Black Forest Cake Imperial Stout

[trav77]

Just finished harvesting a bumper crop of sour cherries. I have more than enough set aside for eating/baking etc. so I saved the last 4 kg to meet a boozy demise.

Here's what I'm thinking if anyone has done something similar and has any suggestions, fire away. I'm going for something slightly on the sweet/dessert end of things.

Roast and crystal malts look low by % but this is BIAB (guessing 50% mash eff... I haven't done a beer this big on this particular rig) so they are entered by absolute weight (of what I would do with typical 70-80% eff) and the base malt is scaled up to hit target OG.

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 7.62 gal
Post Boil Volume: 6.77 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.095 SG
Estimated Color: 38.4 SRM
Estimated IBU: 52.3 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 40.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 47.3 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
4.70 g Calcium Chloride (Mash 60.0 mins) Water Agent 1 -
3.90 g Baking Soda (Mash 60.0 mins) Water Agent 2 -
2.70 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 mins Water Agent 3 -
15000.00 g Superior Pale Ale (2.8 SRM) Grain 4 91.7 %
450.00 g Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 5 2.8 %
300.00 g Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 6 1.8 %
300.00 g Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 7 1.8 %
300.00 g Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 8 1.8 %
56.00 g Magnum [12.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 9 52.3 IBUs
0.50 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 10 -
250.00 g Cocoa (Boil 5.0 mins) Flavor 11 -
1.0 pkg London ESB Ale (Wyeast Labs #1968) [124. Yeast 12 -
3500.00 g Sour Cherries (Secondary 4.0 weeks) Other 13 -
2.00 Items Vanilla Bean Pod (Secondary 0.0 mins) Spice 14 -


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, No Mash Out
Total Grain Weight: 16350.00 g
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 10.26 gal of water at 164.8 F 152.0 F 60 min

 

[triethylborane]

Id do the cocoa powder at flame out and add 227g of flaked oats for body and lingering sweetness. Cherries look fantastic, its going to be a great beer.

 

[trav77]

Id do the cocoa powder at flame out and add 227g of flaked oats for body and lingering sweetness. Cherries look fantastic, its going to be a great beer.

Good suggestions. I suppose it is missing some flaked adjunct and I do love me some oats in a stout. In fact I have some gno that might do the job although haven't tried them outside of paler beers.

 

[MorBeer83]

I will drink it! I'm planning something similar. I brewed an imperial last year with a local brewery and I suggested cocoa nibs instead of powder. It was a great success! We use 2 kg for 460 lt, last 10 minutes of boil. I bought raw cocoa nibs and slightly toasted them in the oven then gently crushed one nib at time by hand to have non too small pieces ( I didn't want to clog my friend brewery