Chocolate Stout Recipe - 1st Try

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mbosco

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Hello All,

I'm a few batches in to home brewing and I'm trying to come up with an extract recipe for a sweet chocolate stout. I've come up with the following, but I'm VERY open to ideas an input.

Steeping Grains:
0.75 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM)
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM)
0.50 lb Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM)

Malt:
7.00 lb Amber Liquid Extract (12.5 SRM)

Hops:
1.50 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] (60 min)
0.50 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] (15 min)

Other:
1.00 lb Milk Sugar (Lactose) (15 minutes)
6oz Cocoa Powder (15 minutes)

Yeast:
1 Pkgs SafAle English Ale (DCL Yeast #S-04)

I've tried to pick pieces of several other recipes to come up with this so bear with me if I'm way off. Thanks in advance!
 
Just thought of one other thing. I've seen some people add in a vanilla bean post brew. Not sure if that's necessary or not, but would love to hear your thoughts.
 
Here is a recipe I got from a local Home brew store. It is a Chocolate/Coffee Stout but I bet you could leave the coffee out without any problems. My batch has been in bottles for a week so I haven't really had a chance to see how it turned out.

5 lbs. Light DME - Muntons Light, Color 8 EBC, Lovibond 3.5
3 lbs. Wheat DME - Muntons Wheat, Color 9 EBC, Lovibond 3.8
2 lbs. Chocolate - Malt English 2 row (L340-453)
1 lb. Roasted Barley - English 2 row
1 lb. Carapilis - English 2 row, Lovibond 9.9 - 13.
1 lb. CaraMunich III - 2 row barley malt, Color 53-60 EBC, Lovibond 140-160
1 lb. Digemans Special B Malt - Heavy Caramel, Raiseny, Lovibond 118

4 oz. Kent Goldings Hops
1 oz. Galena Hop - Avg AA 1 - 14%

White Labs Irish Ale Yeast - WLP004

4 oz. Ground Coffee
8 oz. non sweetened baking chocolate
8 oz. non sweetened cocoa powder
1 Vanilla bean
1 oz. French Oak Chips

Steep grains for 45 minutes
Bring to boil - Add DME , 1 oz. Galena Hops
@50 minutes - 2 oz. Goldings Hops, 8 oz. baking chocolate
@59 minutes - 2 oz. Goldings Hops
@60 minute - stop boil

Cool and into primary - SG 1.090/1.095

3 - 5 days rack to secondary
Split vanilla bean lengthwise and add, add cocoa powder

@ 3 weeks in secondary - add french oaks chips

2 days before bottle or keg
Add coffee to 32 oz. water, cold brew 24 - 48 hours

@ 4 weeks in secondary - ready to bottle or keg
Filter coffee, add to beer and bottle or keg
FG 1.017/1.022
 
I made a mint-chocolate stout a while back, and put probably 10-12 oz cocoa powder in for the last 5 minutes of the boil. It was a bit too much cocoa. Keep us posted with how it turns out, I'm curious if that's a better amount of cocoa
 
Hi All,

Thanks for the input. This is my first try at a recipe from scratch so want to make sure it won't taste like total funk when I'm done....

Mike, what kind of cocoa did you use? I'm not 100% on the amount, but that seems to be what I've seen the most.

Also, anyone have any thoughts on the vanilla bean? Some have said that it will help bring out the chocolate flavor, but I'm not real sure on that part. I typically do not go to secondary, so would I just add directly to primary?
 
OK, cracked one open a few minutes ago.

Good color, good head. More carbonated that I expected for only 26 days in the bottle. More junk than usual at the bottom of the bottle.

The aroma is good and strong. More coffee than chocolate. My initial taste was a little disappointing. The coffee flavor is on the strong side and over powers the chocolate although you can taste the chocolate. I also think it could be sweeter.

I love a good stout but I never really drink chocolate ones. Over the winter I had a couple of 12 packs of Sam Adams variety that contained some chocolate stout was good and inspired me try this own. The Sam Adams was a fair amount sweeter and no coffee.

I think the next batch I would go for an all chocolate stout and leave the coffee out. I might also try a semi-sweet baking chocolate instead of non sweetened chocolate.

Here is a recipe I got from a local Home brew store. It is a Chocolate/Coffee Stout but I bet you could leave the coffee out without any problems. My batch has been in bottles for a week so I haven't really had a chance to see how it turned out.

5 lbs. Light DME - Muntons Light, Color 8 EBC, Lovibond 3.5
3 lbs. Wheat DME - Muntons Wheat, Color 9 EBC, Lovibond 3.8
2 lbs. Chocolate - Malt English 2 row (L340-453)
1 lb. Roasted Barley - English 2 row
1 lb. Carapilis - English 2 row, Lovibond 9.9 - 13.
1 lb. CaraMunich III - 2 row barley malt, Color 53-60 EBC, Lovibond 140-160
1 lb. Digemans Special B Malt - Heavy Caramel, Raiseny, Lovibond 118

4 oz. Kent Goldings Hops
1 oz. Galena Hop - Avg AA 1 - 14%

White Labs Irish Ale Yeast - WLP004

4 oz. Ground Coffee
8 oz. non sweetened baking chocolate
8 oz. non sweetened cocoa powder
1 Vanilla bean
1 oz. French Oak Chips

Steep grains for 45 minutes
Bring to boil - Add DME , 1 oz. Galena Hops
@50 minutes - 2 oz. Goldings Hops, 8 oz. baking chocolate
@59 minutes - 2 oz. Goldings Hops
@60 minute - stop boil

Cool and into primary - SG 1.090/1.095

3 - 5 days rack to secondary
Split vanilla bean lengthwise and add, add cocoa powder

@ 3 weeks in secondary - add french oaks chips

2 days before bottle or keg
Add coffee to 32 oz. water, cold brew 24 - 48 hours

@ 4 weeks in secondary - ready to bottle or keg
Filter coffee, add to beer and bottle or keg
FG 1.017/1.022
 
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