Owly055
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2014
- Messages
- 3,008
- Reaction score
- 686
I have a habit of winging it on recipes, in fact it's my SOP.
My Nelson Sauvin Chocolate Stout appears to have been a success in spite of mistakes I made. Mistake #1 was to add the cocoa powder to the grain before mashing. The result was a low mash yield, and I compensated by adding a pound of honey. That really was the only mistake, and all's well that ends well. I believe you need to "think on your feet". I was warned about the IBUs being too high with cocoa in the mix. This didn't turn out to be the case.
Cracked the first bottle today. One month and a few days from dough in. It was excellent. It seems difficult to go very far wrong with beer unless you go really hog wild. The Nelson Sauvin complemented the chocolate superbly. I'll do it again!!
The rest of the Nelson Chocolate Stout will age for another month or so, I just couldn't resist cracking a bottle to see where it's going. Good stout character, could have a bit more head, carbonation is just where you'd want it.
Here's what I did:
2.5 gallon brew
3 lbs 2 row
.5 lb Flaked Wheat
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa added to the grain prior to mash
Mashed at 152F for one hour
1 hour boil
.25 oz Nelson Sauvin (60 min)
.25 oz Nelson Sauvin (10 min)
1 lb honey added to the boil due to poor mash efficiency
USA 05 yeast
OG 1.058
approximate ABV 4.5%
target IBU 38 ............
While I'm NOT throwing this out as a "recipe", it is a lesson in how to "pull the fat out of the fire and make a good brew in spite of mistakes. It also demonstrated to my satisfaction that Nelson Sauvin is a great hop for a chocolate stout. Serendipity took a hand in this, and the low mash efficiency resulted in a product where the chocolate addition didn't drive the bitterness through the roof.
I won't be brewing this a second time using the same procedure, but NOT because the result was disappointing......... it wasn't. A great learning experience, and a good product from a series of "mistakes" ;-)
H.W.
My Nelson Sauvin Chocolate Stout appears to have been a success in spite of mistakes I made. Mistake #1 was to add the cocoa powder to the grain before mashing. The result was a low mash yield, and I compensated by adding a pound of honey. That really was the only mistake, and all's well that ends well. I believe you need to "think on your feet". I was warned about the IBUs being too high with cocoa in the mix. This didn't turn out to be the case.
Cracked the first bottle today. One month and a few days from dough in. It was excellent. It seems difficult to go very far wrong with beer unless you go really hog wild. The Nelson Sauvin complemented the chocolate superbly. I'll do it again!!
The rest of the Nelson Chocolate Stout will age for another month or so, I just couldn't resist cracking a bottle to see where it's going. Good stout character, could have a bit more head, carbonation is just where you'd want it.
Here's what I did:
2.5 gallon brew
3 lbs 2 row
.5 lb Flaked Wheat
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa added to the grain prior to mash
Mashed at 152F for one hour
1 hour boil
.25 oz Nelson Sauvin (60 min)
.25 oz Nelson Sauvin (10 min)
1 lb honey added to the boil due to poor mash efficiency
USA 05 yeast
OG 1.058
approximate ABV 4.5%
target IBU 38 ............
While I'm NOT throwing this out as a "recipe", it is a lesson in how to "pull the fat out of the fire and make a good brew in spite of mistakes. It also demonstrated to my satisfaction that Nelson Sauvin is a great hop for a chocolate stout. Serendipity took a hand in this, and the low mash efficiency resulted in a product where the chocolate addition didn't drive the bitterness through the roof.
I won't be brewing this a second time using the same procedure, but NOT because the result was disappointing......... it wasn't. A great learning experience, and a good product from a series of "mistakes" ;-)
H.W.