thoughts on chocolate clove pepper porter?

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Cascadegan

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Try saying that ten times fast..
This recipe is a bit of a nightmare, I threw simplicty out the window
Certainly doesn't fit well in any style, tasting notes will be posted when its bottled

4lbs light lme
3lbs wheat dme
1lb debitterized chocolate malt
1lb 120 crystal malt
1/3cup blackstrap molasses
1tsp black pepper
1tsp cloves
1/2cup chocolate powder
1/4lb lactose
1oz vanilla extract (at bottling)
1oz chinook (60)
1oz willamette (5)
1/4oz cascade (5)
 
Have you brewed it already? If so, how did it turn out? That's a lot of chocolate malt, a lot or crystal malt, and a whole lot of cloves. Those things are strong. Did (will) you use whole or preground cloves?
 
Its in the primary currently
A pound of roasted malts and crystal malts isn't a huge amount, although I've never done this much of 120 and the cloves were whole and boiled for 60 minutes
I've never used cloves before so I'm not sure the best way to add them
 
I will say that is quite a bit of pepper. Don't know how strong it will be when in competition with the other flavors, however, I know I added only 1/8tsp to a 6gal batch of wine and there is a very noticeable/distinct pepper aroma and taste.
 
You may be right, although this a pretty substantial brew so it may work out

Does your wine get hotter or spicier the more you drink? I heard peppers flavor builds in the mouth
 
you are correct. The pepper really has been coming out a lot more as the wine ages. But regardless, it had good pepper on it when it was only 2 mo. old. (that includes the 1 month of fermentation lol).

Interested in hearing how it turns out.
 
So two interesting developments
1. Because I didn't have time to chill the wort (I had a bus to catch) I ended up frying the yeast so I had mother dearest put a dry yeast packet in after 48hrs of no activity, so it now has grand cuvee wine yeast in it
Supposedly if you age it long enough the yeast will have a lagerlike taste

2. I'm thinking about drawing off a gallon of this to condition and using the other 4 gallons as a 'starter' for an imperial stout
So basically adding 7lbs light malt extract, some roasted barley, hop it up some more and age/oak it a couple months
 
How's that gravity sitting? If it's quite high, as I suspect it might be, it could be a good idea to get some beer yeast in there.
 
How's that gravity sitting? If it's quite high, as I suspect it might be, it could be a good idea to get some beer yeast in there.

because some wine yeast doesn't ferment maltose?

hmmm wont be home for another week or two and my hydrometer is broken, maybe i will finally have an excuse to buy another one
 
scratch the imperial idea

transferred it to the secondary (its been about a month) and took a taste... its pretty unique very nutty with that pound of debitterized chocolate malt (my friends said it had a coffee taste, but i think nutty/a bit acrid is a better description)
gonna bottle next week, unless i decide to dry hop with some willamette first
fun fact: i was born in the willamette valley and now live on willamette street (over 100 miles away from the actual valley)
 
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