Minty beer?

So, my friend and I have our first homebrew bubbling away in primary ferment, and I'm already thinking about what to try next. I got the crazy idea of trying to do a mint-chocolate stout or porter. Has anyone tried using mint as a flavor in beer? Also, can anyone direct me to an extract or partial-mash recipe for a chocolate stout or porter on the sweeter side? Thanks!

When it comes to homebrewers, the answer to the question, "Has anyone ever tried this?" is almost certainly going to be, "Of course."

I vaguely recall some threads in the past where people were trying things like this and talking about it on this forum. I think someone wanted to make a peppermint patty porter or something once. I personally don't like the taste of chocolate and int together, so I never followed the threads to see how things went.

Oh... and even mega-swill companies have tried it:



Yeah. That existed at one time. Malt liquor with mint in it. I actually tasted it at a party back in the 1993-ish timeframe. It was exactly as bad as you're imagining.

Walker said:

Oh... and even mega-swill companies have tried it:

Yeah. That existed at one time. Malt liquor with mint in it. I actually tasted it at a party back in the 1993-ish timeframe. It was exactly as bad as you're imagining.

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I am as intrigued as I am horrified. . . sadly, I was five in 1993.

check out eschatz's mint chocolate stout in the recipe section, its on my to do list

It's an all grain recipe but you could just convert it using beersmith or whatever, thats what I'll do.

Pseudonymous said:

I am as intrigued as I am horrified. . . sadly, I was five in 1993.

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Thanks for that. Now I feel like an old man. In my defense, I wasn't QUITE of legal age when I had that stuff, so...

I made a mint chocolate stout from the Homebrewers Recipe Guide.

It was uh... not well received

I made it for my holiday ale last year. I still have a few bottles left, which I'll open again this year. I think I was disappointed in the lack of chocolate taste - my fave chocolate stout (Rogue) is really really chocolatey.

The mint flavor really changes over time. It's a cool experiment just to taste it over time.

Oh, here's the thread I had about using mint: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/mint-leaf-advice-secondary-maybe-primary-144854/

hudsonj6 said:

check out eschatz's mint chocolate stout in the recipe section, its on my to do list

It's an all grain recipe but you could just convert it using beersmith or whatever, thats what I'll do.

Click to expand...

I'll have to check that out. I'd love to all grain eventually, but I don't have the funds for the equipment at the moment (just bought our basic brewing setup this weekend) and my crappy electric stove takes forever to boil the volume of water needed.

Walker said:

Thanks for that. Now I feel like an old man. In my defense, I wasn't QUITE of legal age when I had that stuff, so...

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Sorry man. RDWHAHB.

Pseudonymous said:

I'll have to check that out. I'd love to all grain eventually, but I don't have the funds for the equipment at the moment (just bought our basic brewing setup this weekend) and my crappy electric stove takes forever to boil the volume of water needed.

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Niether do I but if you can get it converted I'll give you some tips I've got a 5 gallon pot that I use on my stove and the first time I tried to do a 4 gallon boil it took almost and hour and a half to get it to a boil! I was so impatient I was even using a blowtorch on the outside of the pot lol. Everyone on here will tell you that full boil is best but if that's not possible here's what I do.

Pre heat the pot with nothing in it and as you're doing this, boil water in a kettle (I've got one that does it at warp speed) and then just pour the already boiling water into the pot and keep doing this to about 2 gallons. Put the liquid from your grains in and then only add about half of your extract (it's easier to keep a nice boil going), bring to boil do the rest as you would and then add the rest of your extract with about 10 to go in the boil. Then just top up with water after. I got the smaller boil going in about 20 as opposed to the hour and a half, so a big time saver