Stout Has a Lot of Junk Floating In It

Hey all,

So I'm on my third batch of beer. It's a stout and I threw two tablespoons of cocoa powder into the mix. It's been fermenting about 21 days or so and I took a sample out to show a friend who came by. I wasn't expecting anything much but I thought we might at least taste the chocolate.

Well, the beer is completely green, and without a chocolate taste or aftertaste. OK, that's fine -- I can wait and don't need the chocolate taste if it doesn't come. But there was so much...uh..."stuff" floating in the beer. Like as if the cocoa didn't diffuse properly. It was coating the sampling glass. Looked unappealing at best. I didn't impress the friend either!

Question is: is this normal when adding cocoa powder? I won't be using a secondary so is there another course of action to get rid of this stuff? I was planning on leaving the stout to ferment for a full month anyway, then 3 weeks in the bottle. Will that change matters?

Thanks,
WW

If it's baking cocoa then I see no reason as to why it wouldn't completely dissolve in the wort boil. Plus, two tablespoons won't really give you any taste over the overbearing stout flavor.

Can't tell you what's up with the green. I can only assume unsanitary practices that lead to infection.


But do yourself a favor: if you want help from people, you're more likely to get a response if you actually give us some information. At least SOMETHING! Nobody even knows if it's all-grain or extract. We need:

- AG, partial or extract?
- Recipe
- Boil times
- Mash schedule (if AG)
- fermentation vessel and fermentation temperatures
- When you added the cocoa (boil or during fermentation)
- Smell (well, it's green so something has to be up)

...and any other information you can give us.

RDWHAHB (in your case, I'd stick to a store-bought brew)

Well fair enough. It's just a Cooper's kit. I poured the mix into the boiling water as per the instructions and used honey for the fermentables. I threw the cocoa in for five minutes before turning off the heat. Still using the Mr. Beer keg so I'm not measuring gravity -- just keeping it in for 4 weeks.

When I said it was green I didn't mean the color. I meant it's not ready to be drunk yet. Green as in "not mature".

-WW