I did a crazy...

Hey dudes,
Ok, overambitious as I am, I got it in my head that I really wanted to create my own recipe. I only started brewing last summer but man when I get an idea in my head... Well hey, the worst that could happen was that I screw up, waste the ingredient money, and end up with a beer other than what I was going for, right?

Guess what happened.

Ok, what I was shooting for was a chocolate peppermint porter (which I named "St Peppermint Patty's Porter"). I used "Brewtarget" to come up with a recipe that would at least yield SOME kind of palatable alcoholic beverage. The recipe was as follows:
1lb chocolate malt
.5lb flaked barley
.5lb flaked oats
7lb amber LME (did I mention I do extract? oh. well, I do extract...)
1.5 oz cascade 60 min
.5 oz cascade 7 minutes
Irish moss
1tsp peppermint extract in boil
4 oz bakers unsweetened chocolate in secondary

What I ended up with was a porter. Plain and simple. Well, with incredible head retention and a refreshing finish. The peppermint pretty much completely boiled off (except for the odor that I can NOT get out of my fermenter and a slightly metallic odor to the beer) and none of the chocolate flavors were gained. I've since learned that the chocolate should have been boiled. Beyond this, what do you guys think I should try?

I'm happy with the beer over all. It came in at a solid 5% and it's quite tasty. I'd still like to try again at some point for the desired product of what is essentially an adult chocolate bar in liquid form.

Cheers!

Basically I think you should have swapped the flavor additions. Add the chocolate at the end of the boil and add the extract at secondary or bottling.

Hey cool! glad you liked your beer even it didn't turn out like you hoped...

I don't think you are supposed to boil malted grains, they should have been steeped at 160 degrees, I think. As for the barley and oats, they actually have to be mashed to extract any sugar. You might look into doing a partial mash to help with this, probably get more chocolate flavor out of the mash, too.

Thanks! Yeah, no... I don't ever boil my specialty grains. Not sure where that came in. I watch that thermometer like a hawk because mouth feel is a big deal to me. Unless we're mixing up chocolate (the candy) and chocolate (the malted barley). Subsequently, am I using the right kind of chocolate (of the baking variety) or should I try something else?

I never considered mashing the flaked stuff. I just wanted to try and make the beer a little creamier. I'm curious abut this though... are you suggesting that for the purpose of extracting more sugars or is there another benefit?

You should Try adding the peppermint to the secondary!

Chocolate malt and crystal malts have sugar in them, they can just be steeped in hot water. Flaked barley and oats are just starch, they need to be mashed before you can get any fermentables out of them.

Bakers chocolate seems like the way to go. I have never used it, I have only used ghiradelli chocolate and I ended up with a waxy film on top of the beer in the fermenter (beer still turned out tasty, but racking cane was difficult to clean). Turns out there are other ingredients in the Ghiradelli chocolate that helps hold the bar together. Bakers choc does not have these ingredients.

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You're missing "Pie." as a poll choice....

MyNameIsPaul said:

You're missing "Pie." as a poll choice....

Click to expand...

I definitely had the pie covered with November's pumkin ale....

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Thanks for the tips guys! I'll give it another shot

For my mint chocolate stout, I use Peppermint Altoids. They give great flavor and aroma. No downside really. i do it in the secondary.