Creme de Cacoa -- in secondary or as bottle primer?

[bothra]

So I brewed up a chocolate stout recipe that called for 8oz of cocoa powder added at 5min. Things being as they were, I forgot to add the powder at 5 min. ಠ_ಠ

I was going to do secondary anyway to add a hint of mint flavor as well. It's already finishing up primary fermentation after 4 weeks, was planning to rack to secondary this weekend.

I have a bottle of Creme de Cacoa that I would like to use to boost that chocolate kick. Should I let it sit in primary to ferment out those sugars in the liqueur or just use it as the priming sugar at bottling time?

 

[Squirrels]

If you know the sugar amount in the liqueur I would say do the math for adding at bottling time. If not, add it to the primary and then add sugar as normal during bottling. Creating bottle bombs is not great.

But ultimately, it is your brew. Do what you feel is right!

 

[malkore]

the issue with using it as priming sugar: what if the amount of liqueur needed to get the right CO2 volume is way too much/too little chocolate flavor?

I think it'll be easier to ferment it out and priming 'traditionally', unless you are down for some math and taste testing to dial in the final flavor.

Nothing wrong with either approach, just take the one that you think YOU can do the best.

 

[bothra]

Nothing wrong with either approach, just take the one that you think YOU can do the best.

This is what ended up swaying me to pop it in secondary and let it ferment out the sugars. Thanks for the help!