adding coco powder to the priming sugar during the boil

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stagstout

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A thought has come up while waiting for my chocolate oatmeal cream stout to ferment (been in the primary for 3 weeks now). Would it be ok to add an (1) ounce of hershey's coco powder to the priming sugar when boiling it for the bottling? Is it to late in the game to add the coco powder, if so, when would I add it. Will adding it to the priming sugar affect the carbonation of my brew. Any feedback would be great as I am planning on bottling this weekend. Thanks guys.
 
I don't believe you should boil the coco powder but I really like this idea. I would boil the priming sugar and add the coco at flame out. I'm concerned that boiling the coco might make it bitter. But again I really like this idea and I'm thinking about other things that might be added at bottling.
 
We made a chocolate stout once with cocoa powder added during the boil... turned out pretty good. CP is definitely bitter and I never found any resources for balancing that bitterness with the normal sweetness/hops so it was a guess on adjusting the hop content. You may want to consider just using chocolate essence or whatever that stuff is (Young's also uses this in their chocolate stout).
 
Boiling cocoa powder won't hurt it, but you might be better served just adding some to your secondary fermentation vessel and letting it soak for a few days then racking out and priming as normal.

Chocolate essence is also a nice idea, as you can control the amount of chocolate flavor much better that way.
 
It is also somewhat fermentable, and so carbonation levels could be affected.

I carbed a batch with just hershey's kisses (6 or 7 for a 5 gallon batch) and it worked fine.
 
CD
Did you drop the hershey's kisses in the fermented wort at room temp. or did you dissolve them in water first? I like the idea but am still not sure on what I will decide. Note that the reciepe that I used called for 1lb of lactose at 15 min. left of boil. I also used 1 lb of flaked oats, so will that in any way lighten up the bitterness of the coco powder? I do not plan on doing a secondary so that option is out for me.
 
thanks for all the input so far, this is one of the reasons why I love brewing so much, all the comradery here on HBT makes it that much more worth while. So many options that I am beginning to think I will have to brew a batch for each one:D
 
Be careful adding actual chocolate. The oils can potentially kill your head...
 
In past batches I've added raw herseys unsweetened powder at flame out and chocolate extract into primary. I wouldn't add any actual sweetened fatty chocolate to the mix... just use less hops, mash higher, use less fermentable yeast/dme, add more crystal, etc etc.
 
I had a friend who added chocolate chips during the boil and he ended up with globs of the oil/fat at the end of fermentation. I would avoid melting any chocolate. Either use unsweetened cocoa powder or add chocolate nibs. I hear nibs give a better flavor but the powder is just so much easier.

My recommendation is to add the cocoa powder during secondary and let it sit. This gives intense chocolate flavor but without the bitterness. If you add at flame out then there is bitterness. I've done the secondary add with great success.
haha great success, have you guys seen Borat the Movie?
 
since i don't plan on doing a secondary, how is the feeling of boiling the priming sugar, let that cool and then add the coco powder to the cooled priming sugar. Does anybody see any harm in doing that or adding coco powder seperate from the priming sugar and putting that in the bottling bucket, add the fermented wort and bottle. I would imagin that the coco powder would mix fairly decent, if diluted with some water.....am I off base? Sounds like chocolate is a no no, so it's either adding coco powder or just toss the idea out and add it to the boil in the next batch:confused:
 
A couple years ago I made a chocolate bock, and found some suggestions here that I used. If I recall, I used 3/4 cup cocoa powder and boiled just 5 minutes in a pint of water. After cooling, add a tsp of vanilla. I added it to the secondary. My log doesn't mention it, but I have a suspicion I threw a little more in with the priming sugar at bottling. The trick is to let it sit for a while to develop the flavor. The consensus then was to stay away from anything with oils or cocoa butter (like hershey kisses) because it will kill the head. Mine turned out great - it wasn't sweet but had a nice chocolate flavor, especially after sitting for a couple months.
 
Well Guys,
Thanks for all the input. I just finished bottling my Chocolate Oatmeal Cream Stout. I ended up adding 2 TBSP of Hershey's Coco Powder ten minutes after the flame out of my priming sugar. It dissolved nicely and smelled great, like hot chocolate. I know a lot of suggestions were to add during the secondary, but I don't like using secondarys and like to have the wort sit on the yeast cake for at least three weeks. Since I brewed the beer for my bachelor weekend, wedding in October I wanted so good brew up north. I will give you fellows an update on the brew in about 6 weeks after I try my first bottle, gonna be hard waiting but worth it. Cheers, Steve:mug:
 
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