Adding chocolate

Hey all,

I haven't posted here in like over a year. It's nice to be back.

I want to make a chocolate stout with pronounced chocolate flavor. The recipe for the stout is not presently formulated, but I'll more than likely base it off of a strong stout I've made before. Anyway, here is what I am thinking for adding chocolate flavor. Please tell me what you think.

Add a slurry of cocoa powder dissolved in boiled and cooled water for the last 5min/flameout.

Since this will be strong, I'm going to rack to secondary on top of a second slurry of boiled and cooled chocolate slurry. I'm thinking this will be the way to go due to fermentation possibly eating a lot of the sugars and changing the flavor of the chocolate. By racking, I'm hoping that the yeast will be left behind and no further sugars will be fermented and the chocolate flavor will not be changed.

What do you think of this possible process? Has anyone done this? I haven't used secondary in years- I use primary only, but I'm thinking this process may be best. Thoughts?

I have heard the oil in the coco powder will mess up the beer's ability to hold a head. Am looking forward to see answers from those who are much more knowledgable!

I just add 1oz per gallon of power to the secondary and rack the beer on top of it. Never made a slurry or anything like that.

Also, the head retention thing the previous poster stated is not true. Never had an issue.


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kcmobrewer said:

I just add 1oz per gallon of power to the secondary and rack the beer on top of it. Never made a slurry or anything like that.

Also, the head retention thing the previous poster stated is not true. Never had an issue.

Click to expand...

Real glad to hear that! Have been reading chocolate nibs were needed to avoid the fat. Was too much of a PIA for me. But I have loads of the powder. I know what I be abrewing next!

You could also use chocolate malt to give yourself the chocolate flavor and/or enhance the flavor over and above what you get with the powder.

+1 above, add some chocolate malt for depth.

I did 6 oz of unsweetened cocoa powder added at flameout on a Chocolate Porter. No issues at all with head retention. It did have a very off putting taste when I kegged after a 3 week primary. As in one of the worst tasting hydros I'd ever had.

At a suggestion from someone here, they stated you need 10-14 weeks for that taste to subside and the nice chocolate come out to play. So I set it in the basement and let the keg get dusty for 12 weeks. Chilled her down and it was really good. Lots of chocolate flavor, even enough that my wife (who loves chocolate) thought it was a lot of flavor. Note that I had another tip to shoot for a high FG to balance out the additional bitter/roast bite from the cocoa. I mashed high and ended at 1.017 (from an SG of 1.052). My batch supports that tip as well.

If you are using sweetened cocoa, waiting till secondary will not change the fact that there is enough yeast in suspension to still eat the freshly added sugar. It will just take a little longer. I would add unsweetened at flameout, or pre-boil for 5 minutes, add to primary, and let the yeast ferment out the extra sugars. Mashing high or even adding some lactose will give you a sweeter finish. Cheers!

I used nibs for a porter in the past and that worked well, simply racking onto it for secondary.

I have read a few compelling arguments on HBT against using cocoa powder, but I can't recall the reasons why. I think I'm recalling individuals stating adding powder during the boil adds a lot of bitterness.

I used both nibs and powder in my Reese's stout. Pretty delicious


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