chocolate Hazelnut milk stout recipe help

I slapped together a recipe on the trial version of beersmith 2 for a chocolate hazelnut milk stout, all grain BIAB

7.5lbs of 2 row
1lb of carafa II
8oz of roasted barley
8oz of caramel/crystal malt 80L
8oz of carafoam
Ioz northern brewer at 60min
.5 ounce fuggles at 15min.
1lb lactose and 4oz ground cocoa at 15min.
US-05 dry yeast

For the hazelnut, I was gonna try to fat wash some hazelnuts and adding the extract at bottling.

How does this all look? Beersmith has me at 5.9% abv, which I'm fine with. A little more isn't a problem. I'm open to any suggestions/recommendations/bitchslaps. Thanks for the help, HBT!

I was thinking of maybe going up a little more on the base malt just to compensate for what may be a slightly low efficiency (I'm a pessimist). I'm definitely a newbie when it comes to all grain, but I'm a sucker for tasty stouts.

I would appreciate any help with mash temperatures as well. I will be using a single vessel BIAB method in a 15 gal pot. I've noticed that there is no chocolate malt in there...should there be? I need to read some good literature on designing recipes...

Also, I've heard of mixed results regarding hazelnut extracts. At this point, I'd either make my own via the fat washing method, or just use some Frangelico.

I've heard carafa II gives a better chocolate flavor than chocolate malt. Go figure. I'm testing this out now but the beer is still in primary.

I'd mash at 155.

JimTheHick said:

I've heard carafa II gives a better chocolate flavor than chocolate malt. Go figure. I'm testing this out now but the beer is still in primary.

I'd mash at 155.

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Thanks for the mash temp suggestion!

I'm looking to have the LHBS put these ingredients together soon, so I'm just trying to get some feedback here before I put the official "do it" in.

No problem. The lower you mash the drier the beer will be. Yeast strain also makes a big difference. Good luck!

Order hazelnut extract from your lhbs and add it at bottling..

So I am sitting at the local brewery, Dry Dock, having a a really tasty hand pulled old ale looking for my next recipe. I come across this one and say to SWMBO, this sounds tasty. Without missing a beat she says let's make it (I love this woman). Walk next door to to the LHBS and buy all the stuff to throw it together. But I have a question for the OP, how did it turn out.

Just_Mike said:

So I am sitting at the local brewery, Dry Dock, having a a really tasty hand pulled old ale looking for my next recipe. I come across this one and say to SWMBO, this sounds tasty. Without missing a beat she says let's make it (I love this woman). Walk next door to to the LHBS and buy all the stuff to throw it together. But I have a question for the OP, how did it turn out.

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I wish I could tell ya! I'm getting ingredients this weekend from Love2Brew, so we'll probably be able to compare notes around the same time! Let me know how the brewing process goes

flyingfinbar said:

I wish I could tell ya! I'm getting ingredients this weekend from Love2Brew, so we'll probably be able to compare notes around the same time! Let me know how the brewing process goes

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Okay then, will be brewing Sunday, will let you know.

Started at 5am

And we are done. Gotta love a counter flow chiller and 48° water



So I made a few tweaks for my taste.

Here is what the final recipe I used looked like:

7.5lbs Colorado 2 Row
1lbs Carafa III (preferred to II)
1lbs Lactose (15 min)
1lbs Pils DME(I had some laying around)
8oz Carafoam
8oz Crystal 70-80(british)
8oz Roasted Barley
1.75oz Amarillo(AA9.3) 60min
6oz Cocoa 15min
1oz Challenger(AA7.2) 10min
Sa-04 Yeast.

Should be tasty

Just tweaked it to what I had for hops

Cool man! Looks good, I'll hopefully be getting to mine sometime tomorrow, looking forward to the brew.

So I brewed this recipe on Monday of this week. I made a couple last minute changes, as soon as I find my sheet I'll fill everyone in. I ended up going with 8 ounces of Cocoa powder in the boil. My intention is to rack it onto some cacao nibs for a really heavy chocolate aroma/flavor, then add hazelnut extract at bottling to get a chocolate hazelnut dessert type thing going on. Here's my question: How many ounces of cacao nibs to I go with in secondary? Also, I've heard of chocolate being rather bitter in beer, should I possibly steep a vanilla bean in some vodka with the cacao nibs for a week before I rack onto them, just to temper some of the chocolate bitterness with the vanilla? Thanks everyone!

I'm interested to know how this turned out having used all that carafa II. Was it dehusked carafa?