Chai Stout

philrose · Oct 31, 2009

Sedge said:
I agree that it can be a tricky dance to get the spice mixture right (especially if you decide to add cloves) but as for boiling: traditionally chai is boiled for a few minutes after the spices are added, so the astringency you extract from the spices will be normal. The only thing is you shouldn't add the cardamom until the end of the boil because it will burn and turn bitter. This is true of pretty much ever Indian recipe involving cardamom.

I wouldn't recommend grinding the spices to dust in a coffee/spice grinder. Chai spices are powerful, and you would want to avoid that instant coffee effect of garbage bitterness taste. If you want to use less overall then go ahead and grind, but the spices aren't too expensive and you have more control with whole or coarsely ground spices.

As a reference point, if I'm making a pot of chai (let's say four cups) I'd crush 1 clove for the whole pot with about 2 tablespoons of minced ginger, and crack 3-4 cardamom pods and crush those to throw in at the end (or two spins per cup of my cardamom filled pepper mill ). Cinnamon is a no-no in my house, as are other spices like nutmeg, but if you want to get festive with a lot of spices tread on the softside with these two.

Having said that, for a 5 gallon batch, to achieve my desired level of spice, I'd probably use candied/crystalized ginger and whole cardamom pods in a hot tea, dose a pint of a similar styled commercial beer to taste then scale it up just like adding a fruit flavoring, extract or liquor. You can probably get away with boiling the tea if you're not crusing the spices to dust, but I do like the sound of phil's french press approach.

Candied ginger would be really interesting, I'd assume that it would ferment out to some degree.

rexbanner · Nov 1, 2009

philrose said:
Dude- Thats wayyyy more spice than I used and next time I make this I'll be cutting back.

I used loose, unground chai mix with no tea leaves, steeped in my french press, cooled the tea and added about 3/4s of it to the bottling bucket. Much more control over the flavor. You couldn't taste as you go if you add to the boil. Rely on your tastebuds!

I am relying on my tastebuds....I made the chai tea as described in the book, and like I said, there is no way it would flavor five gallons of beer. It barely had any flavor itself.

ChrisKennedy · Nov 1, 2009

I threw about 3oz of our Chai Spice mixture into about 500ml of cheap vodka and it has been enough to strongly spice at least 100gal of Chai Milk Stout. I only have to use .5oz of the vodka tincture per 5gal, and it is assertive.

The 3oz is a guess, but the spices are still sitting in the vodka bottle, and it is about 1in tightly compacted in the bottom. Not much.

DavidSteel · Nov 1, 2009

I'd probably make a milk stout out of this as chai tea is traditionally made with milk, not water.

fastricky · Nov 1, 2009

So is there any consensus on what a good recipe would be?

philrose · Nov 2, 2009

fastricky said:
So is there any consensus on what a good recipe would be?

I maintain that gordon strong's recipe (the one in Mosher's Radical Brewing) is a good one.

fastricky · Nov 2, 2009

Strong is a major-league brewer... I'd go with that one, thanks.

mavandeh · Jan 18, 2010

LouT said:
Chai Beer (aka India Chai Ale)
- brian rezac
- ------------------------------------------
8 lbs. Munton & Fison light malt extract
1 lb. English crystal malt (55 L)
8 oz. Belgian Munich malt
4 oz. Belgian CaraPils malt
4 oz. Briess chocolate malt
4 oz. Briess roasted barley

2 oz. Cascade, 4.9% AA (70 min)
3/4 oz. Saaz, 3.0% AA (15 min)
1/2 oz. Saaz, 3.0% AA (2 min)

1 teaspoon Irish moss (15 min)
1 teaspoon Burton salts (optional)

Wyeast #1007 - German ale yeast

Naturally carbonate, bottle condition.

Spices
- ---------------
120 Cardamom pods, (cracked slightly - just enough to open the
pods)
11 teaspoons Cinnamon chips
11 teaspoons whole Coriander
5 1/2 teaspoons whole Cloves
5 1/2 teaspoons whole black Peppercorns
11 inches fresh, peeled, sliced Ginger root (or 5 teaspoons dried
ginger chips)

Adding Spices
- ---------------------
In a separate pot, boil all spices in approximately 1 quart of
water for 20 minutes. (You should have the spices boiling about
the same time as you start the wort boiling.)
After 20 minutes of a nice rolling boil, shut off heat, cover and
leave spices sit in water for another 20 minutes.
At 20 minutes left to the wort boil, add spice tea through a
strainer directly into wort.

Looks like much more ingredients than a 5 gallon recipe to me. Maybe 10?

hammacks · Jan 18, 2010

10.5# of malt. Looks like 5 gal to me. What is that, like 5.5gal at 1.052 at 75% or so?

mavandeh · Jan 18, 2010

Alright, thanks. I'm planning to start this one on Friday and I wasn't sure.

Sedge · Jan 18, 2010

Wholy Cloves Batman.

....that is a lot of cloves. Definitely update this thread with how it comes out.

TacoNation · Jan 19, 2010

I was really interested in this recipe so on Christmas day I brewed my take on it. I'd already purchased the Mr. Beer "Holiday Party Ale No. 1" recipe and used the can of West Coast Pale Ale (first mod, no longer a stout) that came with it. I used all of the spices mentioned here, just cut the amounts in half, and followed the boiling directions. Something not noted here but with so little water I suggest replenishing some of the water about halfway through the boil. The only other change was I used the 1 cup of honey and booster from the original Mr. Beer recipe instructions.

I gave this batch a full 3 weeks to ferment and bottled on January 16th. It tastes just like Chai tea, it's really something. The color is beautiful, too. I know it's supposed to be a stout but I hopeful the taste holds through conditioning. Anywho, thought I'd contribute my version on this recipe.

brewt00l · Jan 19, 2010

I'm lazy and just steeped several bags of chai tea after flameout, during my chill process in a big chai spiced winter amber ale. I kept bittering addition on the low end, counting on some possible astringency from the tea but it seems to have worked out just fine. It's been conditioning for a while and I've been sampling it along the way...nice mellow chai flavor that works very well with the overall flavor profile I was looking for.

rexbanner · Feb 10, 2010

fastricky said:
Strong is a major-league brewer... I'd go with that one, thanks.

Here's an update:

While I think that original recipe might be fine if you have the right ingredients, I think your mileage may vary because of the multitude of spices and how complex the flavor is. I have the suspicion that some spices I bought were either low quality or stale, and that's why I didn't get the full flavor of them.

But here's the most important part. DO NOT BOIL YOUR SPICES. Mosher's recipe says to steep, and there's a reason for this. When I made my spice tea the second time, I boiled the cinnamon. It added an astringency which tasted so bad it ruined the entire batch. It didn't taste bad by itself, but when mixed with the stout, it produced a gut-wrenching flavor.

That's just my experience. If the original recipe worked fine for you, then terrific. I'm trying this recipe again, and I'll be using tazo concentrate instead because I really don't feel like messing around with all this.

philrose · Feb 10, 2010

rexbanner said:
But here's the most important part. DO NOT BOIL YOUR SPICES. Mosher's recipe says to steep, and there's a reason for this.

Totally Agree. Chai Spices take more finesse than other "traditional" beer spices. If you've had luck adding your coriander to the bk in the past on wits don't assume you will on this beer.

JByer323 · Feb 11, 2010

N00b Alert:

If I want to try Brian Rezac's recipe, can I steep the Crystal, Munich, Carapils, chocolate, and roasted barley?

Specialty grains in a muslim back, right? No partial mash needed?

Sorry, this is probably going to be my first foray into non-kit beers, and I'm still new enough that I sometimes need some recipe translations.

Apollo · Feb 11, 2010

Are you using actual Chai tea bags or the powdered mixture that makes more of a chai latte, or something else? There's many versions of chai.

philrose · Feb 12, 2010

theres a spice blend in strong's recipe, I used a loose chai mixture from the local spice market

GillandCo · Oct 27, 2010

Anyone try this with a chai Syrup? Like the crap they use at starbucks? And if so how many ounces per 5 gallons? 1-2 maybe...Thanks

Im planning on using a chai blend in my vanilla porter recipe...Maybe throw some cinnamon in there as well.

fastricky · Oct 29, 2010

I like this idea... cool illustration too.

http://lucylou.livejournal.com/575537.html

bwomp313 · Oct 29, 2010

JByer323 said:
N00b Alert:

If I want to try Brian Rezac's recipe, can I steep the Crystal, Munich, Carapils, chocolate, and roasted barley?
.

the munich definitely needs mashing as it is a base grain

Boy · Feb 15, 2011

There are a few excellent chai's that come in a concentrate form where you mix them 1:1 with milk and steam. I'm thinking it would be good to do a stout or porter with coffee and chai in the secondary. If you went this route instead of trying to make your own on the stove what would be the best way to add it.

From what I know you can add cold press coffee to the secondary with no issues, but what about the cold chai? Even a guess at this would be much appreciated.

Boy · Apr 2, 2011

Bump.

Current plan is to pick up some Pipeline Porter and keep adding chai until the ratio seems proper. Plan on just adding Chai concentrate to the secondary along with 16 oz cold press coffee for 5 gallons.

KozHops · Apr 19, 2011

Bumping this one up.

Anyone have any luck with the concentrate or is the herbal way the best way to go? Looking for the right ratio to use and was thinking about a sweet or milk stout as the base.

Boy · Apr 26, 2011

Transferring mine to secondary on Friday and adding the coffee and chai. It occurs to me that the last of the yeast might do a little work on the concentrate but I think it will be somewhat negligible. The other thing I came up with tonight is what people are really referring to when they say cold press. Are most adding the entire cold press which is similar to extract? Or are most making 16 oz of cold press coffee by adding the cold press to water?

matts · Jan 1, 2012

Thinking of brewing Rezac's recipe but adding the steeped tea to secondary (or at kegging) so no spice aromas or flavors bubble out the airlock, kind of like what some people do when making coffee beers. I could still use some black tea via this method and get a little caffeine kick as well. I brew homemade chai and really blast the flavors, especially the ginger. I even add cayenne pepper to my chai to boost the spiciness.

jester065 · Oct 12, 2013

When you say Naturally carbonate, bottle condition how much sugar and water did you use? Did you do secondary too? I put it in primary today. Thanks for your help.

dbennett78 · Oct 12, 2013

Was thinking of making a chai milk stout as my next beer. I have the following spices: cinnamon stick, nutmeg, clove, all spice, ginger and vanilla beans. Anyone have a ratio to add and how to add it?

dbennett78 · Oct 17, 2013

Anyone that has made this and has any tasting notes/suggestions?

Chai Stout

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