Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer Andes Mint Chocolate Stout

501irishred said:

Excellent. With multiple carb issues mentioned with the recipe, the more "what went right" stories the the better. Good ol US-05; the backup plan for all!

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I hear that. IMO, for what it's worth, this recipe is solid. I think most of the issues mentioned here can be traced to individual technique and procedural faults rather than recipe faults. Beer usually lingers for a bit around my house, but this one is already over half gone.

The flavors seem to have stratified a bit and some bottles are more chocolate while others are more mint, but only very slightly so (again this is more likely a procedural fault on my part rather than recipe related). An unexperienced beer drinker would be very unlikely to notice.

Another plus is that this beer doesn't have that overwhelming Guinness bitterness that has kept me away from stouts for so many years.

If you're looking for something interesting, this is a very unique and tasty brew.

I just brewes this to the original recipe but I added 11 peppermint bags and 5 oz of chocolate. I will be bottling this and was wondering the best way to reduce the trub at the sediment in the bottle?
Also for those who have bottled this how much priming sugar did you add for 5 gal batch?

Lastly what if I want slightly more pepermint aroma zhow many bags would u reccomend "dry hopping" and for how long?

Ps thanks for the recipe im excited to try it

Ok issue here my beer looked good as of last night pic #1 and now it looks more like pic #2?

Oh yeah im just on day 3 of fermentation

It will settle out. Day three is nothing! You can do a "dry hop" with peppermint bags for a day or so before bottling if you want for more aroma.

Yeah. Day three is about when mine started doing that "surface of Venus" windstorm looking fermentation that had everything kicked up in the carboy.

I shook it up a little and it started going a little bit faster, but next day it read back at its slow pace. I'm gonna let thus go for a week then when I add the last 4 peppermint bags im going to take another reading of the sg. Thanks for the help ill keep you posted.

So this brew its coming to the last week, it has for the most part stopped bubbling but there is a thin but fairly solid top layer is this normal on a stout?

Pics would help!

Ill get on that when I get home sorry

Drum roll please

Yeah that looks about right. Let it sit for a while longer to settle, though. How long has it been fermenting? A week?

Yes a week today, I was going to add the peppermint leaves the last few days into the 14 day fermentation. I never brewed a stout and an extremely anxious about this one. Thanks for the input I really appreciate it.

Has anybody used Dutch processed coco powder? I'm wondering if that would cut some if the bitterness?

mikejamesnelson said:

Has anybody used Dutch processed coco powder? I'm wondering if that would cut some if the bitterness?

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I haven't used that before but the bitterness comes from the unsweetened coco powder, coco Is actually bitter naturally, same goes with coco nibs. So if your Dutch processed coco powder is less or not bitter then yes I will help.

Ok ok.. so im bottling in two days tried the beer its great. But I am curious if anyone has added peppermint to the last few days and how much? I don't want to over power the beer. Thanks everyone!

*nevermind. I tried it when I was getting the final sg... its perfect! Time to figure out the.amoint.of carb for this bad boy!

Making a starter tonight in preparation of brewing this on Sat. :rockin:

You will love it. Just drank my last bottle on Sunday. I'm fermenter tight with a dunkelweizen and an oatmeal stout right now though so I won't be able to restock this one for a few more weeks.

I should probably listen to the new modern life is war album while brewing it... i didn't realize they had new stuff.

atom said:

I should probably listen to the new modern life is war album while brewing it... i didn't realize they had new stuff.

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Oh man, it is so good, too! Saw them in Cambridge last month and they haven't missed a beat. http://hate5six.com/player.php?album=2572427

modernlifeisANDY said:

Oh man, it is so good, too! Saw them in Cambridge last month and they haven't missed a beat. http://hate5six.com/player.php?album=2572427

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5.5 gallons is fermenting away right now after one of the smoothest brew days i've had. it was probably due to MLIW and the new Doomriders...even though my gf is "not a fan".

I just finished brewing a 2.5 gallon batch of this and my gravity sample tasted great! I used 5 peppermint tea bags and I may add 2 or 3 more to the fermenter in a week.

I brewed this twice last year with varying methods and it was awesome. I want to brew this again this weekend, but I have one question.

Has anyone swapped the flaked barley for flaked oats? Im thinking the mouthfeel would be much better. Maybe do a little of both?

Could go either way!

Going to try a half-recipe of this. Sounds awesome. Planning on using it to make ice-cream floats as well!

gfinockio said:

Planning on using it to make ice-cream floats as well!

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LOL! Don't go thinking you'll be the first..., there good! My advise would be - don't be afraid of the mint, especially for this application. It's not easy to overdo like some other add-in's.



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For the record, the base recipe also makes a mean coffee stout - add some cold brewed coffee at bottling/kegging time.

Brewed up a half-rccipe of this, and the yeast is taking its sweet time fermenting... very little airlock activity, and not a heck of a lot of anything going on. Hmmm...

This is probably my favorite beer made to date. so amazing

I subbed in some MO to get a little 'biscuit' in there and I added about a cup of cooked quick oats in the mash to add to the mouth feel. Also had to change the bill slightly due to availability. The peppermint is right at the perfect amount; you can smell it slightly and it leaves behind a pleasant taste on the back end.

4 lb. 2-row
4 lb. marris otter
1 lb. flaked barley
0.5 lb. caramel 40L
0.5 lb. chocolate malt
0.5 lbs. rice hulls
0.5 lbs. black malt
1 cup oats, cooked

60' - 8 aau goldings
10' - 10 peppermint tea bags
5' - 4.5 oz cocoa

60' boil to 1.054 with 5.75gal (because I boil on a kitchen stove and I havent honed in on the right boil off amount yet). Was targeting the recipe 1.060 but alas

wyeast 1084 irish ale

secondary after 14 days, bottles at 21 days
5 gallons after losses with 4.5 oz dextrose, FG of 1.017
carbonated well at about 2 weeks.

again, awesome beer! brewing it again sunday.

Cheers!

My beer is... gritty.

gfinockio said:

My beer is... gritty.

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I'm confused slash interested... explain!

Exactly what I said - there is grit in my beer. I'm assuming it's chocolate/cocoa powder. It did not turn out well.

I'm sorry to hear! How much did you end up using? What was your process? Did you make any modifications?

Accidentally modified this one by being mildly dyslexic or something:

8.5 lb 2-row

0.5 lb Caramel 40

0.5 lb Chocolate

1 lb Carafa II

0.5 lb Black barley

Bottled it this past week. To say that it is roasty is an understatement. It's more like a chocolate coffee stout at this point. The peppermint gives a nice cooling sensation on the back end. I'll post an update once it's been in the bottle a couple of weeks...


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A few questions for the OP or others who have brewed this successfully....
1.) What is your efficiency when brewing this recipe?
2.) Which Chocolate Malt are you using? US or UK? There's a difference in SRM between the two.
3.) What is your target OG, FG, SRM, IBU, and ABV?
Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Outlander

FLOutlander said:

A few questions for the OP or others who have brewed this successfully....
1.) What is your efficiency when brewing this recipe?
2.) Which Chocolate Malt are you using? US or UK? There's a difference in SRM between the two.
3.) What is your target OG, FG, SRM, IBU, and ABV?
Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Outlander

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1.) 70-75%
2.) Whatever is available. I've used both with highly similar results.
3.) Listed in the first post. ABV is around 5.5%

Are folks draft serving this with beer gas (75/25) or straight CO2?

I bottled this in Feb of 2013, Been slowly drinking it ever since, still have a few bottles left and its been getting better over time.. I now describe this as my THIN MINT BREW!
Thanks for the recipe it did fairly well in the brewing comp. scored a 30 and it was my first attempt at this beer!

got it done today, was fun to brew!end up a lil shy of OG, got 1.057 (14 Brix according to my new refractometer) now it's like they say, hurry up and wait

tried my first pint from the keg last night after dinner.... Frikkin good, just a lil hint of mint, chocolate is just right on the bitter side, this will become my after dinner watching tv beverage! nice recipe!