Chocolate Milk Stout - Advice Needed

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msmylie

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Here is a Chocolate Milk Stout recipe I made from various recipes I found online. I want to make this a pretty big beer and have a decent amount of chocolate flavor. Let me know what you guys think.

1 lb Crystal Malt 80*L
1 lb Flaked Oats
12 oz Pale Chocolate Malt
4 oz Black Patent Malt

6 lbs Dark DME
1 cup Bakers Chocolate (40 Min)
1 cup Bakers Chocolate (20 Min)
1 oz Chinook Pellets(30 Min)
1 oz Chinook Pellets(10 Min)
1 tsp Irish Moss (15 Min)
8 oz Lactose (15 Min)
1 oz Centennial Pellets (5 min)
White Labs WLP001


Thanks,

mfs
 
There are way too many late hop additions. If this were a dry stout or black IPA I would say your good. You should only need 2 hop additions. One at 60 and another around 10- 15 minutes. Also I would try to stay away from the American citrus hops. Try East Kent Golding, Fuggle, or maybe Northern Brewer. u probably don't want your milk stout to be full of hop and citrus.

Also, by definition a stout is made with roasted barley, other wise you're technically making a porter. Maybe switch the black patent for roasted barley and adjust to get your color appropriate.

I personally add my chocolate additions near end of boil or flame out.

Hope this helps.
 
Thanks for the reply. How about this for a revised recipe?

1 lb Crystal Malt 80*L
1 lb Flaked Oats
1 lb Roasted Barley
12 oz Pale Chocolate Malt


6 lbs Dark DME
.35 oz Magnum (60 min)
1.00 oz East Kent Goldings (10 Min)
1 tsp Irish Moss (15 Min)
8 oz Lactose (15 Min)
2 cups Bakers Chocolate (0 Min)
White Labs WLP001

Thanks,

mfs
 
I think you'll be much happier with this for your sweet stout. Double check your brewing software to check you color. Aim to be in the low 40's for SRM. I'm not sure without brewing software handy.

This isnt necessary but I think adding a split vanilla bean to the secondary takes a good milk stout to a great one.
 
I did some work in BeerTools Pro last night and came up with this updated recipe. I boosted the roasted barley and changed the pale chocolate malt to just chocolate malt to boost the SRM. Let me know what you think.

Chocolate Milk Stout
13-B Sweet Stout
Date: 2/23/11

Size: 5.0 gal
Efficiency: 75.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 195.12 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.059 (1.044 - 1.060)
Terminal Gravity: 1.015 (1.012 - 1.024)
Color: 37.64 (30.0 - 40.0)
Alcohol: 5.77% (4.0% - 6.0%)
Bitterness: 26.5 (20.0 - 40.0)

Ingredients:
1.0 lb Crystal Malt 80°L
1.0 lb Flaked Oats
1.5 lb Roasted Barley
12.0 oz Chocolate Malt
5.0 lb Liquid Dark Extract
.35 oz Magnum (14.5%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
1.0 oz East Kent Goldings (5.0%) - added during boil, boiled 10 min
1.0 tsp Irish Moss - added during boil, boiled 15 min
8 oz Lactose - added during boil, boiled 10 min
2.0 lb Chocolate (semisweet baking) - added during boil, boiled 0.0 min
1.0 ea White Labs WLP001 California Ale
 
Looks like it will be pretty tasty.

My last word of advise for this one is in regards to the flaked oats in there. There's nothing wrong with having it in there and i like the amount. How you're using it, it will help with head retention and body. However there's no diastatic power in the oats for them to convert. This will add starch that won't convert in your final beer. With the lactose in there you will already have a high finishing gravity. You can add a pound or pound and a half of six row barley and do a mini mash. The six row will help convert the oats and also bring your gravity up slightly. If you've never done a mini mash let me know add I'll help you with that. It's not any harder then doing sweeping grains.
 
Thanks for the reply, I'll definitely consider mini mashing with the six row barley. Do you think the 2 cups of Baker's Chocolate will be sufficient enough to add noticeable chocolate notes?
 
It's hard for me to comment on that because I've never used the bakers chocolate. I've only used cocoa powder. I use this because there's less fat. I typically use between .25 and .5 cup of the dark cocoa powder. I get a good chocolate flavor in mine, but not overpowering.
 
this sounds like it will be good, be sure to keep this updated on how it goes and how it turns out, i'm thinking of a choco milk stout for one of my next couple brews

It's hard for me to comment on that because I've never used the bakers chocolate. I've only used cocoa powder. I use this because there's less fat. I typically use between .25 and .5 cup of the dark cocoa powder. I get a good chocolate flavor in mine, but not overpowering.

glad you said that, as i read down the thread i was about to ask about a way to make it a dark choco milk stout. happen to have some dark choco hersheys powder
 
Thanks for the reply, I'll definitely consider mini mashing with the six row barley. Do you think the 2 cups of Baker's Chocolate will be sufficient enough to add noticeable chocolate notes?

I've made a Milk Chocolate Stout before with 1oz Baker's Chocolate per gallon and it was pretty chocolate-y. I added 2 ounces of cocoa nibs to the secondary to seal in the chocolate flavor.
 
I added 5 ounces of cocoa nibs to my order. With the 1 oz of Baker's chocolate per gallon, how did the brew turn out overall? Is there a commercial chocolate milk stout you could compare it to? Thanks.
 
I added 5 ounces of cocoa nibs to my order. With the 1 oz of Baker's chocolate per gallon, how did the brew turn out overall? Is there a commercial chocolate milk stout you could compare it to? Thanks.
The beer turned out really well - took second place in the stout category at a local home brew competition. The feedback that I got from everyone was that it was perfectly chocolatey without being cloying.

As for a similar commercial beer, it was more milky than either Rogue's or Youngs' Chocolate Stouts thanks to lactose being 15% of the grain bill.
 
Sounds just like what I'm looking for. Thanks for the advice. I'll be sure to let you know how it turns out.
 
Has anyone had any issues with the cocoa butter found in baker's chocolate? Would it be better to use dutch cocoa powder to avoid the problem of having fat floating on top of the fermenting beer?
mfs
 
Looking at your recipe, definitely consider a mini mash. I would add 1# of 6-row to your grains, and remove the equivalent of DME.

Also, depending on how much of a milky stout you want, i would consider going up to 1# of lactose.
 
Looks like I ordered 2-row, will that still be able to convert the starches in the oats?
 
It will convert most, if not all of the oats. You might not get full conversion, but it will be 100% better than not doing a mini mash. I wouldn't stress over it.
 
What, if any, is the added benefit of using the 6 row as opposed to 2 row during this type of mini mash?
mfs
 
What, if any, is the added benefit of using the 6 row as opposed to 2 row during this type of mini mash?
mfs

6 row has more diastatic power then normal 2 row does by weight. This is why i originally recommended the 6 row. This difference is not huge, so doing the mini mash should still get near if not full conversion.
 
Here is the recipe we went with...here is my problem now, has been in primary for 2 weeks and gravity reading today was 1.038. I'm thinking that the fermentation is either stuck or complete. I have heard of people brewing another beer and racking the stuck beer on top of the second yeast cake to restart fermentation. I don't like the idea of that since this has been on its own yeast cake for two weeks. Would that lead to undesirable flavors in the finished beer? I had planned on racking this into secondary with cocao nibs for some more flavor/aroma. Would the beer benefit from an additional vial of yeast? I don't have the California Ale strain that I originally used but I do have a smackpack of American Ale. Need some help here and would love to hear some suggestions.
thanks,
mfs

Chocolate Milk Stout
13-B Sweet Stout
Brew Date:3/2/11

Size: 5.0 gal
Efficiency: 75.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 195.12 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.072 (1.044 - 1.060)
Terminal Gravity: 1.015 (1.012 - 1.024)???
Color: 37.64 (30.0 - 40.0)
Alcohol: 5.77% (4.0% - 6.0%)
Bitterness: 26.5 (20.0 - 40.0)

Ingredients:

1.0 lb Flaked Oats – Mashed – 1 Hr.
1.0 lb 2-Row Barley – Mashed – 1 Hr.
1.0 lb Crystal Malt 80°L – Steeped – 30 Min
1.5 lb Roasted Barley – Steeped – 30 Min.
12.0 oz Chocolate Malt – Steeped – 30 Min.
5.0 lb Liquid Dark Extract – Boiled – 60 Min
.35 oz Magnum (14.5%) - Boiled 60 Min.
1.0 tsp Irish Moss – Boiled - 15 Min.
1.0 oz East Kent Goldings (5.0%) - Boiled - 10 Min.
1.0 lb Lactose – Boiled - 10 Min.
10 oz Unsweetened Cocoa Powder - Boiled 2 Min.
1.0 ea White Labs WLP001 California Ale
 
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