The Long-Awaited (Feared?) Twin Recipes: "Ebony & Ivory"

So you've heard me ruminating about these two for a week or so now, beginning first in Cheese's Caramel-Cream Ale thread, then in the Booze Layering thread.

Now, I think I'm ready to do the official Recipe Thread.

Ebony & Ivory
Two dessert brews, delicious on their own, but divine when poured together like a Black n' Tan

The plan is for the chocolate to go on the bottom, and the vanilla (sparkly, higher-alcohol) to float on it.

The primary audience for this brew is SWMBO, who has like a categorical distaste for hops/bitter beers, but a deep-seated love for Linderman's Framboise. And chocolate. And vanilla. And the Black and White cookie, famous to New York residents.

Please give advice, y'all.

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Ebony

Basic Stuff:

6.6 lbs Light LME
12 oz chocolate malt
8 oz. flaked barley
1/4 oz. Cascade hops (for 40 min.)
Wyeast Munich #2305

Additions:
1 lb. baker's chocolate. (in boil- 60 min?) (Will the oil in this screw it up? How else do I add actual chocolate flavor?)

8 oz. lactose at bottling, to bring it up to desired sweetness. (I've never used lactose before- does that seem like too much? Too little?)

Priming: 1/2 cup priming sugar. It has to be bubbly enough to enjoy on its own, but not so much that it shoots up through the vanilla when they're layered.

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Ivory

Basic Stuff: This is a variation on Cheesefood's recipe, but with less bitterness, and equal amounts of vanilla. It should ALMOST be candy-like, but not too sweet to drink.

Malts
3 pounds extra light DME
3 pounds light wheat DME
1 pound Caramel 60L (steeped for 45 minutes at 150'-165')

Hops
.5 oz Cascade for bittering (40 minutes)
.5 oz Tettnang for aroma (end of boil)

Yeast
Wyeast German Ale

Extras
1 tsp Irish Moss (10 minutes)
4oz Lactose @ 15 minutes
2 oz real vanilla extract (Does this go in the boil?)

Priming
>1cup Lactose
4oz vanilla
3/4 cup priming sugar

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And that's it! Please advise- if this works out, it could be outstanding: a line of sweet semi-beers, to lure in those who don't like beer. (Like the "Hard Cider" craze, but more creative, and home made).

Especially, if the chocolate one works, my next move is to brew a Mayan Chocolate beer (it's a crazy now; with cinnamon, and little spicy from other things, etc.) I might call it "Guatemalan Insanity Beer". Tee hee.

Usual recommendation to use dutch-process cocoa. Eight oz. is plenty.

I gotta try a bottle of this.

Just so others can learn from my research (and thank you David for the input):

"There are two types of cocoa powder: alkalized, also known as Dutch-process, commonly used in baking recipes and nonalkalized, also called natural. Look at the nutritional label to see if the ingredients include "alkali", and if they do, you've found a Dutch-process cocoa. "

from http://www.baking911.com/pantry/chocolate_types.htm

P funky said:

Just so others can learn from my research (and thank you David for the input):

"There are two types of cocoa powder: alkalized, also known as Dutch-process, commonly used in baking recipes and nonalkalized, also called natural. Look at the nutritional label to see if the ingredients include "alkali", and if they do, you've found a Dutch-process cocoa. "

from http://www.baking911.com/pantry/chocolate_types.htm

Click to expand...

Just don't use dutch-oven chocolate. It tastes like crap.

Ha, nice... even with the typo, that joke's still funny...

So now, the other questions:

Does the bitterness look right? I want just enough in there to keep them from being "flaccid" (3...2...1... insert Cheesefood joke here, or relevant picture provided by Cheese's SWMBO...*)

I like the idea of the aroma hop added at flameout- I think that might play well with the vanilla. What sort of aromas do you typically experience with Tettnang (not what the book says, I mean like personal experience...?)










*oooh... burn, dude. That's what you get for fixing your last post after I point out the typo, so I look like a nerd. **





** Naturally, j/k my man.

I think BLG would like this one. I've not even looked at a homebrew in the last few weeks maybe this will get me going again.

bump moving this up for more input.

sailman said:

bump moving this up for more input.

Click to expand...

Real homebrewers don't bump threads 13 minutes after posting.

How 'bout 24 hours and 13 minutes, is that cool?

P funky said:

Does the bitterness look right? I want just enough in there to keep them from being "flaccid" (3...2...1... insert Cheesefood joke here, or relevant picture provided by Cheese's SWMBO...*)

Click to expand...

Last night was a hard liquor night, so unfortunately...

But getting to your question. I think you'll want to keep the hops where they were in my recipe, otherwise you'll end up with a very sweet beer. I upped the hops on my second batch of this and it still wasn't hoppy.

For the ebony, I think 1/4oz is way too little. Bump to at least an oz. I would also throw some chocolate malt in there.

the_bird said:

How 'bout 24 hours and 13 minutes, is that cool?

Click to expand...

D'oh! Didn't notice it. My bad. Real homebrewers only read half of the line.