Chocolate Hazelnut Porter

Getting ready to brew this beer with real hazelnuts. No extract. Wish me luck.

That's awesome, dude. What are you using to get the Chocolate flavor? Just chocolate grain or are you using other specialty ingredients as well? I'd be real interested in seeing that recipe.

15 oz of natural cocoa powder at 5 mins in the boil. I've also got .5 lb of chocolate malt in there. As porter's go this is going to be on the light side color-wise. I'll post the recipe once the process is done.

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JasonToews said:

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What he said

Same here!

Don't use powder . Find cocoa nibs. Just trust me.

Jerryskids said:

Don't use powder . Find cocoa nibs. Just trust me.

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Already commited to it. If it isn't sufficient I'll add nibs, soaked in bourbon, in the secondary.

if u use the cocoa nibs, ground em up an just sanitize em in the oven. worked flawless for me. cocoa powder, nibs and chocolate grain!!!! fireeeeee on tha bayou!!!! lol Good Luck bra!

oh yeah, how are u incorporating the hazel nuts? curious. I do a double chocolate banana stout and them hazel nuts in there sound goooooood!

WheaYat said:

if u use the cocoa nibs, ground em up an just sanitize em in the oven. worked flawless for me. cocoa powder, nibs and chocolate grain!!!! fireeeeee on tha bayou!!!! lol Good Luck bra!

oh yeah, how are u incorporating the hazel nuts? curious. I do a double chocolate banana stout and them hazel nuts in there sound goooooood!

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Hazelnuts got roasted, chopped and thrown in the mash. We'll see what comes of it. I tasted a little bit ago, so far so good.

ok cool ! no oil issues? might affect the head retention a tad huh? I did a pecan brown and the pecan oils kinda screwed my head up. even after wicking the oils over and over in the oven. but I'm sure pecans have slot more oil then hazelnuts. let us know! curious sounds delicious !

WheaYat said:

ok cool ! no oil issues? might affect the head retention a tad huh? I did a pecan brown and the pecan oils kinda screwed my head up. even after wicking the oils over and over in the oven. but I'm sure pecans have slot more oil then hazelnuts. let us know! curious sounds delicious !

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We'll see what happens. I tried to offset the oil issue with a little wheat malt and carapils. I did a lot of research on the pecan browns when I was trying to figure out how to handle the hazelnuts.

No worries though. I'm finishing off the last of my cranberry dubbel while the mash progresses. Life is good.

I've used Triple Sec and Kona Coffee Liqueur to bottle prime. If you end up wanting more hazelnut you could consider bottle priming with Frangelico (unless its going in a keg).

how much are u using to prime 5 gallons?

Mash is finished. I can taste the hazelnuts in the wort. Lets see if it makes it through the boil.

WheaYat said:

how much are u using to prime 5 gallons?

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It depends on the liqueur you are using. When I used the Triple Sec (for a wheat beer) I used a full 750 ml bottle and no other sugar. There is a formula for calculating this in Randy Mosher's Radical Brewing.

I made a spreadsheet, if you would like a copy send me a pm.

Safely in the primary with the yeast pitched. Mash temps were a little wacky today but I think that's just a testament to the fact that I need a Thermapen. Gravity targets were spot on. Tasted a bit and the hazelnuts and chocolate are definitely there and playing well together. Now to see if they survive in harmony through fermentation.

cool cool cool !!!! GOOD STUFF !

how many lbs of hazel nuts? i did my brown with almost 2 lbs of pecans. its a ***** gettin the oils out of em !!!

I did a pound of hazelnuts. I don't think they are nearly as oily as pecans. There seemed to be a bit of oil at the start of the boil but it all got pulled in with the hot break.

cool let us know how it unfolds

Yeast was a little slow to start. My last few batches have seen the krausen peak within the first 24 hours. Looks like this one will peak tomorrow but it seems to be moving along fine.

right on!

Hoping to rack this weekend. No huge krausen on this one. I wonder if the oils are affecting the surface tension. The fermentation has been strong and steady since it kicked it. Looks like there is a lot of trub. About 4 times what I usually see.
Can't wait to taste it going into the secondary.

cool cool ! let us know brotha'

It has been racked to the secondary. Tasted it and the hazelnuts and chocolate are definitely there. I'd like to have had a little more malt flavor coming through but I'd rather have it understrength than overpowering the other flavors.

The hazelnuts were roasted until crunchy. I looked up a lot of recipes for roasting them and could not find a consensus. I simply roasted them until they tasted done to me. I let them cool and threw them in the food processor. I ran them until they were a variety of sizes, that way I was extracting all the possible flavors. They went in the mash with the grain. I think they messed with my temperatures but I just corrected for it as best I could.

Time to let it rest in the secondary and we'll see what it tastes like at bottling. Now that I've tasted it fermented I'm willing to share the recipe. So here it is.

Recipe: Theobroma Filbertus
Style: Robust Porter
TYPE: All Grain


Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 6.31 gal
Estimated OG: 1.062 SG
Estimated Color: 23.8 SRM
Estimated IBU: 40.3 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
6.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 54.55 %
1.00 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 9.09 %
1.00 lb Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 9.09 %
1.00 lb Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 9.09 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 4.55 %
0.50 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 4.55 %
1.00 oz Chinook [11.90 %] (60 min) Hops 40.3 IBU
1.00 lb Hazelnuts (Mash 60.0 min) Misc
15.00 oz Cocoa Powder (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
1.00 lb Brown Sugar, Light (8.0 SRM) Sugar 9.09 %
1 Pkgs American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) Yeast-Ale


Mash Schedule:
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
30 min Step Add 7.50 qt of water at 136.7 F 122.0 F
60 min Step Add 6.00 qt of water at 196.2 F 150.0 F

Bottling tomorrow.

Everything is safely into bottles. Tasted it and both the flavors are still there. I definitely think it has improved with the aging as there seems to be more harmony now in the overall flavor.

Now for the final bit of waiting.

that's awesome man!

Sounds very intriguing. I'm interested to hear how it comes out.

Subscribed. Sounds yummy.

I feel compelled beyond reason to try a bottle already....

U CAN DOOOOOO IT!!!!!! lol

Subscribed. Sounds like heaven in a glass to me!

Yea awesome recipe I love things like this, porters are deff some of my favorites and based on the hazelnuts beers ive had I prefer the flavor to be mild and not like drinking hazelnut coffee as much...anyway sounds delicious!

So tonight I tried it...

Sampled at room temp.

First impressions: head was substantial but dissipates quickly. Strong hazelnut aroma.
Flavors: first hazelnuts, then some malty sweetness, then a double sense of bitter from hops and something like baking chocolate and then a lingering hint of nuttiness. Undertones of raisins, probably esters.

Overall I am really pleased with it. There seems to be a little astringency but I can't tell if it is the chocolate or possible I over sparged.

nice!!!!!!

It's hard to tell until it's conditioned long enough. Enjoy!

I passed some out to people at work and friends. Very positive response even from people who don't favor darker beers.

Has it been long enough time in the bottle already for it to be conditioned well enough?

Going on three weeks.