Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer Nothing Fancy Chocolate Milk Stout

S04 was a pretty slow start....then a pretty quick ferment last time I used it.

brew2enjoy said:

Anyone that brewed this recipe with cocoa powder. Did you notice a strange fermentation? This is my first stout and first time using cocoa powder. The beer seems to be slowly fermenting but there it absolutely no krausen! It's the strangest thing I have ever seen.

Click to expand...

You should get a little chocolate mousse.. I brew with the powder all the time, and it happens. It's working still, the chocolate is just killing it.

I went ahead and added 1.5 oz oak chips to keg just to give it added complexity. It's very good my gf doesn't drink beer but she said she could drink this one. Chics n Choc go figure haha

Shared one with the wife last night. After dinner I took care of her dishes and her beer was gone. I asked her if she still liked the beer and she said it seemed a bit more bitter this time. I told her that a beer doesn't normally go MORE bitter, must be her tastes that day.

I declined to tell her that when I measured grains for the next batch, I accidentally added the Roasted Barley twice. I hope it's not too much more bitter when it's brewed. Oh well, I'm sure I'll like it anyway...

Awesome.

Glad people are liking this.

took a sample yesterday (day 10) and it tastes amazing! Only problem is that its at 1.030. The S-04 doesn't seem to be active anymore so I am going to try to warm it up a little and give it a little swirl.

Mine finished at 1.030 as well and I used pac man. I didn't sweat it but it seems to be in the 6-7% abv range so maybe my reading was off do to a temperature.

I figured with the amount of specialty grains that it was going to be a slight issue with finishing high like that, which is why I use irish ale yeast. Even though the strain typically finishes dry, i've never had the irish ale lower it past 1.012.

I'm sure some warm and a swirl will kick 04 back into high gear. I love 04, its my yeast of choice for most of my other beers!

honestly if it's finished at 1.030 I am perfectly fine with that. It did not taste overly sweet. It was actually perfect.

I agree its pretty damn good I wonder if the lactose I added was two lbs or one I just asked for 1lb but think they may have mixed up after I bought some for my second batch that I'm making into Christmas beer.

If you added 2, you'll be able to tell, it'll be reaaaaaaaaally sweet

Haha it's pretty sweet alright it's hella good sweet my lactose bag was big but when I added oak chips it became exquisite

advogold said:

Mine finished at 1.030 as well and I used pac man. I didn't sweat it but it seems to be in the 6-7% abv range so maybe my reading was off do to a temperature.

Click to expand...

Just kegged mine last night.....finished at 1.028, but man did it taste good!

Man.. 30 points??

I'd try to pitch something to get it going.. amylase or something.. Thats soo sweet.

Additions:
8 OZ Cacao Nibs (KA-KOW!)
2 Whirlfloc Tablets
Wyeast Yeast Nutrient

Click to expand...

Dumb question here....what is/are the "Cacao Nibs"???

mgortel said:

Dumb question here....what is/are the "Cacao Nibs"???

Click to expand...

It is basically a de-shelled, roasted cocoa bean. Cocoa powder is ground Cocoa nibs if I'm not mistaken.

Kegged mine today. Didn't budge from 1.030 though. Next time I think I'll tweak the recipe a little and lower the specialty grains slightly and try a higher attenuating English yeast strain like WLP007. Didn't taste bad at all though. Looking forward to trying this out in about a week.

So, how'd it taste?

eviljay said:

So, how'd it taste?

Click to expand...

It's great. Getting better and better every day so I'm trying not to drink it too fast lol. Took longer then expected to carb due to the higher FG. Has a wonderful roasted coffee aroma. The chocolate is noticeable but not overpowering. I used 1/2 pound of cocoa powder in the boil. It drinks incredibly smooth and has a nice sweet finish.

I ended up using special B instead of the dark crystal and victory instead of brown malt. Not sure if I mentioned that before. Only thing I would do differently next time is try to get it to attenuate slightly more.

i've been silently trolling this thread and brewed this 2 weeks ago.

just took my sample and added 6oz of goose soaked cacao nibs (for a 5 gallon batch, was hoping for a little more chocolate notes)

my FG was a little low at 1.050 using the wyeast irish ale and i just added my nibs at 1.022

the sample when taking my OG was super milky and sweet, but a lot of the lactose has seemed to fade, just leaving a subtle twinge on the back end. great roasted notes so far, this beer is going to be amazing. i also have to admit, this was the first time in history that i have taken a sample for my FG and finished the entire sample, i usually will have a few sips and dump it, but i drank this to the end.

This is also going to be the first beer going through my new (early birthday/xmas) nitrogen setup that is going to be delivered and hooked up to the kegerator on friday, i cant wait!

I've often thought of upping the cacao nib level. I may do it next time.

Thanks for the kind words.

just hooked up my nitrogen setup and stout faucet and all i can say is WOW.

the beer is slightly undercarbed because it was kegged and shaken last night.

off of the nitrogen it is super creamy, the perfect sweet milk finish, amazing roast notes and chocolate aroma and just a hint of chocolate sweetness. it pours a beautiful cascading fill with about 1.5" creamy head... im going to have to brew this in a 10 gallon batch next time, this is my first attempt at a stout, first beer on nitrogen and i couldnt be any happier!

thanks eviljay for an awesome recipe

I'll be brewing this tonight, cant wait to try it!

Good luck!

Cheers! Bottled this batch from the keg over the weekend. Great recipe. This was my first stout and it's awesome!

fermentation took off withing 30 minutes of pouring in my yeast starter, opened up the ferm chamber today and I thought my fermentation was stuck, just took a sample reading and Its already gone from 1.062 ( og ) to 1.021 in less than 3 days! crazy! :rockin:

I just had one last night. Man I love this stout. It's the only one I make aside from a coffee breakfast stout

Christmas presents! now I really can't wait to keg this stout!!!

#winning!

this was poured with co2, havent poured any with nitro yet, its delicious, probably going to brew it again right away that way i can have a few kegs of it in storage, great beer eviljay!

Thanks buddy!

Got my nitro setup fixed...by far one of my best beers...its just silky smooth and sooo good

I usually don't like flat beer, but for the first time I drank the while hydrometer sample when bottling this last night. I think I'm going to have to go to my LHBS and pick up everything to start another batch.

I'm going to do another batch soon myself.

Glad you love it.

I'm not very patient so I opened a bottle after only 2 weeks after bottling. It was delicious.

OP - have you done any modifications to the recipe since posting? Maybe something to make it a 'fancy chocolate milk stout'?

Going to give this a try, sounds delicious.

I brewed a very similar recipe using cocoa powder instead of the nibs. I mistakingly added my cocoa in with my priming sugar...I forgot to buy the cocoa before brewing. I had some sediment in the bottles, but one little shake of the bottle got it all dispersed evenly. I will not be doing it again that way. Soaking nibs in bourbon sounds awesome. I may try that along with the lactose (mine did not have lactose or milk sugar) and I think that will add some of that fanciness to the beer. Good thread.

just tapped my second keg of this, now i have my nitro set up up and running! it conditioned in the keg for a little over a month, and its uber-delicious.

I cant imagine this keg will even make 2 weeks

Think I'll be OK with white labs 004 Irish ale? My LHBS was out of 1084.

I'm sure you'll be just fine with that.

On a side note, I just had a 1 year old bottle of this, I was very pleased.