Too Much Chocolate Malt?

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ezzieyguywuf

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For a porter, I got a grain bill with ~9.5% chocolate malt by weight, as well as ~10.5% homemade brown malt. I calculated the amount of malt needed using the methods described in Designing Great Beers, and got the chocolate malt provided 7.5% of my gravity points. My question is, will such a large proportion of chocolate mask everything else? I have some crystal malts in the recipe as well, at about 20%. Does anyone have experience using this much chocolate malt?

Thanks.

ezziey
 
I've made a porter and a handful of milk stouts in the past, but I've never used this much chocolate malt. I'm ok with it making my brew dark as the night, but if it will be ridiculously overpowering I'd like to know ahead of time so I can tone it down. I'd like the crystal malts to still be noticeable to balance out the chocolate, and I also want the brown malt to come through so that I can see what sort of effect this malt has on a beer.
 
9.5% choc malt, 10.5% brown malt, and 20% crystal malts? That doesn't sound like proper proportions...
 
9.5% choc malt, 10.5% brown malt, and 20% crystal malts? That doesn't sound like proper proportions...

Heh, I suppose you're right, I did go a little high on the Crystal proportions, at least compared to the commercial examples listed in Designing Great Beers. I forget why I chose such a large proportion of crystal (I've had Amber Ale on the mind a lot lately ,maybe that had something to do with it) but nonetheless, I still think this brew will be Porterish to say the least. And my original question still stands about whether or not the chocolate malt will overpower things. It's a bit of a moot point now, as I went ahead and crushed my grains (I'm just not thinking straight today, I should have waited until after this discussion to mix/crush my grains) but I'd still like to know what you guys think.

thanks.
 
IMO, 1.3 lbs of chocolate malt is a bit high, but not too outrageous. I think you're going to have a bigger issue from that amount of crystal.
 
Poor attenuation and too much residual sweetness are the first things I think of.

I agree with usfmikeb and BigEd, too much crystal malt for the style. Personally I'd cut down the crystal to about 8-10%. I'd keep the chocolate malt at 8-10% as well. Depending on how roasty you like your porters I think 1-2% black patent and 1% roasted barely work well.
 
Yeah, this will be a sweet, caramely porter. My porter recipe has equal amounts of choc malt and crystal, both at ~9% of the grain bill, plus a bit of debittered black and smoked malt.
 
I remember why I chose such a large proportion of crystal: my last amber that I mad had 20% crystal, and I was really happy with the malty/caramely profile of it. I decided to expand on that with my porter, so kept the crystal at 20% and added a bunch of chocolate to sort of balance it out. I'm looking for a rich, full-bodied porter, I'm even considering adding some lactose next time I brew it to give it a thicker feel. I think at that point, though, I'd def. be hard to justify classifying it as a porter. Well, I guess we'll see how this thing turns out, thanks for the feedback guys.
 
I'm researching with a similar recipe in mind. According to Ray Daniel's "Designing Great Beers", it appears that one difference between Porter and Stout is the significant amount of Roast Barley or Black Patent in the Stout.

I'd be curious to know, do you remember if you brewed this, what ultimately went into it, and how it came out?
 
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