American Stout Idaho's Chocolate Stout

[Alan Reginato]

Recipe Type
All Grain BIAB

Yeast
Nottingham, yeast cake

Yeast Starter
No

Total brew water
30 L (7,9 us gal)
No sparge

Pre-boil
24 L (6,3 us gal)

Post-boil
21 L (5,5 us gal)

Batch Size (fermenter)
20 L (5,2 us gal)

Original Gravity
1.069

Final Gravity
1.014

ABV
8%

Boiling Time (Minutes)
60

IBU
60

Color
30 SRM

Brewhouse efficiency: 70%

Primary Fermentation
20 days, 15 C (59 F)
Water bath.

Tasting Notes
Cocoa, resinous/pine, smooth bitterness, some fruit in the background.

Ingredients:

5.25 kg (12 lb) Pilsner malt (78%)

0.5 kg (1,1 lb) Patagonia Chocolate Malt 350L (7%)

1 kg inverted sugar (15%)


Hops: Idaho 7 13% AA

Water:

Alkalinity (6) and hardness (15) are pretty low here. So be free to adjust it.

Mash Schedule:

Start at 40 C (104 F), rise to 66 C (151 F) keep it for 120 min and mash out at 80 C (176F).

Hops Schedule:

@60min: 35g Idaho 7 (13% AA)
@15min: 15g Idaho 7 (13% AA)

Chill to 20 C (68F)

Carbonation: 3.5 co2 vol. 10g/L priming.
Carb lower, if you don't like the bite.

Open the first bottle after 3 months. Taste like very bitter chocolate, nearly cocoa powder. Even at low quantities, the hop shows up with a pine, resinous flavour. A subtle sweet fruit flavour was there, as well. Didn't like that much, but it's drinkable.

 

[madscientist451]

Maybe try pale chocolate and dial back the sugar to target 6% ABV?
Use some marris otter or golden promise instead of the pilsner malt?
Pine/resinous doesn't really go with a chocolate stout, so I'd use different hops.

 

[Alan Reginato]

Pine/resinous doesn't really go with a chocolate stout,

That's the point. I'm still trying different hops and malts, so this kind of issue will happen eventually. No more pine with roasted malts.

 

[madscientist451]

maybe try Willamette hops

 

[Alan Reginato]

That's the point. I'm still trying different hops and malts, so this kind of issue will happen eventually. No more pine with roasted malts.

Well, I would like to rectify it. Opened another bottle, and I think the real issue here is the background fuit flavour, that doesn't match at all with the bitterness.
I recall reading somewhere, something about it. But just don't remember.