Chocolate, Oatmeal, Cream stout? HELP!

Dear Fellow Brewers,

I must first say I am truely loving this site, I've been soaking up all of the info over a Dreamweaver (for those of you not from PA... Dreamweaver is a unfilter wheat, spicy and quite refreshing at 8 in the morning.
Ok, I am inquiring because I need help. I grown fond of chocolate, cream and oatmeal stouts. I favor the chocolate taste, not so much the sometimes overpowering bitter coffee taste.
I would like to know if I can prove my worth to an adept brewer who could shoot me some ideas as to how I can make my ideal brew. Oh and I forgot I got like 2lbs of cacao beans from Peru to use!

Brewing isn't rocket surgery, but it is sort of like painting. We can suggest some colors to use, but will you be able to to paint well?

What kind of recipe are you looking for? Using chocolate in a beer is rather unusual (but not unheard of)... most people use chocolate malt instead.

Forgive me, but I don't know if I'm talking down to you or above your head...

Thank you for your reply....I follow you...I used to be a professional chef so I know what you mean by painting....What I desire to make is a stout with the smooth mouth feel of an oatmeal or cream stout, not very bitter and little to no coffee elements. I have been readig around and some people attest to using the chocolate beans in the mash or as one would coffee or other specialty grains. I just don't know how one would accomplish that. the other recipes I see call for chocolate bars, powder or some other stuff, but I've got these beans (the real stuff). For example one recipe I gatehred call for
4 oz. black malt
4 oz. chocolate malt
4 oz. roasted barley
7 lbs. dark dry malt extract
2 oz. unsweetened baker's chocolate, broken
8 AAU Target hops (1 oz. of 8% alpha acid)
4 AAUs Fuggles hops (1 oz. of 4% alpha acid)
1 pint starter of English ale yeast (White Labs WLP002 or Wyeast 1968)
3/4 cup dry malt extract for priming

None of the recipes I come across utilize the actual beans, that's what I need. Then I would ask if and when to add lactose to oatmeal

The problem with using beans is the cocoa butter, it's a major head-killer. Grinding the beans is a pain, because the fat makes for mush (AKA cocoa mass). I tried it once, but never again.

Are you brewing all grain or extract with steeping grains? I'm a extract with steeping grains brewer so I will answer what I've done to make specialty stouts (like chocolate).

BTW, it is pretty easy to do using individual ingredients but since I don't know your level or accessibility to ingredients, I'll suggest the easiest way.

Find a Oatmeal stout kit that sounds good to you. When making it, modify it for your tastes. Namely adding cocoa powder and lactose. I like it chocolaty and creamy so I add an 8 ounce can of cocoa and 16 ounces of lactose. It's a lot of lactose but Cocoa powder is very bitter and will give you that harsh flavor that you mention you don't like. I would stay away from kits that have black patent malt for the same reason.

Midwest has a nice Oatmeal stout kit that I've modified and it came out really nice. I can't speak for Austin Homebrew but I'm sure they have good one too. One thing to note about Midwest, if you order the kit with the dry yeast it will be Muntons. Nothing terribly wrong with Muntons but I've never had it ferment out as completely as I like. I always switch it out for Nottingham (dry) or their recommended liquid.

That's my 2¢ worth of thoughts. Welcome to HBT!

Dear David 42,

thank you for you info

Dear Nurmey,

Thanks alot, I will check out midwest's website, but what do you think I can do with the beans?

I brewed a chocolate, oatmeal, vanilla, milk stout about a year ago. We used cocoa powder, vanilla extract, and lactose... it turned out pretty good. I can't give you a whole lot of help with the beans but cocoa powder works pretty well.

If you're set on using the bean, but want to avoid the mess d_42 mentioned why not steep them in alcohol (vodka?) to make a cocoa tincture that you can then add to achieve the flavor intensity you're looking for? Do you think that would work?