Adding Cocoa to chocolate stout

[Owly055]

I've never made a chocolate stout... or any stout before. I'm just about to dough in, and I added my unsweetened cocoa to the crushed grain and mixed well......... Was this a mistake? I guess I'll find out ;-)...........


H.W.

 

[bleme]

It will work, but not as effectively as it would 15 minutes before flameout.

 

[Owly055]

Looked like the easiest way to add it....

 

[MindenMan]

The cocoa will travel into the BK, I am not sure if that will be good or bad, but be aware, the cocoa will add bitterness, so you may want to consider your hop additions. I used 8 oz cocoa powder in 5 gallons, added at 15 minutes, and the flavor was definitely there.

 

[Owly055]

The cocoa will travel into the BK, I am not sure if that will be good or bad, but be aware, the cocoa will add bitterness, so you may want to consider your hop additions. I used 8 oz cocoa powder in 5 gallons, added at 15 minutes, and the flavor was definitely there.

Wish I'd thought of the IBUs...... with 1/2C cocoa added to the grain after the crush, the whole thing worked out quite well, but I'm concerned about the IBUs. 1/2C isn't a lot of cocoa, but it's in a 2.5 gallon brew. It's going to be a bitter stout, and between the chocolate malt and the cocoa, it has an unmistakable chocolate flavor... not a bad thing.

I was told that using the chocolate malt made it more of a porter than a stout....but I'm not sure where the distinction lies, as a stout IS a porter... it has about 5% roast barley and 10% chocolate malt, and I used torrified wheat for head....... They didn't have flaked wheat.


H.W.

 

[franksnbeans89]

I have made a mocha stout and "dry hopped" on cocoa nibs and coffee beans during secondary. came out awesome!!! not bitter at all, only added a small amount of lactose at the end of the boil.

 

[SteveHeff]

I have, with fantastic results, used both cocoa nibs as well as cocoa powder.

When I make my oatmeal stout, I'll toss between 5-8 oz of cocoa powder to the mash. Smells great and looks great. After the boil, and during my secondary, I add 5 oz of vanilla extract soaked cocoa nibs. The alcohol in the vanilla (not vanillin) extract helps to pull more of that cocoa flavor from the nibs.

It works wonders. I usually leave the nibs in a muslin bag in the secondary vessel for 5 days. There is a bit of vanilla, cocoa-ness in the stout. As long as your malt bill is decent, the other ingredients will play along with it. Get a nice strong backbone from that grain bill. Good luck with your brew.

 

[SpeedYellow]

There are lots of ways folks use cocoa / cacao, but adding it to the mash isn't really one of them.

 

[Roypa10]

I've done a 10 gallon batch of vanilla choclate oatmeal stout and added 5oz of organic cocoa at mash right before sparging, it's a great way of adding cocoa flavor/bitterness without bringing in oils to your pre-boil wort and it worked wonders for me.
If ever you do plan on adding cocoa to boil, it'll need time to boil these oils.


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[Owly055]

My method of adding cocoa to the grain before mashing was intended to distribute the powder well so that it would dissolve easily. The idea was that it would kind of distribute and cling to some of the grain, etc so there wouldn't be any clumps of powder.
Unconventional as it apparently is, it seems to have worked in terms of getting the cocoa well distributed............ Unfortunately it also seems like it interfered with the mashing process as my yield was sub par by a significant amount. Henceforth it will go into the boil, not the mash.


H.W.

 

[BigFloyd]

You need some lactose to balance out the bitterness of unsweetened cocoa powder. As a general rule of thumb, 2oz lactose for every 1oz cocoa powder turns out rather nicely.

I like to mix the two dry in a bowl, add enough warm water to make a pourable slurry and add that with 10 minutes left in the boil.