. been reading a bunch of posts saying for a chocolate stout, adding coco powder to the boil, and then balancing it with extra sugar. I don't understand this, and was hoping for some feedback, and recipe critique.

I have been wanting to do a Chocolate stout with a spicy kick for awhile.
I will be watching this thread for advice.
I have been thinking about just adding cayenne pepper(not sure how much) at flame out?

I was excited when I heard about the chocolate and chiles in Dogfish Head's Theobroma, and a little dissapointed that the flavors were so subdued, so I'll be watching this thread too. I'd think that adding the peppers to the boil in the last 10-15 min would be a better/safer way to do it, but I don't really know. I would guess that it would be hard to control the spiciness if they were dry-hopped, and raw peppers are covered in wild yeasts also.

JuanMoore said:

I was excited when I heard about the chocolate and chiles in Dogfish Head's Theobroma, and a little dissapointed that the flavors were so subdued, so I'll be watching this thread too. I'd think that adding the peppers to the boil in the last 10-15 min would be a better/safer way to do it, but I don't really know. I would guess that it would be hard to control the spiciness if they were dry-hopped, and raw peppers are covered in wild yeasts also.

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part of the inspiration for this beer comes from the roots brewery in portland oregon. They have a chocolate habanero stout that i fell in love with. on their site they talk about dry hopping 100 chopped habaneros. I imagine they must steam them first or something similar to wash off the microbes. But a boil addition sounds easier to me, and i think your right, it might be easier to control that way.

A week ago I added half an Ancho and half a Guajillo to one gallon of chocolate stout. They are both dried and lower on the heat index, that way you can get more chile flavor with your heat. I also added half a vanilla bean and a touch of cinnamon to give it a real Mexican chocolate vibe. Pulled a sample on Saturday, but I won't really know the results until after it carbonates.

Another option is a pepper called the chocolate habanero, I was just up at Bullfrog brewing and the brewers thought their Holy Mole (a blend of smoked porter and Quad with the a couple of the peppers in a keg) was one of the best beers they had ever done (sadly it kicked before I arrived).

Oldsock said:

A week ago I added half an Ancho and half a Guajillo to one gallon of chocolate stout. They are both dried and lower on the heat index, that way you can get more chile flavor with your heat. I also added half a vanilla bean and a touch of cinnamon to give it a real Mexican chocolate vibe. Pulled a sample on Saturday, but I won't really know the results until after it carbonates.

Another option is a pepper called the chocolate habanero, I was just up at Bullfrog brewing and the brewers thought their Holy Mole (a blend of smoked porter and Quad with the a couple of the peppers in a keg) was one of the best beers they had ever done (sadly it kicked before I arrived).

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what was your chocolate stout recipe? any suggestions about the one i posted above?

i like the idea of the vanilla bean, but i am not a fan of cinnamon. when did you add your vanilla/cinnamon/peppers?

look forward to hearing how this turns out.

avibayer said:

what was your chocolate stout recipe? any suggestions about the one i posted above?

i like the idea of the vanilla bean, but i am not a fan of cinnamon. when did you add your vanilla/cinnamon/peppers?

look forward to hearing how this turns out.

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It was based on a Breakfast Stout clone from BYO (posted here awhile back):

http://madfermentationist.blogspot.com/2009/11/breakfast-stout-riff.html

The "extras" were added when I racked to secondary after two weeks in primary. After another two weeks I'll bottle.

Your recipe looks fine, athough I might back down on the chocolate/roast since you will be adding to those flavors with the chocolate. Good luck.

Heres what i ended up brewing:
8 lbs Marris Otter
1 lbs vienna
1 lbs roasted barley
1.5 lbs chocolate
.5 lbs flaked wheat
.5 lbs crystal 60L

mashed at 154-144. new floating thermometer, and i read the initial temp at 170, doughed in, and it dropped to 154. I had my head in a text book, it being finals week, and when i checked it an hour later, saw the temp at 144. Sparged with 180, which cooled a lot through the sparge process.

then it started to rain


then ran out of propane a half hour into the boil. moved everything inside, where it took my stove top three hours to get to a boil.


2 oz of williamette for 60~180? the boil was not consistent

OG: 1.068. will let sit in primary for two weeks, then secondary for three weeks with some chili peppers. still not sure which ones yet. open to suggestions.