What you need to know about chocolate for brewing

sleewok - did you roast the nibs or use them as-is?

Are the bins of cacao (not bags) roasted or not?

The nibs I used, I roasted them, crushed them, and then soaked them in vodka for a couple of weeks (I think), and I added all the vodka and all the nibs too. Unfortunately, I did something wrong and all the bottles were gushers. The beer tasted like chocolate candy, not the profile I wanted. I did add pure Vanilla and some lactose. I don't remember how much. This time, I added 8 oz of cocoa powder @ 10 minutes and will let the primary go for 3-4 weeks before I cold crash. By that time I will have nibs soaking in vodka, waiting to add to the bottling bucket. The roasted nibs do add a great flavor, but it is sort of one dimension, so I will use both this time, and see what I get.

ultravista said:

sleewok - did you roast the nibs or use them as-is?

Are the bins of cacao (not bags) roasted or not?

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I used them as-is. The nibs that I ordered were dried/milled.

The nibs I got are roughly crumbled. Would it help to crush them a bit to increase the surface area? Any problems with that?

reanime said:

I heard once, and mind it could be urban legend... Chocolate in the U.S. (especially companies like Hershey) are actually allowed a certain amount of food grade wax in their chocolate. I may be crazy but I have noticed that plain chocolate in Canada (Quebec) actually tastes better than in the U.S. apparently for that reason. Allegedly they are not allowed to use such ingredients in Canada...

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I seem to recall that Hershey's also uses soured milk in their chocolate, which is what gives it the distinct flavor compared to other milk chocolates. I saw it on Modern Marvels, I believe.

It is indeed an urban legend. I've never seen chocolate listed with wax as an ingredient. Over refining can give chocolate a waxy texture, but it's not wax.

As for the sour milk. Another urban myth. The 'distinct' flavor is often from very poor grade beans, over roasted and over refined. That may well be the sour taste you note. I know I have. They have to use dry milk powder like everyone else, and to my knowledge, there are no soured dry milk powders...unless you could dry butter milk. But I can't see them using that as it is so much more expensive.

Any more updates on this thread. I just put nibs in my carboy on top of a stout. I was wondering how long i should keep them there.

Alchemist42 said:

It is indeed an urban legend. I've never seen chocolate listed with wax as an ingredient. Over refining can give chocolate a waxy texture, but it's not wax.

As for the sour milk. Another urban myth. The 'distinct' flavor is often from very poor grade beans, over roasted and over refined. That may well be the sour taste you note. I know I have. They have to use dry milk powder like everyone else, and to my knowledge, there are no soured dry milk powders...unless you could dry butter milk. But I can't see them using that as it is so much more expensive.

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From Wikipedia:

The process is a trade secret, but experts speculate that the milk is partially lipolyzed, producing butyric acid, which stabilizes the milk from further fermentation. This compound gives the product a particular sour, "tangy" taste, to which the US public has become accustomed, to the point that other manufacturers often add butyric acid to their milk chocolates.

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Supporting article here. 4th and 5th paragraphs from the bottom.

I still don't see anything in this entire thread that says how long nibs should be left in the secondary. What happens if they are left too long?

Clankenbrew said:

I still don't see anything in this entire thread that says how long nibs should be left in the secondary. What happens if they are left too long?

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I recently made an imperial peppermint chocolate stout. I used 1.5oz nibs in the boil, then put 5oz in the secondary for 7 days. As far as leaving them "too long", I can't answer that. The stout turned out amazing BTW. It was a huge hit and didn't last long at all.

Ok, thanks for the reply. Friday will be a week in an imperial oatmeal stout. Im "trying" to age it for at least another month and I am hoping I don't have to remove them.

There are companies now doing less refined stone ground by hand
chocolate bars and they are spectacular, slightly grainy but intense flavor. You can find them periodically discounted at TJ Max of all places. If I ever get into doing a chocolate stout I'll do some more research but for now I just eat the chocolate and drink the beer.

Alchemist42 said:

Chemist here. Sadly, that's the rub. I've not found a great way. It's that whole oil and water not mixing bit.

But I would like to ask for clarification of what you want. Do you want to know how to keep the cocoa butter out of your beer or how to properly extract the flavor contained therein?

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Oil floats, water freezes. Scrape the oil off the top.

Unfortunately, in my experience even the residual really plays havoc with head retention. YMMV