Chocolate Stout

Hello:

I have a dumb question...I want to brew a chocolate stout. My friend gave me a huge chunk of very high quality dark (sweetened) chocolate. What would be the down side of using 8-10 oz of this chocolate in the boil? Is there another way to use this product? I know I am supposed to use cocoa powder but just wondering.

There are no rules about what kind of chocolate to use. Cocoa powder is commonly used because it's easily available and usually has nothing but chocolate in it.

Read the ingredients of your chocolate. If it says it's pure cocoa, then you're all good. If it has any kinds of cocoa butter, fats, etc. added to it, then you'll want to avoid it. Anything with butter or fats in it will release oils into your beer that will kill the head on it.

As for when to use them...again, no rules. I usually add half of my chocolate in the last 5 minutes of the boil to avoid extracting too much bitterness from the chocolate. I add the other half to the secondary fermenter to add more aroma.