MrNate
Well-Known Member
A couple people asked me about my Hot Chocolate Stout recipe based on my label design, which leads me to believe either one of 2 things: Either it wasn't as crazy an idea as I thought it was, or people are easily duped by advertising. Suckers!
Anyway, here was my design concept and first crack at a recipe.
Concept: A Milk (Sweet) Stout flavored with chocolate, spices, and hot pepper so as to closely resemble Mexican-style spiced hot chocolate. It should not be perceived as bitter; hops should be used to bring balance to the malt sweetness, but the additional Lactose sweetness should be offset by the heat of the pepper. Cinnamon should be noticeable and even bordering on strong but not to the point of overpowering the sweetness nor chocolate. Mouthfeel should be smooth. When you drink a glass of this, you should know that you are drinking a beer and not a Yoo-Hoo, but the chocolate character should nonetheless be the dominant note.
Recipe:
Mashed at 153 for 1:20:
14# Maris Otter
1.2# Quick Oats
.75# Simpson's Med. Crystal
.75# Chocolate Malt
.5# Roasted Barley
Boiled for 60:
.5oz Horizon pellet (10.9%) @60
.5oz Magnum pellet (7.0%) @60
.5oz Fuggle plug (4.5%) @30
1# Lactose @15
8oz Hershey Cocoa Powder @15
1tsp Cinnamon @5
1/2tsp Allspice @5
1/4tsp Nutmeg @5
1/4tsp cloves @5
1 fresh-picked Tabasco pepper @5
Any fairly neutral yeast should work just fine for this recipe. I used Nottingham.
Lessons Learned:
1. Cocoa powder doesn't like to go into solution. There was 1 full gallon of sediment after 4 weeks of primary that was so thick it would clog my tubes.
2. At the same time, I believe a lot of the chocolate flavor comes directly from that cocoa powder, so I was kind of hesitant to leave it all behind. I sampled several times, and the mix was far from homogenous. Once it was in the bottling bucket, I gave it all a good stir before filling bottles. I would definitely serve this one as if it were a wheat beer.
3. Even the minimal amount of hops used seemed to be too dominant. I would cut out the Fuggle next time.
4. Even with a starting gravity of 1.100 and a finishing gravity of 1.030, the lactose sweetness did not come through quite enough. Reducing the hops might help, but I suspect it just needs more lactose.
5. The cinnamon was a bit lacking, but more importantly the hot pepper was not nearly assertive enough. I would do about 2-3 fresh Tabascos next time.
Priming Solution:
I used this to try to make up for some deficiencies. Boiled for 15 minutes:
3c Water
1/2c White table sugar (for priming)
1/3c Lactose
1/4 tsp Cinnamon @5
1/8 tsp "Ground Mexican Chiles" @5
Time will tell with this one, but I think the basic concept has a lot of potential. I will do some experiments with lagering some bottles to see if it's better clear or better cloudy. Comments are more than welcome, but don't be surprised if I ignore any derogatory ones. This recipe is now Open-Source. Enjoy!
Anyway, here was my design concept and first crack at a recipe.
Concept: A Milk (Sweet) Stout flavored with chocolate, spices, and hot pepper so as to closely resemble Mexican-style spiced hot chocolate. It should not be perceived as bitter; hops should be used to bring balance to the malt sweetness, but the additional Lactose sweetness should be offset by the heat of the pepper. Cinnamon should be noticeable and even bordering on strong but not to the point of overpowering the sweetness nor chocolate. Mouthfeel should be smooth. When you drink a glass of this, you should know that you are drinking a beer and not a Yoo-Hoo, but the chocolate character should nonetheless be the dominant note.
Recipe:
Mashed at 153 for 1:20:
14# Maris Otter
1.2# Quick Oats
.75# Simpson's Med. Crystal
.75# Chocolate Malt
.5# Roasted Barley
Boiled for 60:
.5oz Horizon pellet (10.9%) @60
.5oz Magnum pellet (7.0%) @60
.5oz Fuggle plug (4.5%) @30
1# Lactose @15
8oz Hershey Cocoa Powder @15
1tsp Cinnamon @5
1/2tsp Allspice @5
1/4tsp Nutmeg @5
1/4tsp cloves @5
1 fresh-picked Tabasco pepper @5
Any fairly neutral yeast should work just fine for this recipe. I used Nottingham.
Lessons Learned:
1. Cocoa powder doesn't like to go into solution. There was 1 full gallon of sediment after 4 weeks of primary that was so thick it would clog my tubes.
2. At the same time, I believe a lot of the chocolate flavor comes directly from that cocoa powder, so I was kind of hesitant to leave it all behind. I sampled several times, and the mix was far from homogenous. Once it was in the bottling bucket, I gave it all a good stir before filling bottles. I would definitely serve this one as if it were a wheat beer.
3. Even the minimal amount of hops used seemed to be too dominant. I would cut out the Fuggle next time.
4. Even with a starting gravity of 1.100 and a finishing gravity of 1.030, the lactose sweetness did not come through quite enough. Reducing the hops might help, but I suspect it just needs more lactose.
5. The cinnamon was a bit lacking, but more importantly the hot pepper was not nearly assertive enough. I would do about 2-3 fresh Tabascos next time.
Priming Solution:
I used this to try to make up for some deficiencies. Boiled for 15 minutes:
3c Water
1/2c White table sugar (for priming)
1/3c Lactose
1/4 tsp Cinnamon @5
1/8 tsp "Ground Mexican Chiles" @5
Time will tell with this one, but I think the basic concept has a lot of potential. I will do some experiments with lagering some bottles to see if it's better clear or better cloudy. Comments are more than welcome, but don't be surprised if I ignore any derogatory ones. This recipe is now Open-Source. Enjoy!
