Nesquick amount?

Well, i wanted to brew a second batch this weekend to get caught up on all the ones planned (planned too much for the winter and trying to get all my winter time brews finished) so i decided to brew a chocolate raspberry stout again. This time i decided to assemble the ingredients from scratch instead of a kit. Well, when i went to the store the only kind of cocoa i could find was the nesquick instant stuff. The recipe calls for 2 oz. unsweetened cocoa. Just wondering if i could use 2 oz. Nesquick or if i should use more being that it's sweetened and has other extra stuff in it. Or should i not use it at all (kinda hard not to now that the boil is going)? Thanks!

I wouldn't use it at all, personally. You don't know what's in there - preservatives may hinder yeast activity. Plus, it already has sweeteners and maltodextrine, it seems. This is going throw off the recipe - you don't know if their sweeteners are fermentable or not, could lead to decrease in attenuation and increase in body, sweetness and the like.

So if i don't use this cocoa i can't just go out to the store right now and get some more with the boil going and all so would it be ok to just add the cocoa in secondary then?

Go to the supermarket, in the baking goods aisle, and find this:

http://www.hersheys.com/products/details/cocoa/images/cocoa_full_prod.jpg


Nesquick has a lot of crap in it, and is most likely artificially flavored.

mullimat said:

So if i don't use this cocoa i can't just go out to the store right now and get some more with the boil going and all so would it be ok to just add the cocoa in secondary then?

Click to expand...

Yes. In light of my recent experimentation, I'd mix it with a cup of water and bring it to a boil. Take it off of the heat and whip the crap out of it with a whisk (sanitized of course). THis will at the very least help the cocoa powder to mix into the beer better. I've poured straight cocoa powder into a carboy before. Not only did it not mix, I got mold!

Pour in using a sanitized funnel.

You were probably looking by the powdered chocolate milk and breakfast drinks. You want to look on the baking isle near where the flour/sugar/marshmallow fluff/bars of chocolate/chopped nuts/etc are. If all else fails ask one of the pimply-faced kids in an apron where the unsweetened cocoa powder is.

Yeah i was probably looking in the wrong place. Well, i looked at the ingredients on the package and the only things other than cocoa and sugar were soy lecithin (an emulsifier) and Carrageenan (from what i understand acts a lot like Irish Moss) so i should be good with it. Not sure of the proportions to get the desired amount of cocoa but we'll just see with the finished product. I can use this more as an experimental batch. Everyone that i let try this when i made it before absolutely loved it so i probably will be making this again in a month or so.

Hmmmm...I didn't realize nesquik had lecithin in it. The chocolate emulsion is on!

Try this. Do what I described, but when you are whipping it, add a few teaspoons of nesquick. That will create an emulsion with the chocolate and water. Maybe it will help the chocolate from dropping out. At least according to my theory