4 experiments planned for tomorrow. Cocoa and Coffee

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Marius

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Hey guys, first, as usual, excuse my english, I don't use it often ok?

I'm planning 4 different experiments for tomorrow. I have an Imperial Porter (7%ABV) that has been in primary for a week. Tomorrow I'll rack the 20 litres (5'3 gallons) in four different vessels, 5 litres each (1,5 gallons). The point is to check wich is the best way to add cacao and coffe to a beer in a secondary.

So here are my ideas:

Vessel 1: 1,5 Gallons. 50 grams (1,75 ounces) of cocoa powder poured directly on the fermenter and rack the beer on top. Let sit for two weeks.

Possible problems: Cocoa not sanitized. Possible contamination.
Cocoa powder not dissolving, Cocoa floating everywere. Need filter.

Vessel 2: 1,5 Gallons. 50 grams (1,75 ounces) of cocoa powder disolved in very little amount of boiled water. Mix with the beer and let sit for two weeks.

Possible problems: Little amount of water does not sanitize the cocoa.
More work, but it dissolves. I hope.

Vessel 3: 1,5 Gallons. 25 grams (0'9 ounces) of cold brewed coffee. Boil 250ml (one glass) of water, let chill. Coarse grind the coffee, Mix, let sit 24 hours. Filter, pour into the fermenter. Let sit for two weeks

Possible problems: Coffee not sanitized.

Vessel 4: 1,5 Gallons. 25 grms of coffee beans tossed into the beer. let sit for two weeks

Possible problems: Coffee beans not sanitized.

After writting my plans I realized that these experiments sound really bad since none of them sanitizes the adjunts so if any of you can help with this it would be great. We have 22 hours to get any advise or idea you want to try. I wouln't mind changing of the experiments for a better idea if I have the ingredients.

Ok, I hope in some weeks I can post good results.

:mug:
 
Your English is great compared to a lot of posts that I've seen on here.

At any rate, I wouldn't worry too much about contamination from the stuff that you're adding. I would make sure to sanitize the vessel that you're making the cold-brewed coffee in, though.

Cocoa powder is never going to dissolve in water. It will get into suspension though, but that means it's going to settle out eventually anyway. In that case, you might just want to vary the amount of cocoa that you're putting in, rather than adding the same amount along with water to your beer.
 
I wouldn't bother with undissolved cocoa for the same reasons.

Maybe you can dissolve the cocoa in a small amount of vodka first? Not sure it will stay in suspension in the beer though.

As for coffee I think you should try one with an extremely coarse mill of coffee beans placed in a hop bag and suspend it in the fermenter. Test the batch every so often until you hit the flavor you want and then remove the bag when you hit your desired taste. The way you are proposing, the amount of coffee flavor you get is based on your best guess before you add dissolved coffee and can't be altered.
 
For the same reasons, maybe try coarse grind of cocoa beans in the same way?
 
At any rate, I wouldn't worry too much about contamination from the stuff that you're adding. I would make sure to sanitize the vessel that you're making the cold-brewed coffee in, though.

Cocoa powder is never going to dissolve in water. It will get into suspension though, but that means it's going to settle out eventually anyway. In that case, you might just want to vary the amount of cocoa that you're putting in, rather than adding the same amount along with water to your beer.

This makes sense, cocoa will not dissolve anyway, so experiment number 2 seems stupid,

Then I have an empty vessel and 1,5 gallons of beer to try another thing.:mad:

Any Ideas?

Maybe I could repeat experiment 1 adding a vainilla bean as some people say it helps to the chocolate flavour to define. Or a bit of lactose?
 
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