Zymurgrafi
Well-Known Member
So, I have had a great brew week. 10 gallons of biter on Tuesday, and then the third in my Scottish succession Bompa Bristles' 80/- Yesterday. I have had this fun brew in mind for a while and decided to go for it yesterday after the 80/-.
Whipped the recipe up this week though I have been thinking about it for some time. It is nothing new I realize and in fact other dicussions on here intrigued me to come up with this beer.
I based it on the Mayan (and later Aztec) drink called xocolatl which supposedly consisted of cacao (chocolate) chiles, ,vanilla, maize and sometimes other ingredients. That and an extremely limited knowledge of that civilization I set about coming up with a recipe.
I decided since I was really jumping int this and not trying to over think it and just have fun I would do a small batch. I ended up with 3 gallons in the ferementer but I suspect I will have only 2.5 finished do to heavy and messy trub sediment.
Anyway on to the particulars.
I tried to first make a basic Imperial stout recipe. I made it a full 5 gallons when writing it then scaled it down just because I am accustomed to working with five gallon quantities. So I will present it with the 5 gallon amounts. So basic "normal" IS ingredients are with an 80% efficiency...
13.5 lb. Marris Otter
12 oz. Roasted Barley
12 oz. chocolate
1 lb. CaraAroma (dark crystal about 120L)
I was actually short on the CaraAroma by a few ounces but decided to just go with it. I guess it would be about 12 oz.
Then some special adjuncts to give it that "Mayan" flair
1.5 Lb. Flaked maize
1 Lb. Quinoa of which I blended about half and half red and white
quinoa has a nice nutty taste to it. Not sure it will come through with all the other strong roasty flavors. though.
Rinsed the quinoa well to remove the saponin then, I cooked the quinoa for about 25 minutes then mashed it all. I was a little afraid of sparging problems but determined to do this. This was my first ever cereal mash too. No problems at all thankfully.
I wanted to not hop this too high because I wanted the bitterness to be more from the chocolate. I also realized that the hops would fade with aging. So I used 1 oz. of Millennium at 15% AA For the chocolate bitterness I used 8 oz. of cocoa powder added in the last 10 minutes.
I had thought about using creme de cacoa in the fermenter at some point but decided against it after trying Youngs' Double Chocolate Stout yesterday. That definitely tastes of creme de cacao. I don't really want this to taste chocolatey in the way you would think of a chocolate bar anyway. I want it to be roasty and bitter chocolate like chewing on cacao beans. Like I imagine the drink would taste.
So It is strangely ferementing away with 2 packs of safAle US-05 now. I say strange because it is murky and sludgy looking. Like bubbling hot tar or something. Krauesen is really just big oily bubbles.
Once it goes for a month I will either rack it off all the sludge into a new 5 gallon carboy (remember it is 3 gallons) or I will rack it into 1 gallon carboys. Hopefully some of the cocoa flavor will be imparted to the liquid as it seems the powder really just wants to settle out. Then at some point when I can get some I will add some ancho chili peppers and either some good vanilla extract or some vanilla beans. Seeing if my sister in San Antonio can get me some peppers. Pretty exotic fair for Northeastern VT!
All in all it was a fun brew. Can't wait to see how it turns out sometime next year!
Whipped the recipe up this week though I have been thinking about it for some time. It is nothing new I realize and in fact other dicussions on here intrigued me to come up with this beer.
I based it on the Mayan (and later Aztec) drink called xocolatl which supposedly consisted of cacao (chocolate) chiles, ,vanilla, maize and sometimes other ingredients. That and an extremely limited knowledge of that civilization I set about coming up with a recipe.
I decided since I was really jumping int this and not trying to over think it and just have fun I would do a small batch. I ended up with 3 gallons in the ferementer but I suspect I will have only 2.5 finished do to heavy and messy trub sediment.
Anyway on to the particulars.
I tried to first make a basic Imperial stout recipe. I made it a full 5 gallons when writing it then scaled it down just because I am accustomed to working with five gallon quantities. So I will present it with the 5 gallon amounts. So basic "normal" IS ingredients are with an 80% efficiency...
13.5 lb. Marris Otter
12 oz. Roasted Barley
12 oz. chocolate
1 lb. CaraAroma (dark crystal about 120L)
I was actually short on the CaraAroma by a few ounces but decided to just go with it. I guess it would be about 12 oz.
Then some special adjuncts to give it that "Mayan" flair
1.5 Lb. Flaked maize
1 Lb. Quinoa of which I blended about half and half red and white
quinoa has a nice nutty taste to it. Not sure it will come through with all the other strong roasty flavors. though.
Rinsed the quinoa well to remove the saponin then, I cooked the quinoa for about 25 minutes then mashed it all. I was a little afraid of sparging problems but determined to do this. This was my first ever cereal mash too. No problems at all thankfully.
I wanted to not hop this too high because I wanted the bitterness to be more from the chocolate. I also realized that the hops would fade with aging. So I used 1 oz. of Millennium at 15% AA For the chocolate bitterness I used 8 oz. of cocoa powder added in the last 10 minutes.
I had thought about using creme de cacoa in the fermenter at some point but decided against it after trying Youngs' Double Chocolate Stout yesterday. That definitely tastes of creme de cacao. I don't really want this to taste chocolatey in the way you would think of a chocolate bar anyway. I want it to be roasty and bitter chocolate like chewing on cacao beans. Like I imagine the drink would taste.
So It is strangely ferementing away with 2 packs of safAle US-05 now. I say strange because it is murky and sludgy looking. Like bubbling hot tar or something. Krauesen is really just big oily bubbles.
Once it goes for a month I will either rack it off all the sludge into a new 5 gallon carboy (remember it is 3 gallons) or I will rack it into 1 gallon carboys. Hopefully some of the cocoa flavor will be imparted to the liquid as it seems the powder really just wants to settle out. Then at some point when I can get some I will add some ancho chili peppers and either some good vanilla extract or some vanilla beans. Seeing if my sister in San Antonio can get me some peppers. Pretty exotic fair for Northeastern VT!
All in all it was a fun brew. Can't wait to see how it turns out sometime next year!