Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer Dark Chocolate Stout

Bad_Horse_Brews said:

So, I'm thinking of using this recipe with vanilla and clove added in, any thoughts?

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I just bottled a one gallon batch of this with vanilla bean chopped and added with the chocolate the last week in primary. the sample tasted great.

Hello,

I wanted to do an Export chocolate Stout or and Imperial chocolate stout and I don’t want to start from scratch. I’ve made that recipe and it is excellent as is.

What I would do is increase the base malt until I get my OG. I would also increase hop to keep the same IBU. I would leave the rest.

As Im new with making recipes, what do you think about that?

My chocolate stout has little white slivers in it. They sort of look like white rice but much smaller. I think they disappear if shaken around but I still would like to know what it is and what I did wrong. I would imagine that it has something to do with the lactose powder.

If it is still in fermentation these should drop out as the beer clears. IT looked pretty hideous in the carboy at first but tastes great now.

triat00 >> I bumped the base malt to 5kg and only used half the lactose in recipe. OG was around 1.065. Also didn't have chocolate extract. Still very creamy. Only issue was carbonation in bottles but this was prob due to letting fermentation slow too much (it got cold)

The lhbs was out of chocolate extract so they gave me an ounce of chocolate nubs. How much should I use of that?

Also should I use them any particular way at bottling time? Melt them and pour into bottling bucket then rack on top or is there a different process?

want to do this with some leftover wort. I should be able to get a gallon or 2 going. exept I dont have the lactose. or hops any sugestions

benzy4010 said:

The lhbs was out of chocolate extract so they gave me an ounce of chocolate nubs. How much should I use of that?

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http://byo.com/stories/item/313-brewing-with-chocolate

Seems to be if it is chocolate in bar/chuck form, you can just melt it down. I have heard of people using powders too. I get cacao nibs from whole foods and soak them in neutral vodka for some time before adding the chocolate vodka.

yewtah-brewha said:

want to do this with some leftover wort. I should be able to get a gallon or 2 going. exept I dont have the lactose. or hops any sugestions

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Not to be a jerk, but get some hops and lactose. At least some hops for bittering because I can't see this being good with something like a juniper berry gruit. If you opt for no lactose, reduce the bittering charge.

racin_ny said:

I followed this recipe and made some really good beer. Used the full pound of lactose and backed the IBU's off a tad. Natural conditioned and served on cask good carbonation and good head. Used a 1/3 of a cup of dry light extract for carbing. Thank You! :rockin:

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Did you add the lactose and the priming sugar to the bottling bucket and then rack the beer on top of it? has anyone tried adding the lactose to the end of the boil?

Im following this recipe closely, I am going to add 1lb of lactose as I will never use the extra 4 oz that will be left over from the package.

I also will change the hops to .5 oz @90 min and .5 oz @ 30 useing cascade. what are your thoughts!!

Thanks Bertleman!

Anyone else has an idea how to turn this in a Imperial ou Export stout?

Regards

Using nibs how much to use

Also unsweetened powder or just plain old powder

benzy4010 said:

Using nibs how much to use

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I had an I fetched batch from nibs, so I make a chocolate vodka extract now. As strong as it can be, then blend to taste.

brewski09 said:

I had an I fetched batch from nibs, so I make a chocolate vodka extract now. As strong as it can be, then blend to taste.

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Infected, not I fetched

It came in a four ounce bags. So should I just use an ounce or two

yewtah-brewha said:

Did you add the lactose and the priming sugar to the bottling bucket and then rack the beer on top of it? has anyone tried adding the lactose to the end of the boil?

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I added the lactose to the boil 10 min before flameout. Pretty sure it's not for priming.

Bertleman said:

I added the lactose to the boil 10 min before flameout. Pretty sure it's not for priming.

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You can add it either time. I prefer during the end of the boil.

brewski09 said:

You can add it either time. I prefer during the end of the boil.

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Ya, I added it about 5 minutes prior to EOB. I also added the chocolate at the same time. One note to mention, I combined the chocolate with aprox 4 cups of hot wort in a seperate bowl and I am glad I did, The chocolate was lumpy and I had to wisk it quite well before the addition to the boil pot, The lactose was also quite interesting I did the same by wisking with the wort seperatly, after a few minutes it settled to the bottom and didnt liquify very well. and were talkin 220 degree wort.

If I had to do all over I would do the same procedure except add at about 15 minutes before EOB. Thats my 2 cents worth,

It came out low gravity 1.044 , dont know what happened, but thats where it is and I cant do a farkin thing about it now! lol

8 hours into the primary I have airlock activity! hope she blows some minds!

Also to note I found a 2 oz bottle of chocolate extract at wallymart for 3.00. anyone tried this?? I think its wilkins or somthin like that.

yewtah-brewha said:

It came out low gravity 1.044 , dont know what happened, but thats where it is and I cant do a farkin thing about it now! lol

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You could always add some extra light DME in primary. DFH does this with corn sugar into the secondary for 120 Minute IPA and other high grav brews, so we know it works.

I might even just Star San the outside of the bag and the scissors and dump it straight in...

Would all four ounces of nibs be to much?

getting ready to bottle or keg this one. the fg was only 1.015 and the og was 1.040 for a ac of 2.6% I dont think I have ever brewed anything this low in alcohol content before. I almost hate to waste time bottling it, but I will. hopefully it will be a great after dinner beer! I decided to do a 5 gallon batch.

yewtah-brewha said:

getting ready to bottle or keg this one. the fg was only 1.015 and the og was 1.040 for a ac of 2.6% I dont think I have ever brewed anything this low in alcohol content before. I almost hate to waste time bottling it, but I will. hopefully it will be a great after dinner beer! I decided to do a 5 gallon batch.

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I'm getting 2.6% ABW or 3.3% ABV

How does it taste? Like something you would drink? You could always add extract to boost the gravity if you thought it needed more. Also, that's poor attenuation. Is the yeast okay? I'd say if it tastes fine, just bottle and enjoy.

Didnt taste too bad, I think it will be good once carbed and chilled. I ended up with 51 bottles. the recipe called for .60 oz of choc extract at bottling. the extract came in a 2 ox container, so I thought i would just do half 1 oz. I filled a shot glass and dumped it in. after examining the leftover contents of the extract I realize I used about 1.5 oz.

Time will tell!

Wondering what expected FG I should be expecting with this recipe. My OG was a little high 1.067. Mashed at 154. Let it sit in primary for 3 weeks figuring I would cold crash and bottle within the next few days. Went to check gravity and it looked like I had krausen still on top. FG was at 1.025-26. I pitched 1 pack of notty. Never seen it take so long before. But I've also never used lactose so maybe it wasn't krausen but it sure looked like it.

So I look at it again today. It doesn't appear to be krausen but Prob a mix of the chocolate powder and lactose. From reading the post. FG of 1.026 doesn't seem bad. It's Prob done. I'll Prob transfer to a secondary and cold crash.

orangemen5 said:

Wondering what expected FG I should be expecting with this recipe. My OG was a little high 1.067. Mashed at 154. Let it sit in primary for 3 weeks figuring I would cold crash and bottle within the next few days. Went to check gravity and it looked like I had krausen still on top. FG was at 1.025-26. I pitched 1 pack of notty. Never seen it take so long before. But I've also never used lactose so maybe it wasn't krausen but it sure looked like it.

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I had the same stuff on top. thought it was krausen too. when I moved it around it fell into suspension. I bottled anyway, when I look at the bottles there are little white floaters ontop. ill try lightly shaking before it hits the fridge.

Thanks I noticed that it drops when I moved it also. Think I'm going to cold crash it before bottling.

How many ounces of Nibs should be used for 5 gallons and regular Hershey's cocoa powder ?

8 oz on the hersheys, I didn't use nibs. I used chocolate extract. It called for .60 oz I accidentally used 1.5 oz I tasted it prior to bottleing and didnt seem too much.

Well I checked this one week later and it's down to 1.020. Was kind of hoping it stayed at 1.026. Was surprised it dropped 6 gravity pts from week 3 to week 4. After 3 weeks in primary I thought it was done. Good thing I waited before bottling. Not on purpose though. Just lazy!! Lol.

Bottled this today. Taste was bitter chocolate was hoping for a smoother dark chocolate. Used a full lb of lactose to so I'm surprised. Hopefully it smooths out in the bottle.

I didn't see it mentioned, so forgive me if I missed it. Take your nibs and roast them, then crush them, and put into a glass jar and cover with vodka, and shake once or twice a day. When ready to use them, the night before put them into a narrow "tall" glass, and insert a straw. When the cocoa butter solidifies, the extract can be removed through the straw preventing the adding of fats to the beer.

orangemen5 said:

Bottled this today. Taste was bitter chocolate was hoping for a smoother dark chocolate. Used a full lb of lactose to so I'm surprised. Hopefully it smooths out in the bottle.

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I've done similar beers and it will level out in a few weeks. The highly kilned malts take some time to come together harmoniously. RDWHAHB

Has anyone done a extract version of this yet if not how do I convert it thanks for the help
Gingerpower

Gingerpower12 said:

Has anyone done a extract version of this yet if not how do I convert it thanks for the help Gingerpower

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No extract version tht I can see yet. I would plug this recipe into a recipe program first. If you pay for beersmith, I hear it will convert it for you. If not, use the muntons marris otter liquid extract to replace the base malt and half of the 80L to start. Pay attention to your starting gravity and color before you remove the base malt and half the 80L so you know if you have the right amount of extract or if you need to add/remove more crystal malts. The remaining 80L, chocolate malt and roasted barley can be steeped near mash temps for 30 minutes after crushing like normal and lightly sparged (I just pour through a fine mesh strainer into another pot and let the fine sediment drop out, then pour off the sediment into my boil kettle). Also see the Brew Your Own article about converting recipes online sometime from the last 2 years. I found it to be insightful and have some math if that suits you. Feel free to post the recipe and ask more questions before you brew.

Extract version

Steep grains about 45min @156'

1/2 pound of crystal malt 80L
1/2 pound of roasted barley
.75 pound of chocolate malt
1 pound of lactose

7 pounds of Amber LME

Chocolate syrup at bottleing

This week coming up I will post my result about the og

Recipe design noob here - can someone explain the 90 minute boil time on this?

In researching, I'm seeing a few advantages of a longer boil and none seem to apply to this beer except maybe the last one below.

• Higher gravity
• Hop utilization
• DMS boil off (for pilsners)
• Maillard reactions (i.e. melanoidin formation)

I'm planning on brewing this next week. I plan to brew 3.5 gal and add orange zest to 1 gallon. I hope it has some where close to the same chocolate level as Southern Tier's Choklat.