Cacao Nibs and DFH IBA

My brother and I are very new to homebrewing, and we just brewed a clone of Dogfish Head's Indian Brown Ale. We were going to add some cacao nibs in the secondary that I ordered off morebeer.com. I just got them and they basically look like ground up chocolate chips. Is there anything I need to do to sterilize them before I put them in the secondary? Or, would these have been something I would have wanted to put in with our initial boil? Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

I believe most people will soak them in vodka before adding to the secondary. I know this is generally done for something like 30 days, but it won't hurt to do it for a week or so.

And you are right about using nibs in the secondary...

Good luck.

I've read using for more than 2 weeks causes a 'smokey' flavour to be imparted.

I've got a RIS on woodchips at the moment that'll be getting cacao nibs for 2 weeks, so far my plan is to lightly break them up a little more, soak in some Glenfidditch 15yr (just as that's what I've got on hand) for 48hrs, then chuck the lot in for 2 weeks before bottling.

Going to do a little more research before I crack on with this though.

...I've also read people put them in for a few months, put them in 170F water to sanitise, roast in the over to sanitise. Not an exact science it would appear

Awesome. Thanks for the help. Also, for a 5 gallon batch, how much would you suggest? 1oz or 2?

Depends on what you're going for. I would suggest doing a forum search though. All the information you need is at your fingertips.