Best Way to add Choclate and nut flavors to a beer

I am looking to a make chocolate flavored nut brown . I have a good recipe for a brown but I was wondering what the best way to add the chocolate and nutty flavors to a beer are?

Eat a Snickers while drinking it.

Or use some roasted and chocolate malts in your recipe.

I tried using some chocolate malts (2#) in a porter I recently made it it did not seem to add any chocolate flavor to it at all.

bechbd said:

I tried using some chocolate malts (2#) in a porter I recently made it it did not seem to add any chocolate flavor to it at all.

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Maybe you had some old/stale malt. By what means did you add it? Chocolate malt is one of my favorite specialty grains, and it always seems to add a rich flavor with a hint of chocolate for me.

I put it in the water when cold until it reached 160 degrees then I removed them. Maybe it was old/stale grains, I've never had a problem from the store I buy them from but there is always a first for everything.

I've heard of coco powder being used to chocolate a beer. I've never tried it. Someday though. Run a search of the forum and you'll find someone's recipe with it.

Nut flavors, I think, are best added with extracts. I picked my hazelnut up at the LBHS, but I'm sure any specilty cooking/baking store would have it. I've also been told that a little bit of nut extract goes a long way.

I've been told the best way to do it until you know exactly how much will be required for your taste is to put a little in and stir it gently. Taste it. Stir a little more in. Taste it. Etc. I'm guessing that I'll be using less than an ounce of the hazelnut extract for my 5 gallon batch of stout.

I just today brewed a holiday ale with pumpkin,powdered baking cocoa and spices(cinnamom,ginger,nutmeg,allspice).We used about 3.5oz of the chocolate powder for the last 15 mins of boil.The aroma of the wort with the hops and all the other flavorings was awesome.I've never used choc. before but we were feeling adventurous.I hope it turns out....I'll let you know in 6 weeks .Cheers


P1-NewYearSpicedAle
P2-Diabolo(high grav)
S1-CanadianAle
S2-standing by
Bottled/Aging-Dunkelweisen,ShortBrownAle(AG)
Bottled/Drinking-Amer.Wheat......Yummy

When we made our Porter, we dumped 1/2 L of hazelnut syrup, as well as an entire container of cocoa powder and 1 oz of vanilla extract, into the boil and let it go 30 mins. We tried a couple earlier this week and they are pretty tasty! I noticed the chocolate more and my brother noticed the vanilla, but the hazelnut was harder to detect. I'd like to use straight extract next time, and perhaps add some of the flavoring after the boil rather than during, but at the time we couldn't find extract anywhere, neither supermarket nor LHBS.

I did 8 oz of cocoa powder for my chocolate oatmeal stout, added it the last 10 minutes of the boil. I also added 2 oz of vanilla extract before kegging it, and a total of about 1 lb of lactose. Unfortunately I think it got a little infected or I did something wrong, since it has a slightly acidic tart taste to it. It's either due to the alkalinity of the cocoa powder, the amount of lactose, or an infection. I figure since no one else who has brewed with cocoa powder or lactose mention any odd tastes, must have gotten infected... Still drinkable though, and I just tell myself I was going for tangy taste...

The 8 oz of cocoa adds a nice chocolatey smell. The smell is more powerful than the taste, but it does have a chocolatey taste (comes out more as the beer warms up). The chocolate flavor is pretty subtle though, it adds a complex bitterness to the beer but doesn't beat you over the head with a sweet chocolate flavor.

I added 8oz of baker's chocolate to the boil, 20 mins before flameout, on an imperial stout I made. It's turned out to be truly badass (due in no small part to the large amounts of chocolate and brewed coffee I put into it).

Papazian also uses unsweeted, unprocessed cocoa powder in a few of his recipes (Goat Scrotum, for one). I've done that too...works out great.

Either way. The baker's chocolate will hurt the foaming/head on the finished product because of the oils present, but I feel that the tradeoff is worth it. It gives the beer such a deliciously silky feel, like melty chocolate.

For the nut flavor, I'd use extract, like the above posters said. Trying to add nut or nut butter of any kind will introduce way too much oil to your beer. Most HBS's have hazelnut extract.

Do you mean very overt and obvious flavors (such as Young's Double Chocolate or Rogue's Hazelnut Ale), or more subtle such as appear in a good nut brown ale without "non-barley" flavorings?

I would like more subtle flavors

bechbd said:

I would like more subtle flavors

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Then you're not really looking to add actual chocolate or nut extracts. In this case use roasted grains like chocolate malt, kiln coffee malt, and roasted barley to get tones of chocolate, nuts, and coffee. Toasted 2-row will also contribute a nice nutty/toasty character to your beer.

Any commercial versions that really float your boat? Maybe somebody can help with a recipe approximation if they're familiar with the same beer.

I'm a fan of the Low Down Brown by Carolina Brewing Company

Cottonwood Low Down Brown is a great beer IMO. Here's what they say (Carolina Beer Co, not Carolina Brewing Co which is down the road from me ):

Low Down Brown Ale is brewed in the American style with pale malt, crystal malts, and a touch of chocolate malt. This medium-bodied ale has a distinctive Mt. Hood hop finish.

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So start with that:
2-row (or DME if doing extract)
Crystal 80 or 120
Chocolate malt

The yeast is almost certainly 1056, but even if it's not it will work fine.

Then, if that doesn't quite get it, particularly in the "nuttiness" category, consider adding a kilned malt such as Victory, biscuit, or aromatic. You could even use some Munich or Munich extract to get more maltiness.

Thanks for the help. I'll let you know how it comes out.

I used 0.75 lb of Chocolate malt in my latest porter and the chocolate flavor is good.