adding chocolate to beer

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While everyones comments are deffinetly great, I wonder if incorporating that same idea in the form of infusing an alcohol or using a flavored alcohol at bottling or in secondary fermintation might produce just as good results. I can speak from experience that adding things like peppermint schnapps works great. So, it would only make since that godiva or other "flavored" spirits might work as well. I would just be very cautious of also added sugars so as to not have "beer bombs".
 
Coastie said:
I'm getting ready to make a milk chocolate stout and have 4 oz of nibs. I've seen some people make a tincture witch vodka and others just dump them into secondary. Is there a big difference between these two methods?
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I dumped 4 oz of cocoa nibs to a 7% ABV secondary, without sterilizing them, and have had no ill effects. The brew settled out to 9.35% and is in tertiary to clear until Tuesday. I wouldn't be terribly concerned about infection. You could just boil the nibs (they won't melt) if you're worried. If you have the time, a tincture is fine, but make sure it's a quality vodka that won't impart any off tastes.
 
There is chocolate extract specifically made for home brew. Brewers best is the brand that I will be using today which I bought from midwest supplies. regardless of the type of chocolate, you should always add flavor boosters during the bottling or kegging phase, dump in your keg after transfer or dump in your bottling bucket. the fermentation process negatively affects the your flavor booster. Something else to keep in mind is sediment, so I highly recommend using the proper extract rather than powder or solids.

Cheers
 
I made an PM oatmeal stout that I added 4oz of nibs to my secondary that is so astringent/bitter, it's undrinkable. I bottled in May and still not drinkable, not sure if time will fix it.

I suspect the problem was (1) I used cheap vodka, (2) I had the nibs soaking in the fridge for a week. I planned to just soak overnight, but when I went to rack it to the secondary the next day, it had high krausen so I had to wait a week for it to finish out.

What would be a good vodka to use to soak with? Absolut, Stoli? Just curious what others use.
 
pouncey007 said:
There is chocolate extract specifically made for home brew. Brewers best is the brand that I will be using today which I bought from midwest supplies. regardless of the type of chocolate, you should always add flavor boosters during the bottling or kegging phase, dump in your keg after transfer or dump in your bottling bucket. the fermentation process negatively affects the your flavor booster. Something else to keep in mind is sediment, so I highly recommend using the proper extract rather than powder or solids.

Cheers
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I think extracts should only be used for enhancement - just to avoid that super artificial flavoring that some commercial beers get.
 
As an update to this. I have just made 2 more beers with chocolate. I did some experiments with extract, bakers, and more nibs. Extract is my least favorite. Go taste Sam Adams chocolate Bock and see if you like the extract taste. That is exactly what I was reminded of when I try it. Just my 2 cents.
 
I've used cocoa powder and crushed cacao nibs. The cacao nibs impart the best flavor and leave no powdery residue behind.
 
A buddy of mine and I just brewed a winter warmer ale and were just discussion our next iteration of it.

We're pretty cemented on the thought of the use of chocolate, and then adding cinnamon and orange peel to it to give it a bit of an nostalgic reminder to those chocolate oranges we used to have around Christmas time.

I, however, have NO IDEA what amounts we would need for each ingredient. We'll end up doing a 5-gallon batch, going with a porter style.

Any suggestions for a starting point would be greatly appreciated!
 
I have used 100% pure chocolate added to the boil and chocolate extract added at bottling

Extract is the best for flavor and has no affect on head retention

The pure chocolate adds less flavor, kills the head but adds significantly to mouth feel, in the sense that is makes the beer more oily.
 
Looks to be an old thread, lots of good ones here on this site. I have yet to try the cocoa nibs, though its on my list. My experience with extracts is that they yield good aromas but fake flavors.

Chocolate malt, can be great by itself. Hard to overdo unless you approach 3/4 -1 lb. Cocoa powder can work great with...time. 4 oz of Hersheys unsweetend powder added late in a boil will give a ton of chocolate flavor. But you better account for the 7-9 weeks it takes for the flavor to smooth out and mellow. Forget about drinking it right away, yuck.

Have yet to try processed chocolate as well, but I am nitpicky about a head on my beer so I doubt I ever try it.
 
solbes said:
Looks to be an old thread, lots of good ones here on this site. I have yet to try the cocoa nibs, though its on my list. My experience with extracts is that they yield good aromas but fake flavors.

Chocolate malt, can be great by itself. Hard to overdo unless you approach 3/4 -1 lb. Cocoa powder can work great with...time. 4 oz of Hersheys unsweetend powder added late in a boil will give a ton of chocolate flavor. But you better account for the 7-9 weeks it takes for the flavor to smooth out and mellow. Forget about drinking it right away, yuck.

Have yet to try processed chocolate as well, but I am nitpicky about a head on my beer so I doubt I ever try it.
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I use this extract

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B006LZI3LG/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

the ingredients are listed as "Water, Alcohol (48%), Cocoa Bean Extractives"

so nothing synthetic in this extract, I suspect you can get similarly go ones in the states.

For chocolate I have used

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00JA68DPO/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

I used it in an imperial stout where head wasn't an issue.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Perfectly timed thread as I have a stout in secondary into which I pitched nibs last week. First crack at this. For those who have used nibs in secondary, do they ever dissolve. Looks like most of mine are still floating on the top. Relax, don't worry about it, and package?
 
tfrommer said:
Perfectly timed thread as I have a stout in secondary into which I pitched nibs last week. First crack at this. For those who have used nibs in secondary, do they ever dissolve. Looks like most of mine are still floating on the top. Relax, don't worry about it, and package?
Click to expand...


Cacao nibs are simply chocolate in its purest form, before anything else is added. They are dried and fermented bits of cacao beans.

In short, of they do melt, do NOT drink the beer. You've managed to create an organic acid rather than beer.:)

Seriously, you'll need to filter them out, as you would with hop congress used for dry hoping.
 
Bumping an old thread.

Has anyone had a refermentation take place with the nibs in the primary/secondary? I put some nibs in a porter which had been soaked in bourbon for a couple of days and then boiled about a week a go. Now starting to get slight airlock activity which has been silent for over a week. The owner of the shop i got them from said he uses them and that theyre full of conplex sugars, takes the yeast a while to get back going. Just trying to get my gead round this. Thanks
 

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