First chocolate stout, question

[americanabroad]

Hi folks

So I brewed my first oatmeal chocolate cream stout and just finished my primary ferm and sampled and tested my grav today. I have to say wow it tastes really good. Not to toot my own horn but I'm impressed considering it's my second brew. My question is though how do I get a better chocolatey flavour in it? It tastes more like coffee then it does the 16oz of chocolate powder I threw into the boil. It was dark chocolate powder so could it maybe have been that? I also used 1 lbs of chocolate malt in my recipe. Would that have caused more of a coffee flavour ? I do plan on adding coco nibs in the secondary but should i try anything additional ? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[ong]

Do you already have lactose in the beer? I would suspect that it doesn't taste very chocolatey because it's not super sweet. Cacao nibs will definitely add chocolate flavor, but if it's pretty dry, you might also consider from 4-8 oz of lactose.

 

[Kent88]

First, I agree with @ong that lactose will help bring that out.

Chocolate malt has a bit of a misleading name. I think it is supposed to add a little chocolate flavor, but that isn't all it brings to the flavor party. Check the malts chart.

A double shot of chocolate in the boil and in secondary should make it really chocolaty.

 

[americanabroad]

Do you already have lactose in the beer? I would suspect that it doesn't taste very chocolatey because it's not super sweet. Cacao nibs will definitely add chocolate flavor, but if it's pretty dry, you might also consider from 4-8 oz of lactose.

I did add the lactose already during the boil. I added .75 lbs so maybe i should add the last .25 lbs ?

 

[americanabroad]

I do already have the lactose in
.75 lbs so perhaps use the last
.25 lbs ? I just didnt want to go overboard with it and make it to sweet. It's not to sweet right now so I will try the last bit in secondary with the coco nibs. Any other ideas?

 

[chester2008]

I toast the coco nibs in the oven for 15-20 min and then soak them in vodka for a week (add a tablespoon of vanilla as well). Strain out the nibs and then you can add it until you get the flavor you are looking for. The vodka will extract the chocolate flavor better than your beer. I'm going to soak them in bourbon this time, so i get chocolate bourbon milk stout.

 

[secondbase]

I've been experimenting with a mixture of chocolate malts and crystal malts to achieve maximum chocolate flavor without using any actual chocolate. Thomas Fawcett pale chocolate has given me the best chocolate flavor when used with c-80 and 120.

 

[Dan_K]

I toast the coco nibs in the oven for 15-20 min and then soak them in vodka for a week (add a tablespoon of vanilla as well). Strain out the nibs and then you can add it until you get the flavor you are looking for. The vodka will extract the chocolate flavor better than your beer. I'm going to soak them in bourbon this time, so i get chocolate bourbon milk stout.

I wouldn't toast your cacao nibs. They have already been roasted to get to that flavor/color in an expensive roasting machine.

 

[Dan_K]

I've been experimenting with a mixture of chocolate malts and crystal malts to achieve maximum chocolate flavor without using any actual chocolate. Thomas Fawcett pale chocolate has given me the best chocolate flavor when used with c-80 and 120.

What percentages are you using?

 

[sonofred]

I wouldn't toast your cacao nibs. They have already been roasted to get to that flavor/color in an expensive roasting machine.

Nibs are not always sold that way. They are available raw so you would definitely want to toast them first in that case.

 

[Homercidal]

Is this a 5 gallon batch? I would say 16 ounces of powder and 1 lb. of chocolate malt should provide plenty of chocolate flavor (Although chocolate malt will also add a bunch of coffee flavor too).

One recipe I brewed called for using a high cacao dark chocolate bar in the boil. It also called for skimming the oil off the top after melting, before adding to the boil. But I've done several batches of chocolate stout/porter and thought 8 ounces of powder and 8 ounces of nibs in secondary was a good amount.

 

[Dan_K]

I heard from a professional brewer that 1oz of nibs per gallon is a pretty common amount.

 

[americanabroad]

Yeah it's a 5gal batch. I think I will try about 4oz of nibs in the secondary along with the last of the lactose

 

[user 40839]

Nope. Skip the nibs. Chocolate stout was the holy grail for me for the better part of a year, and I tried multiple batches with different choccy additions. I tried powder - nope, just created gunk. Had creme de cacao suggested. Nope. Tried nibs soaked in a little vodka in secondary. Nope. Tried chocolate in the boil. Nope.

Then I made a chocolate breakfast stout with oatmeal and lactose. Stout was amazing. And added one of these to each keg at racking time:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0012DFMZ2/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Boom. Winner. To the point that when I entered it in a competition, that brew garnered more votes than every other beer entered combined.

Chocolate extract is THE way to go.

 

[americanabroad]

Nope. Skip the nibs. Chocolate stout was the holy grail for me for the better part of a year, and I tried multiple batches with different choccy additions. I tried powder - nope, just created gunk. Had creme de cacao suggested. Nope. Tried nibs soaked in a little vodka in secondary. Nope. Tried chocolate in the boil. Nope.

Then I made a chocolate breakfast stout with oatmeal and lactose. Stout was amazing. And added one of these to each keg at racking time:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0012DFMZ2/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Boom. Winner. To the point that when I entered it in a competition, that brew garnered more votes than every other beer entered combined.

Chocolate extract is THE way to go.

Ah ok I can try the extract. Has anyone had that Sam Smith chocolate stout? I'm trying to get something like that. I wonder if they use extract ...

 

[americanabroad]

Ah ok I can try the extract. Has anyone had that Sam Smith chocolate stout? I'm trying to get something like that. I wonder if they use extract ...

 

[TandemTails]

Ah ok I can try the extract. Has anyone had that Sam Smith chocolate stout? I'm trying to get something like that. I wonder if they use extract ...

There's a big thread dedicated to cloning the Samuel Smith's organic chocolate stout: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=370706

So far no one has really been able to replicate it. People seem to be getting closer toward the end of the thread, but the last post was like 4 months ago

 

[americanabroad]

Wow just read it ! Yeah looks like they are getting close. I wonder how SS gets it like it is ?? I'm a complete noob so maybe I'm sounding ignorant but surely it wouldn't be that hard to replicate right?