Chocolate and beer?

I'm wondering what the general crowdsource opinion is on putting chocolate - not malt, but actual chocolate - in yuour beer is? What do you think of the flavor in beer? How do you handle it?

Despite being a woman, I confess I'm pretty skeptical.

I have enjoyed beer with chocolate and I have used it in brewing some of my stouts. My wife enjoys a chocolate wine and I have been tinkering with and idea for a chocolate mead. I am also guilty of using real chocolate in a lot of things; chili, mole and a couple of red meat dishes, for example.

Chocolate in beer is good just as long and you don't go crazy with it. For me, the right amount of chocolate will not have a chocolate taste while drinking it, but a nice chocolaty mouth-feel afterwards. It's very good is some of your stronger stouts and I've even played around with it in a lighter oatmeal stout.

Works well in stouts and porters. Try Young's Double Chocolate Stout if you want a good example.

emjay said:

Works well in stouts and porters. Try Young's Double Chocolate Stout if you want a good example.

Click to expand...

+ 1
Another good example is Rogue Chocolate Stout IMO.

Remember too, that chocolate beer won't taste like Hershey's syrup in beer. It's supposed to add an unsweetened chocolate flavor in the beer. I use Hershey's baking cocoa in my chocolate beers and the flavor is more in the background and works very well with the roasted malt in porter and stout.

I haven't used real chocolate yet (that's happening this winter) but my last oatmeal stout had coco nibs in it and while that added some chocolate flavor it added a lot of coco bitterness too. It was a pleasant beer, just took a while to mellow out into more of what I wanted.

WesleyS said:

+ 1
Another good example is Rogue Chocolate Stout IMO.

Remember too, that chocolate beer won't taste like Hershey's syrup in beer. It's supposed to add an unsweetened chocolate flavor in the beer. I use Hershey's baking cocoa in my chocolate beers and the flavor is more in the background and works very well with the roasted malt in porter and stout.

Click to expand...

How much cocoa do you like to out in your stouts? I've been toying with the idea of doing this myself..

Lazarous said:

How much cocoa do you like to out in your stouts? I've been toying with the idea of doing this myself..

Click to expand...

I think 8 oz of cocoa powder is a good starting point.

I do a chocolate milk stout with 8 oz high quality cocoa powder and 1 lb lactose added to boil @ 5 min. I have people asking for it so must brew a batch soon.

I won a homebrew award for a chocolate coffee stout made with real chocolate. It's pretty great stuff. Be sure to use the unsweetened stuff.