Cocoa Powder in Primary?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

jiffybrew

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 16, 2007
Messages
93
Reaction score
0
I've got a chocolate porter fermenting away. Besides chocolate roasted grains i also wanted to add cocoa powder for an extra chocolate kick. I was trying to keep things easy by skipping the secondary but i was wondering if its okay to add the cocoa powder to the primary after fermentation OR should i move to the secondary and then add the cocoa powder?
 
I would think add to the secondary then transfer. I've never done it but it sounds like it will incorporate and dissolve better.
 
mix it with some warm water to dissolve and you may want to bring that to a boil for sanitation. then, i would think you could add it at any stage. i've got a chocolate stout going now, i added the powder at the end of the boil and i added nibs at secondary. i'll be bottling it tomorrow (if i can find some lactose)
 
I recently listened to Jamil's podcast where he outlined how to brew a chocolate cherry stout. He suggests adding the cocoa during the last 5 minutes of the boil. He also mentioned then, that you need to make sure that if you transfer to a secondary (because he doesn't) that you should make sure to get as much cocoa picked up by the siphon as possible. I believe he mentioned something about exposing the beer to the cocoa over a considerable amount of time will add the most amount of chocolate flavor. I would add it when you transfer it.
 
thanks everyone. I wanted to add to the last 5 min of boil but i also was reading that this actually extracts a lot of the bitterness from the chocolate, so for optimal chocolate taste without the bitterness, add to secondary. So i guess i wont skip out on the secondary.
 
Back
Top