Forgive the epic newbie question. I bought the chocolate milk stout form NB. In the fermenter right now. Now I know I should be soaking the nibs (and I’m also going to make my own addition with cinnamon sticks) in vodka. Might do bourbon for flavor... but how do I do this? Soak it and add the solids and whole deal or do I just add the liquid?
Adding nibs and cinnamon
- Thread starter Jloewe
- Start date
Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:
I soaked mine in vodka for about 5-7 days and when it was time to add, just dumped everything into the secondary fermenter. When I racked to the keg, I was just careful not to suck up any of the nibs. Turned out really good!
You could save the headache and put the nibs in a small hopsack. Then you can dump the vodka in as well. No more clogged hoses etc.
Oh another thing- I’ve made a tincture before with cinnamon sticks and after a few weeks the tincture got really clumpy and had little strings of jelly strands. I e made quite a few different tinctures over the years and this is the only one that turned out this way.
It still tastes fine and I used it in a stout with no problems.
It still tastes fine and I used it in a stout with no problems.
I've brewed that a couple of times and have it in the fridge now for brewing soon. I just add the nibs in the secondary and they float around for a week until bottling time. Rack out from under them. No problems. That is an excellent stout BTW.
I currently have roasted almonds, cinnamon stick, cocoa nibs and ancho chiles in a hop sack comfortably soaking in a porter.
I use an anvil fermenter so I typically don’t worry about clogs.
I use an anvil fermenter so I typically don’t worry about clogs.
I roasted my cocoa nibs at 300 for 12 minutes, added to 3oz toast oak chips, 3 striped/chopped vanilla beans to approx 12oz of bourbon. Will soak for approx 2 weeks beore adding to secondary. Dumping it directly into my uni hasn’t been an issue.
Roasting really brings out the flavor in raw nibs.
Roasting really brings out the flavor in raw nibs.
Glad to hear that dumping the nibs directly into the fermenter isn't an issue. I am brewing a chocolate raspberry stout for the second time this weekend. The first time I made it I used 4 oz of cocoa nibs (soaked in vodka) and added them into my conical fermenter during secondary with a muslin bag. The chocolate flavor was hardly perceptible. This time I'm going to use 8 oz of roasted Ghana nibs (from Chocolate Alchemy) also soaked in vodka for 10 days and I'd rather add this without a muslin bag if it won't clog my racking arm.
Similar threads
