Sweet Stout Deception Cream Stout

mikecshultz said:

I soaked 8 oz of cocoa nibs in a cup of vanilla rum overnight and threw them into the primary for a week. Added a really awesome chocolate flavor to the beer.

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Sounds great. Have you tried the recipe both ways? Love to hear a side by side taste opinion.
Thanks for the reply.

stevefarns said:

Sounds great. Have you tried the recipe both ways? Love to hear a side by side taste opinion.
Thanks for the reply.

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I have not. I don't I will just because the chocolate flavor is perfect, and I wouldn't want it an less chocolatey.

Cool. Thanks for the feedback. I am thinking pretty seriously about doing the same. What type of chocolate did you use?

Brewing this again tomorrow. Gona try out my new shed since its our typical rainy mess here on the Columbia River. LHBS didn't have my yeast so went with 002 English ale. Also gona try a secondary with vanilla beans soaked in makers mark. Hope all goes well and I don't burn the place down.

stevefarns said:

Cool. Thanks for the feedback. I am thinking pretty seriously about doing the same. What type of chocolate did you use?

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I just went o whole foods and got the only cocoa nibs they had. It came in an 8 oz can. The rum was Mauritian rum that I got while on vacation there, but I am sure any hard alcohol would do the trick. The nibs soak up a lot of the booze. So don't worry if it looks like they are swimming when you start to soak them.

Going to give this one a try. As ab amateur homebrewer, any trouble points to look out for?

Definitely would recommend having a blowoff tube. The activity on this recipe is quite high the first couple of days. Enjoy!!

I'm having a problem with my gravity. I followed the all grain recipe but my og is reading 1.040. What did I do wrong and did I ruin this batch?
Thanks

Correction, my og is 1.036

moboy said:

Correction, my og is 1.036

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Probably a mixing problem. If you did the extract version, then it is not possible to "miss" your gravity. Your gravity sample was probably not fully mixed with the extract, and your sample had more water than extract in it. I would not worry about that at all.

Woke this morning to find this near-bomb in the shower. Dragged it out for a pic! Fermentation is right at 68. With a 1800 ml starter, I will leave the top just resting on the rim for first 24 hours. Just so it doesn't blow all over my beautiful Belgians.

Yipes! What evil, monstrous, yeast did that to your poor fermenter?

WLP002. English ale. Gonna drop the temps tonight. Try to Calm that thing down.

FermentNEthinG said:

Woke this morning to find this near-bomb in the shower. Dragged it out for a pic! Fermentation is right at 68. With a 1800 ml starter, I will leave the top just resting on the rim for first 24 hours. Just so it doesn't blow all over my beautiful Belgians.

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Hahahaha. That's awesome. Makes for a good story when you are sitting back and sipping on this one.

Has anyone tried this with a late hop addition or even a dry hop?

Gonna start the New Years Eve with this stout. Too easy and too good not to have it on rotation on these chilly days.


Cheers to you folks!

chronoclast said:

Has anyone tried this with a late hop addition or even a dry hop?

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Yes. I did a SMALL late hop addition when I brewed this beer. since the recipe called for 0.8 ounces of Magnum at 60 minutes, and I hate to let leftover hops sit in my fridge, I added the remaining .2 ounces of magnum (I had a 1 ounce packet) at 5 minutes.

I do not think that it made that much difference in the final brew, since the late addition was so small, but this is a very malty (almost sweet) easy-drinking beer that could easily absorb a more aggressive hop schedule.

I even found myself considering upping the hopping rate by about 3X, adding another pound or 2 of amber extract, and fermenting with a Trappist yeast. I think this would make a very interesting base for a "Belgian Stout"

I brewed this two days ago and was quite impressed with aromas and flavor of this recipe! The only change I did was to use Scotch Ale yeast for fermentation. Letting this sit for a couple of months is going to be quite hard!

Finishing my last bottle now from the batch I brewed last February. Seems to peak at 6-9 months.

edroberts said:

Finishing my last bottle now from the batch I brewed last February. Seems to peak at 6-9 months.

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Wow, mine is only 4 weeks in the bottle, and it is damn-near amazing already. I hope I can have enough willpower to leave a few bottles around for that long to see how they age.

putting this one in the queue, looks like a great recipe. Thanks!

I am a full 4 weeks into primary with my batch. Later tonight I am racking into secondary onto 6oz of dark chocolate nibs. I have had them sitting vodka over night to kill any nastiness. Excited to move this to the next step. Hopefully bottling next weekend.

stevefarns said:

I am a full 4 weeks into primary with my batch. Later tonight I am racking into secondary onto 6oz of dark chocolate nibs. I have had them sitting vodka over night to kill any nastiness. Excited to move this to the next step. Hopefully bottling next weekend.

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Should turn out excellent. I have not tried nibs with this recipe yet, but that should go very well with this one. Let us know how it turns out.

I am enjoying a batch of this now bottled 5 weeks ago. I added 4oz of bakers chocolate at flame out. It tastes outstandingly similar to Youngs Double Chocolate. Enjoy!

Have a batch getting ready to hit the secondary. Thought I would try nibs out as well. I have about 10 ounces sitting in some 160 proof vanilla bean infused vodka. Smells great!

i am pitching this on a nottingham yeast cake. Should i mash at a higher temperature to compensate for the high attenuation of nottingham. I was planning on mashing at 156 unless you guys think that would make it too sweet

My local hb doesn't have 60/40 wheat. Is the briess 55/45 ok?

For those of you kegging this one try this.

Bottle 3 and toss a coffee bean in each one, then drink 1, 2 and 3 days later 1 day gives a nice aroma 2 and 3 days coffee flavor.

Still haven't bottled mine. Hopefully this weekend. After seeing those nibs above, I should probably call mine chunks. I just broke a couple dark pure chocolate bars into small pieces and racked on top of them. Cant wait to try.
My wife likes coffee stouts, I might try the coffee bean idea in the bottles with a few. I like the idea of experamenting with a few bottles like that.

I just picked up the supplies to make this bad boy. My LHBS only had Bavarian 65/35 wheat. The amber is a sparkling amber.



Hoping it comes out nice still. Was able to pick up the Denny's Fav and the German Magnum. This will be first brew that doesn't use a dry yeast.

Brewed the extract version on Saturday. I was lazy and didn't make a starter. Pitched a vial of WLP013 (London Ale) straight into the bucket. Once it got going, it really took off. I had to change the airlock and it was seeping out of the side of the fermenting bucket.

My new year's resolution is to make more yeast starters. I might pull the trigger on a stir plate. I'm confident that this one is still going to be a fine, tasty beverage though.

Stir plate is helpful but is also a lot of fun. You basically increase your brew day activities by a day or two, plus it's all :science: and stuff.

Since switching to dry yeast I've skipped on the starters also I brew outside so sometimes the weather calls an audible for me and tells me not to brew LOL.

So, I smacked my wyeast Denny's Fav in preparation for the brew night. Just realized I don't have a yeast nutrient. Wouldn't the Wyeast nutrient be enough, or am I screwed?

I don't think so - a yeast nutrient isn't mandatory. I've never used one.

4JBrew said:

So, I smacked my wyeast Denny's Fav in preparation for the brew night. Just realized I don't have a yeast nutrient. Wouldn't the Wyeast nutrient be enough, or am I screwed?

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I think wyeast has nutrient already in the smack pack. Smack it let it sit at room temp while you are brewing it will swell open it up and pitch to your wort. Easy as pie !!!

FermentNEthinG said:

Have a batch getting ready to hit the secondary. Thought I would try nibs out as well. I have about 10 ounces sitting in some 160 proof vanilla bean infused vodka. Smells great!

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Were you planning on using 10 oz on 5 gallons? The vanilla sounds like a wonderful idea.

I racked onto the 10 ounces of nibs about a week ago. (5 gallon batch) I will be racking this into a Cornelius keg on Sunday. Can't wait to start pouring this off the tap!

Brewed the extract version yesterday. Worried because my OG was only 1.040. I'm hoping my hydrometer was screwed up. Anyway, here's a little video of the active fermentation after about 24 hours.

[ame="http://youtu.be/ta1utrL4u9A"]http://youtu.be/ta1utrL4u9A[/ame]

If you put in the correct amount of extract, the only thing you could have done to affect OG was put in to much water. If you have the right amount of wort in you carboy and used the right amount of extract, in all likelihood, you're beer is fine and something was wrong with you hydrometer or sample.