My first Chocolate Stout has some off flavors,unsure how to correct

I brewed my first chocolate stout a few weeks back. It tasted AMAZING out of the fermentor, but now that it's on the gas, I'm noticing some off flavors that I'm not happy with. Here is the recipe:
10lb Marris Otter
1.25lb Weyermann Chocolate Wheat Malt
1lb Honey Malt
.5lb Carapils
.5lb Crystal 80L
.25lb Black Patent Malt
Mashed 153 for 60 min (lost a few degrees over the 60 min)

4oz Nestle Bittersweet Bakers Dark Chocolate bar last 10min of boil
1oz Centennial FWH
.5oz Willamette 15min
.5oz Willamette 5min
.25tsp yeast nutrient 10 min
Used Safale S-04 yeast to ferment.
Est OG 1.063
EST FG 1.017
_______________
Actual OG 1.066
Actual FG 1.012
Brewhouse Efficiency 82%

I intended to let this sit for at least three weeks on the yeast, so that the english yeast flavors created during fermentation could clean up a bit. I accidentally took it off the yeast and put it into the keg after two weeks. That's a long story I won't go into. Anyway, the smell is dead on, the head is there with the pour etc. There are some very, very slight sour notes almost in the scent of it at times. Very slight, but I feel like I can pick them up. The flavor itself has an alcohol bite to it that I'm not happy with. It's pretty prevelant. I have never brewed a stout before, so I'm not sure what to adjust. I've been brewing a few years now, and have been at all grain for over a year. I've done tons of pale ales, IPAs, a few brown ales, holiday ales, and pumpkin ales. I know how to fix those for the most part. The stouts...not so much.

Few things come to mind reading your post.
1) It sounds young. I think with that sort of grain bill and the chocolate it needs time to mellow.
2) Your comment about the alcohol harshness. What did you ferment at? Did the temps get to 70 or higher? I would say mid to low 60's is ideal.
3) You might be so used to your other typical brews that you mention, that you're not used to such a unique one such as the chocolate stout.
Just my 2 cents

I agree with periwinkle. Although I have not brewed a stout yet I have been doing a lot of reading about them because it is something I want to brew soon, along with a quad. Looking at your heavy grain bill this could definitely use some time to age. Give it at least another month if not substantially more then give it a taste.

That's what I was hoping to hear. I really wanted it in the primary for a good 3-4 weeks, but due to my mistake, it came outta there at two weeks.
As for fermentation, I fermented at 62F.

If my calculations are correct, that's a 7% ABV, correct? That might explain the alcohol bite -- personally I think alcohol can stand out in a stout more than in other styles -- and I assume it will mellow out after a while.

I brewed a PM stout last year that a well-known local homebrewer said was good and in style, yet had a bit of a sour character. It's not necessarily a flaw -- after all, Guinness adds a small portion of sour beer to their recipe to achieve that character. It could be a lactic thing, but either way if it is slight then it will probably be just fine with time.

If it's lactic, he would see it as a film on top of the beer before he packaged it most likely. Two weeks on primary isn't much time for a lacto infection to take over as well so I would discount that. I think the beer is most likely young and will need some time to age. Stouts, especially ones with a lot of additional flavors (chocolate in this case) take a long time to come into their own. Ideally you would age a RIS at least 6 months, maybe a year. I think that is the issue the OP is having here.

+1 to age.

Yeah the sour notes aren't really a bad thing, and again, are very slight. Just...unexpected, I suppose.
You would really age a stout a year before drinking it? Again, I know very little about the stout process. Is that aging you'd do in a secondary fermentor? This beer is kegged currently. I have two taps, so I can definitely leave it alone while it cleans up.

Irrenarzt said:

If it's lactic, he would see it as a film on top of the beer before he packaged it most likely.

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I thought that was a sign of a wild yeast getting in there. Is it the same for lactic infection? I'm still learning about this kind of science-y stuff.

You can age in either the secondary or the keg. Since you already kegged it, I would let it sit 3 or 4 weeks before trying again. Then if it still doesn't taste ready let it go another few weeks. I would say it should start tasting really good around 4-5 months...

I'm just as guilty of drinking my beers too young, one of these days I'll get some more carboys/kegs (so I can brew more often) and be more patient.

I always test a beer a couple of weeks apart. For my stouts it really helps a couple of months in the bottle.
I have been fermenting stouts for about 3-4 weeks.
Some of the microbrew pubs will post their brew schedule and they are a lot faster to the keg. It seems I can taste the lack of aging.

I'm guilty of drinking beers young too from time to time. Right when my kegged beer tastes the best is about 10 beers before the keg blows, it seems haha.

I did my first stout at the end of December. I noticed that it had a subtle alcohol bite. It wasn't unpleasant just unexpected.

Moody_Copperpot said:

Yeah the sour notes aren't really a bad thing, and again, are very slight. Just...unexpected, I suppose.
You would really age a stout a year before drinking it? Again, I know very little about the stout process. Is that aging you'd do in a secondary fermentor? This beer is kegged currently. I have two taps, so I can definitely leave it alone while it cleans up.

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Yep, I brewed a stout in 2010 that I entered into a competition young and it scored a 32. A year later that same beer won gold with a score of 43 with one of the exact same judges judging the beer.

PattyC said:

I thought that was a sign of a wild yeast getting in there. Is it the same for lactic infection? I'm still learning about this kind of science-y stuff.

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Lactic pellicle is about the same looking but with smaller white dot colonies as well.

Irrenarzt said:

Yep, I brewed a stout in 2010 that I entered into a competition young and it scored a 32. A year later that same beer won gold with a score of 43 with one of the exact same judges judging the beer.

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Nice! Well that is encouraging. I wish I had the stuff in bottles, rather than on tap. It's very hard not to drink it!

I don't bottle until I absolutely have to. You just need to increase your keg count and storage capacity so that you have kegs to serve and kegs to store...

I like the way you think!

When I make stouts with a similar grain bill, I primary for 3-4 weeks and then keg. I almost always have other batches to keg around the same time, so I'll run the IPA's and pale ales through first and let the stout kegs sit and cellar condition (basically secondary) then pop them in the fridge last. Sometimes they will sit for a couple months before I toss one in the fridge. Once I tap one though, it's hard to stay out of it.

Well after a month plus in the keg, this beer is AMAZING! In fact a BJCP judge asked me for this recipe at a recent brewing event! Him and his wife drank pretty much the whole growler themselves!

Moody_Copperpot said:

Well after a month plus in the keg, this beer is AMAZING! In fact a BJCP judge asked me for this recipe at a recent brewing event! Him and his wife drank pretty much the whole growler themselves!

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Awesome! Aging does wonders with some beers! It could have been a yeast bite from suspended yeast when you first kegged it. Also, if your not used to brewing dark beers your mash pH can get pretty low which can give the finished beer an acidic twang.

Glad she turned out good for ya!

funkswing said:

Awesome! Aging does wonders with some beers! It could have been a yeast bite from suspended yeast when you first kegged it. Also, if your not used to brewing dark beers your mash pH can get pretty low which can give the finished beer an acidic twang.

Glad she turned out good for ya!

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It tastes like a totally different beer now! I'm not used to English yeast, nor am I used to brewing extremely dark beers. The end result was outstanding. I posted the recipe up in the recipe section. It's called Quint's Revenge Black Chocolate Stout.