Hot chocolate stout fermentation

[Jbbloom1989]

Ok so I started my hot chocolate stout, hot in two ways: ancho chili in boil, as well as cinnamon. I also added cocoa powder and Irish moss in last 5 min as well as a vanilla bean. Racking to the split fermentors was like syrup, very thick. One is also fermenting a little quicker/ started faster. Tell me what you think. I just want to make sure all is going to plan, as this is only my third brew.

The problem is one has built a chocolate trub type thing on top of the foam. It also went from a deep black to a chocolate brown color. There is an inch of sediment on the bottom of each fermentor, and so far all signs of fermentation are normal. Just looking for some answers, making sure I didn't mess anything up! Thanks for all the help!

Ben

Posting pictures soon.

 

[BigB]

Sounds like everything is fine. The lighter, choclate brown colored one just sounds like a really active fermentation with a lot of trub being churned up... It will all settle out after primary fermentation is complete.

 

[Jbbloom1989]

An update:

I was watching my fermentation temp, and I noticed that my temp was continuing to rise. It reached near 78 F at one point, so I made a bath out of two larger styrofoam "coolers" and filled them with cool water and ice dropping the temp down to 60-64 F. I am hoping the shock from the cooling didn't effect the yeast, but I still seem to have steady fermentation.

Most of the trub also fell back down with the foam when I added the fermentor to the cool water. So, if anything crazy continues to happen Ill give another update.

One more question though, how might I siphon this to a secondary with out pulling all of my cinnamon (8 oz of Vietnamese cinnamon) as well as everything else? I just want to make sure that Im not pulling all of the sediment into the secondary, which might also transfer to the bottle. Any tips would be great.

 

[KevinW]

The (Krausen) on top is good and the color lightening up is probably from the yeast circulating in the wort. The increase in temp may have been a bit much but depending on the particular yeast it should have been okay but bringing the temp down that much could have shocked the yeast a bit(you'll find out).

Once fermentation is finished(two or three days in a row that the specific gravity has not changed) you could either transfer to secondary(I don't recommend) or just let the beer sit for about three weeks(good for conditioning the beer as well). All the yeast and sediment should settle to the bottom and you can just siphon(rack) the beer to a bottling bucket for bottling.
Cold crashing is another option but that can be hard to do unless you have a fridge or something like that.

The cinnamon and vanilla flavors left after fermentation should be infused in the beer and will stay with it when you rack it.

 

[BigB]

I agree with Kevin to leave it in the primary. Although this is a hotly debated issue, secondaries are tyically only needed for clearing or for adding fruit or something else. A stout is really dark as it is, so clearing isn't an issue in your case. Revvy (one of the more experienced brewers here) is of the opinion that you should leave your beer on the majority of the yeast (hence no secondary) to allow the yeast to clean up after themselves. I agree with his advice and have had a dramatic improvement in my beer since. Others disagree, but I can only speak for my own experience.

As far as transferring it and leaving the trub behind... I strongly recommend an autosiphon. It has a little guard on the tip that prevents most of the trub from getting sucked in.

 

[Jbbloom1989]

Well you've talked me into staying with the primary. Ill just continue to hold the temperature at 62-64 and make sure it doesnt flux for the next month or so. I know there are a lot of flavors that I would like to seep in so that I don't have anything overpowering. I had thought about adding an additional vanilla bean since used one in the last five min of boil. Here is my boil schdeule:

Mini Mash:
1 lb chocolate malt
8 oz malted barley
*all mashed at 152-156 for 1 hour

Boil:
3 lb LME
second addition of 4.5 lb LME
Brought to boil for 90 min
1 cup molasses @ 90 min
1 cup wildflower local honey @ 45 min
1 oz Magnum Hop AA 12.5% @ 30 min
2.5 oz Ancho Chili @ 30
1 oz Magnum Hop @ 15 min
@ 5 min: 8 oz cinnamon, 1 vanilla bean, 1 oz irish moss, 8 oz cocoa powder (Hershey Cocoa Powder)

Wort chilled to 74 F in about an hour by ice bath (making my own wort chiller now)

I also had a small boil over at around 20 min till flame out, but I only lost around 4 cups of wort. I had a small screen over pot to prevent any bugs or anything getting into my boil, this helped keep most of the wort in the pot.

I ended up with around 3 gallons of usable wort. Had about 2 lb of protein and trub build up after cold break.

I added this to two glass carboys split into 1.5 gallons of wort in each with 1 gallon of cold, filtered water, which brought my fermentation temp down to around 72.

So aside from a minor mishap, everything went well. And so far after the Krausen fell when I put the cold water, everything is still bubbling and I plan on taking a gravity measurement this sunday at the week mark. (although it seems somewhat pointless since they its gonna be a month before I move anything )

 

[KevinW]

I plan on taking a gravity measurement this sunday at the week mark. (although it seems somewhat pointless since they its gonna be a month before I move anything )

That is kind of my philosophy, I do not take gravity readings until I bottle since I leave the beer for 3 or more weeks. So far so good but I am sure I will pay the price in the future, or maybe not

 

[Jbbloom1989]

haha agreed, I just do it to satisfy some urge in me to know exactly where my fermentation is at all times. I only open a bottle a week at the week mark of previous brew until I find it satisfactory. I guess I just like to be meticulous.

Oh and to clear something up, I didnt use 7 1/2 lb of Liquid Malt Extract, it was Dry extract just Light Malt Extract. I realized this might make my gravity calculations a little bad haha.

 

[Jbbloom1989]

Update:
Beer was bottled on August 7. All went well. Enormous trub on the bottom of primary. I have a feeling that the higher ABV of this beer made the yeast go crazy. Used corn sugar dissolved in 2 cups of hot water then mixed into the primaries. Minimal trub was kicked up. Really looking foward to opening one to see how it went. I always open one a week until the beer is tasting right then I start having the friends try em. I'll give you a taste update after I try it tonight.

 

[BigB]

Update:
Beer was bottled on August 7. All went well. Enormous trub on the bottom of primary. I have a feeling that the higher ABV of this beer made the yeast go crazy. Used corn sugar dissolved in 2 cups of hot water then mixed into the primaries. Minimal trub was kicked up. Really looking foward to opening one to see how it went. I always open one a week until the beer is tasting right then I start having the friends try em. I'll give you a taste update after I try it tonight.

One thing you may consider when bottling is to pour the cooled priming solution into an empty sanitized bottling bucket. Then rack the wort into that.

 

[Jbbloom1989]

I really considered that, but I was feeling pretty done that night. I spilled the first round of priming solution all over my floor, so after an hour of cleaning I just wanted to finish haha. I got a chance to try it this weekend. First pour proved to be not fully carbonated, which i expected. It smell amazing, but a strong smokey taste from the ancho chili dominated the glass. My friend gave me the encouraging word that it tasted like melted plastic. So I guess it is going to become a waiting game. I could pick out the chocolate and cinnamon in the flavor, so I think I just need to wait until the smokey-ness of the beer subsides. Well if anyone has any words of guidance for this one give em to me lol, after my lovely friend's comments of melting plastic I am just hoping this beer turns out drinkable.

Thanks guys!