I actually made two small batches this month using the Cholaca + Cacao Nibs combo, which turned out great in the past. However, with Cholaca being so pricey, I thought I'd try making my own substitute. I know there is more to the manufacturing process, but all I did was get some raw cacao powder and emulsify it with water. The two ingredients in Cholaca are water and raw cacao, and there are 30 calories per ounce, or 960 calories per 32 oz container. So I just did some math to figure out how much raw cacao powder I'd need to make 32 oz, emulsified it and then gradually topped it off with more water until I had 32 oz. I believe it was 8.5 oz by weight of cacaco powder and I started out with 16 fl oz of warm water. I mixed it until it was very smooth (it was almost a chocolate frosting consistency) and then little by little mixed in an additional 8 fl oz of water. The trick is to start with a smaller amount of water so that as much of the powder as possible becomes moist. Starting with too much water won't allow as much powder to dissolve. This made almost exactly 32 oz of "Cholaca", which I stored in the fridge until I needed it. In fact, I still have a little left.
The results have been good so far. I will end up buying a bottle of Cholaca and splitting a batch to do a side-by-side later, but for me at least, the beer turned out really good. I really think that Cholaca along with lactose help give it that silky flavor and mouthfeel.
