Chocolate Stout Help

Today I received the ingredients for a chocolate stout recipe I formulated. After going through all of the stock, I'm starting to think I over did it. I did a lot of research and used the Homebrew Formulator software as a guide, but I'm worried that it's just not going to turn out as good as I want it (this is only the second recipe I've formulated and I'm still trying to get a hang of it). I'm hoping I can get some advice, so I'm posting the recipe below. Still not sure which way I'm going to go as far as adding the chocolate so I'm leaving that part out for now, here is the base recipe:

Extract with Grains:

5# Dark DME
1# Extra dark DME
1# Crystal 120
1# Roasted Barley
1/2# chocolate malt
1/2# Carapils
1 # Lactose

1 oz Goldings - 60 min
.75 oz Goldings - 30 min
.5 oz Fuggles - 5 min

White labs WLP004 - Irish Ale Yeast

I know the ABV is coming out a bit high for the style (7.3 %) and I'm okay with that. I feel that the I.B.U. is at a good place and the S.R.M. is okay as well. Like I said, I'm just concerned that I overdid it with the grains and the whole thing is going to become a muddled mess. Any advice on what I can cut back on/add more of? I already have all the ingredients, but it wouldn't be difficult to cut back or add something if I needed to.

Thanks!

When I do extract I always use light DME so I'm not sure what the dark will be like. It looks like a nice stout recipe, however, I see one little thing.

I would reduce the roasted barley down to 1/2 or even 1/4 pound. I think the flavor is going to be way too strong using a pound.

Nurmey said:

I would reduce the roasted barley down to 1/2 or even 1/4 pound. I think the flavor is going to be way too strong using a pound.

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That's kind of what I was thinking too. But the software was suggesting 10-12% of roasted barley - 1 pound would put it at exactly 10%, perhaps I should just ignore the software on this one?

Roasted barley has that same harsh flavor to me as strong black coffee so I tend to use it sparingly. I don't think I've ever used more than 1/4 lb in a recipe but that's just my own prejudices. The lactose may off set some of the roasted barley flavor, I'm not sure. I'm sure some other opinions will be thrown in here soon.

Any other thoughts?

Agreed. That's a lot of roast barley for a 5g recipe. I'd probably half the roast barley too. Also, you may want to think about ditching the late hop addition. Most stout's can do well with a single bittering addition. But that's kind of a personal preference thing.

I just did a chocolate stout this past weekend myself. I really don't think you over did it. Here is my recipe:
3# amber DME
4.5# DLME
.5# black patent
.5# American choc.
.5# roasted barley
.5# special B
.5# cara-pils
then I added chocolate extract, vanilla ext & cocoa powder (unsweetened)

I think it came out smellin really nice. I compiled a few recipes to make this. Then again this is my first stout too. Try it...you might like it. If not, try again.

How much cocoa powder did you add? I assume it's unsweetened. Did you add it to the boil?

Thanks for the advice, I'll be cutting the roasted barley back to .5, still thinking about the hop idea. Also, like I mentioned in my original post, I'm still not sure how I want to add the chocolate. I've looked into a couple of ideas and I'm not trying to make this an "adding chocolate to beer" thread. But I'm wondering, what have you guys found gives you the best results personally? I'm not looking for an overwhelming chocolate punch, but a nice round flavor. I figure the lactose will be giving me a good deal of sweetness, but still want that nice round chocolate. So what do you guys consider the best way?

telemarc said:

How much cocoa powder did you add? I assume it's unsweetened. Did you add it to the boil?

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That's what I was wondering. I just did a BYO Young's clone, which wanted IIRC 6oz (!) of unsweetened cocoa in the boil, and 2oz of choc extract in the secondary. The extract was hard to find, finally mailordere it from a boutique. I was thinking of adding 1 fl oz of vanilla extract in the secondary.

fratermus said:

That's what I was wondering. I just did a BYO Young's clone, which wanted IIRC 6oz (!) of unsweetened cocoa in the boil, and 2oz of choc extract in the secondary. The extract was hard to find, finally mailordere it from a boutique. I was thinking of adding 1 fl oz of vanilla extract in the secondary.

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FYI, Dean and Deluca and Williams Sonoma carry Nielsen-Massey extracts, of which the chocolate is often recommended (including by John Maier) for beer making. Obviously this isn't much help if you don't live near one of these stores, but the Nielsen-Massey website does have a store locater and several local places in my city carry them.

telemarc said:

How much cocoa powder did you add? I assume it's unsweetened. Did you add it to the boil?

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I added about 6 oz. to the last 10 mins. of my boil and 4 oz. of the chocolate extract at 5 mins. with the vanilla too. I found the extract at Whole Foods...kinda pricey @ $7.99 a bottle. I read another recipe where he added only 4 oz of the (yes) unsweetened cocoa power and said he would add more next time.

I've only brewed one chocolate stout, but I just threw it in the last 10 min of the boil. Not very much is needed to make itself apparent (about 2-4 ounces). And don't go cheap on the chocolate. Shop around and find something with the balance of earthy, roasty, bitter and sweet flavors that you want. Since you need so little, paying for high quality chocolate won't be too cost restrictive.

Brewed this up on Monday, and I'm happy to say that everything went well (landed right on the 1.076 OG). I ended up going with 5 (ish) oz of unsweetened cocoa powder with 10 minutes left in the boil. It looks and smells like Young's Double Chocolate...which isn't exactly what I was going for, but I'm not going to complain. I'll have to wait a while to see if I overdid it with the cocoa powder, but as of now I'm thinking I should have used less. Thinking of adding the slightest bit of vanilla extract at bottling, but we'll see. Kugster: you said you added 6 oz of cocoa powder, how did that turn out?