To be honest, we didn't think that there were that much black patents in there. We simply bastardized the
chocolate imperial stout recipe by bubbachunk here. In fact, we even backed off the grain bill a lot, cutting the black patent and the chocolate to a half pound each, and adding a half pound of roasted barley, and 2lbs of English 2-Row to get the sugars back up, and adding lactose for a bit more creaminess.
The chocolate came from a half bottle of creme de cacao in the secondary, and - this is where the shennanigans and on the fly idiocy came in - 6oz of cocoa powder boiled in 12oz of water for 30 mins - during bottling. We couldn't find chocolate extract anywhere local for love nor money, so had to improvise!
Tasted absolutely wonderful at bottling, but these aren't going to be cracked open for 3-4 months, so fingers crossed!
Congrats! Just cuz Griz has been doing it longer doesn't mean it's better! There have been a few things that Griz has said to me that didn't quite add up to what I've read/heard/found out through experience. Although, to be fair, there have also been a ton of things he's been right on.
By the way, love the picture of Griz!
All due respect to the Griz, he's certainly been in the game a lot longer than I have, and he's probably forgotten more than I'll hope to learn. That said, he could use a lesson in social skills, as we've been treated like crap anytime we've gone in there with an eye of doing anything he disagrees with. Like I said, this beer in his eyes would be completely undrinkable so here's to provin' him wrong!