Chocolate stout

Need some help here...
I brewed my version of a Chocolate Stout and added 1/4 cup of cocoa powder for the last 3 minutes of the boil and another 1/4 cup when I transferred it to the secondary fermenter. I didn't notice a real chocolate taste when I transferred it to the secondary, so I was planning to add a vial (or two) of the Home Brewers Chocolate flavoring when I keg it. Any suggestions?

My best suggestion is to stop trying to fix a beer that is not as good as you like. You have already added a ton of chocolate. Is it sweetness that you lack? If you simply lack chocolate flavor perhaps you could increase the chocolate malt. Ideally I avoid post fermentation additions unless the flavor can not be created with malt, yeast, and hops.

I like Crisp chocolate for a pure chocolate taste and MFB chocolate for a more complex raisin and dark chocolate flavor.

Try it again.

can you post your recipe and any results?

How many ounces is in a 1/4 cup? I make an Imperial Chocolate Stout with 8 ounces of pure cocoa powder in the boil (10 minutes) and get lots of flavor that way.

2 in a 1/4 cup, so that would equal 4 ozs total. It will probably be fine, next time I will boil it longer and see what I get. Not due to keg it for another 6 days, I will post the results!!!

Recipe: (From a Midwest Supplies kit) Peace Coffee Java Stout (Left out the coffee, although it great with the coffee)
6 lb. Dark liquid malt extract
8 oz. Chocolate Malt
4 oz. Flaked Barley
4 oz. Caramel 60L
4 oz. Roasted Barley specialty grains
1/2 oz. Challenger hops (60 mins)
1/4 cup Hershey's Cocoa Powder (3 mins)
1 oz. Tettnang pellet hops (2 mins)

This looks pretty darn good for a recipe. I would actually expect a healthy amount of chocolate flavor in 8 oz of chocolate malt. If you do add chocolate to the finished beer try it first on a glass or two and when you have found the appropriate amount do the whole batch.

I wish I could take credit for it, it belongs to Midwest Supplies. I brewed it once before as directed and it was amazing, I am sure it will be with the chocolate also!!!
Thanks for all the feedback!

If you ever consider going to all grain I have an all grain recipe that would be very similar and is extra tasty. And post a pic when the beer is ready.

I can see why you didn't get much chocolate flavor from only 1/4 cup of cocoa powder. I use 8oz by weight of cocoa powder in the last 10 minutes of the boil for 5 gallons. I get a nice chocolate flavor from that single chocolate addition along with the use of some chocolate malt in the mash. 1/4 cup of cocoa powder weighs only about an ounce so that's way under what you would need. Next time you brew this beer just increase the cocoa powder and see if you get what you want from that. Also some have used cocoa nibs in secondary with success.

I used 4 oz overall, but I will keep this in mind! Thanks

I brewed a chocolate milk stout from Northern Brewer that used 4 oz of cocoa nibs in the secondary. I had trouble picking out any chocolate flavor. I think it would have been a better choice to use some extra chocolate and roasted malts instead. It was good, but didn't have the chocolate flavor I was looking for.

I had the same experience as ChrisVZ. I just actually kegged this. I brew 10 gallons at a time, so i only put the cacao nibs in 5 gallons of the beer. The 5 gallons w/o the nibs is tasty. But not so much choc taste. Im gonna try the cocoa powder next time.

HurricaneR said:

Recipe: (From a Midwest Supplies kit) Peace Coffee Java Stout (Left out the coffee, although it great with the coffee)
6 lb. Dark liquid malt extract
8 oz. Chocolate Malt
4 oz. Flaked Barley
4 oz. Caramel 60L
4 oz. Roasted Barley specialty grains
1/2 oz. Challenger hops (60 mins)
1/4 cup Hershey's Cocoa Powder (3 mins)
1 oz. Tettnang pellet hops (2 mins)

Click to expand...

With what I have I can pul thiss off:

6 lb Briess Pilsen Light LME
8 oz Chocolate
8 oz Caramel 120L

1 oz Kent Goldins... Can do 1.5 on the hop schedule above

1/4 cup of Cocoa powder as above as well.

Any thoughts?

Ok so here are more details:
Brewed on 12/14/12
Fermentation began on 12/19/12
Transferred to secondary on 12/27/12 (with the extra 1/4 cup of cocoa powder)
Kegged on 1/3/13 with one vial of Homebrewers Best Chocolate Flavoring, there just wasn't enough of a chocolate for my taste.

It is just right, a hint of chocolate with a great stout body!

OG 1.046, FG 1.010 Approx. 4.6%

I just brewed my first stout on Saturday! Why did yours take so long to start fermenting? Is five days right? Mine started fermenting in like 5 hours or something, well started bubbling. The problem I'm having is that it stopped like two days later. this also was my first all grain batch, and I was just thinking I didn't have much efficiency to speak of. Now I'm hoping it's tricking me and it will fire back up in a few days! Also This is my first post!

Here's what I did.

2 gallon batch

1# chocolate malt
1# Caramel malt
1# honey malt
3oz (by weight) of coco powder.

In one gallon of water I had grains in a bag, and rested at 95-103 for an acid rest. Then rested at 150 for 1 hour. Next I drained the bag and moved it to a gallon of water in a another pot at 160deg. Stirred around and let drain. (This was my I think failed attempt to batch sparge) Next time I will put the grain over a colender and drain water over the grains and see how that goes.

OG was 1.040 brought it to a boil and added .25oz of Liberty hops for 60 min and added the 3oz of coco with 4 minutes left in that hour boil.

Cooled to 76.1deg and pitched a hole pack of US-05 which I had dissolved into 1/3 cup warm water.

I'm telling you my house smelled like I was brewing brownies! I just hop it's not done fermenting already, but fear it is.

Thoughts?

I have been doing all grain for a while. I would say you need to use a base malt for your recipes and use less of the really highly colored specialty malts. The base malt will contribute extra enzymes that help in the conversion of starch to sugar. Typically for a stout one would use about 80% base malt (two row or pale malt) appx 10% medium to light colored malts (honey, crystal, caramel), appx 5% of something really dark (chocolate malt) and 5% flaked oats or flaked barley. The key being that the cholcolate malt is a small portion and the base malt a large proportion.

Check out the recipe database or follow an established recipe.

Here is my porter recipe

5 gallon 70% efficiency SRM: 36-30 IBU: 33

9.5# pale malt
1# flaked barley
.75 # chocolate malt (Maltier Franco Belge or crisp)
.5# crystal 120

willamette 1 oz @ 60
willamette 1 oz @ 20
Cascade 1.2 oz @ 5
Cascade .8 oz dry hop 3 days

In terms of the quick fermentation. It is very possible that the main period of fermentation is over. If the beer has reached a reasonable FG don't worry about it. Keep in mind there are still processes for the yeast to perform after the initial period of fermentation so keep the beer on the yeast at room temp for at least another week.