Little bit of a conundrum... chocolate nibs and espresso.

[BeerNoob]

So I recently brewed what is going to be a Chocolate Espresso Stout. When I picked up the ingredients from my local supplier they told me to look for cocoa nibs which I should add to the secondary when I rack for a subtle, but nice chocolate flavour.

The problem I'm running in to is that I can't find them! I've looked at all of the specialty food stores in the area and even gone as far as calling local chocolatiers and chocolate supply stores and they don't seem to exist in my area.

What alternatives do I have if I'm unable to actually acquire nibs for this brew? Can I use an extract or even just toss in a few chunks of dark chocolate? Most o the recipes I've seen that don't use nibs call for some type of boil phase with the chocolate but my beer is already in the primary and ready to rack to secondary.

Also, since it's supposed to be a chocolate expresso stout, the recipe doesn't really give clear instruction on how much espresso to add. The guy at the homebrew supplier said to add both the espresso and the cocoa nibs to the secondary. Would it be horrible for me to run to starbucks and buy a few shots of espresso to toss into my secondary? I'm brewing a 5 gallon batch and would like both flavours to be evident but not to overpower one-another.

Thanks for any advice you can give!

 

[Guden]

Cocao nibs are available online from Northern Brewer if you can't find them elsewhere. As for the espresso most people seem to advocate cold brewing.

 

[BeerNoob]

That's excellent. Thanks so much!

I also managed to find the one place in my area that has cocoa nibs, and they have 3 different kinds.. hah.