Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer Andes Mint Chocolate Stout

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Brewed this yesterday and so far it smells amazing. I have a big patch of mint in my yard so I opted for a couple handfuls of actual chopped up mint leaves. Mint isn't overpowering at all from what my nose tells me. I used 4 oz unsweetened cocoa and added 8 oz lactose. My goal is to have a sweeter version for the holidays to give away.

Mike
 
Thanks for the recipe! The only change I made to the recipe was using 100% Cocoa Baker's chocolate, which I melted down and used instead of cocoa powder. Has anyone tired this?

I just finished racking to secondary and will post my results in 2-4 weeks.

Cheers!

Fermenting: Andes Chocolate Mint Stout
Corny Keg: American Pale Ale
Bottle Conditioning: Saison DuPont Clone
 
flyjimmyfly said:
Thanks for the recipe! The only change I made to the recipe was using 100% Cocoa Baker's chocolate, which I melted down and used instead of cocoa powder. Has anyone tired this?

I just finished racking to secondary and will post my results in 2-4 weeks.

Cheers!

Fermenting: Andes Chocolate Mint Stout
Corny Keg: American Pale Ale
Bottle Conditioning: Saison DuPont Clone
Click to expand...

I'm going to be doing this brew soon, how did the bakers chocolate work out for you?
 
I'm going to be brewing this next weekend. Just wondering if anyone has tried maris otter as the base and if it worked out? Or if nobody has, what are your opinions on using it
 
I picked up the peppermint tea bags for this when I was at Wegmans a while back when they had the hatch chiles and have some washed WLP004 in the fridge from my Vanilla Bourbon Stout which is just about gone. I'm going to be doing a double brew with a friend in a couple weeks and plan on picking up the rest of the ingredients soon. It will be my first BIAB. I can't wait to try this out.
 
I picked up all the stuff to do this one following the OP except I'm leaving out the peppermint and adding 4oz vanilla at bottling. I finally found natal peppermint tea bags near me so if I like the base recipe I'll definitely make it again with the peppermint. It sounds like a really solid chocolate stout recipe and everyone seems to like it.

Question though... Are you tapping this on nitro or Co2? I'm bottling mine with dextrose and I'm wondering vol percentage to bottle them at. Should be lower for a stout right? Around 2.3 or 2.4?
 
COEBRA said:
I picked up all the stuff to do this one following the OP except I'm leaving out the peppermint and adding 4oz vanilla at bottling. I finally found natal peppermint tea bags near me so if I like the base recipe I'll definitely make it again with the peppermint. It sounds like a really solid chocolate stout recipe and everyone seems to like it.

Question though... Are you tapping this on nitro or Co2? I'm bottling mine with dextrose and I'm wondering vol percentage to bottle them at. Should be lower for a stout right? Around 2.3 or 2.4?
Click to expand...
I did my vanilla bourbon stout at 2.2 vol and definitely would have like it higher than that. For this one I am planning for 2.5 vol and seeing where that gets me.
 
COEBRA said:
I picked up all the stuff to do this one following the OP except I'm leaving out the peppermint and adding 4oz vanilla at bottling. I finally found natal peppermint tea bags near me so if I like the base recipe I'll definitely make it again with the peppermint. It sounds like a really solid chocolate stout recipe and everyone seems to like it.

Question though... Are you tapping this on nitro or Co2? I'm bottling mine with dextrose and I'm wondering vol percentage to bottle them at. Should be lower for a stout right? Around 2.3 or 2.4?
Click to expand...

I tap on CO2. No nitro. I'm not super crazy about specific volumes of CO2, because with my humble kegerator setup it's a lot easier to just stick everything at 10 PSI.
 
COEBRA said:
I picked up all the stuff to do this one following the OP except I'm leaving out the peppermint and adding 4oz vanilla at bottling. I finally found natal peppermint tea bags near me so if I like the base recipe I'll definitely make it again with the peppermint. It sounds like a really solid chocolate stout recipe and everyone seems to like it.

Question though... Are you tapping this on nitro or Co2? I'm bottling mine with dextrose and I'm wondering vol percentage to bottle them at. Should be lower for a stout right? Around 2.3 or 2.4?
Click to expand...

http://www.northernbrewer.com/priming-sugar-calculator/
 
Well, im brewing this one saturday and am going to use 4 oz of hersheys powder chocolate, 7 peppermint tea bags in the boil, 3 dry "hopped" and half american 2-row and half maris otter as the base malt. cant freaking wait!!!
 
guitarman31 said:
I'm going to be doing this brew soon, how did the bakers chocolate work out for you?
Click to expand...

The Baker's chocolate worked well. Definitely gets better as it ages. I think next time I'd probably like to try using some lactose as mine came out a bit drier than I like.

Primary: None :-(
Secondary: None :-(
Kegged: Saison Dupont, Andes Mint Chocolate
Planned: Iced Gingerbread Porter
 
When I added the cocoa, most of it settled in the bottom of the kettle and didn't mix in. Maybe I'll stir it into some wort first next time. Still looks like it will be a good brew
 
Sepanik1986 said:
Well, im brewing this one saturday and am going to use 4 oz of hersheys powder chocolate, 7 peppermint tea bags in the boil, 3 dry "hopped" and half american 2-row and half maris otter as the base malt. cant freaking wait!!!
Click to expand...

Be careful about using Hershey's anything chocolate, I've read that processed chocolate can give you off flavors. I have no experience with it, personally. I've always use cacao (nibs and powder) which is unroasted/unprocessed cocoa.
 
teebob2000 said:
Be careful about using Hershey's anything chocolate, I've read that processed chocolate can give you off flavors. I have no experience with it, personally. I've always use cacao (nibs and powder) which is unroasted/unprocessed cocoa.
Click to expand...

I agree! I got my cocoa from a local organic supermarket like Whole Foods.
 
The stuff I got is 100% unsweetened cacao in powder form with 1% total fat per serving. I didnt take the time to calculate how much it'd be in total grams but it was the best I could find
 
Sepanik1986 said:
The stuff I got is 100% unsweetened cacao in powder form with 1% total fat per serving. I didnt take the time to calculate how much it'd be in total grams but it was the best I could find
Click to expand...

OK cool! Can't wait to see how your brews turn out, guys!
 
I picked up all my grains today to brew tomorrow! This will be my third brew and first AG. I will be doing a BIAB setup and kegging for the holidays as we committed to having the family to our house to break in the newly built bar and fresh brewed mint beer. I cannot wait to taste this, as I have been eyeing this recipe for a few months waiting for the right time to brew.:tank:
 
So, after brewing this I had 2 questions. When 10 tea bags were listed, was it ten double bags or 5 double bags. (i used 5) also my strainer that I use to filter dropped into my bucket while pouring into the fermenter, along ith the break materials, is that ok
 
Brewed this yesterday. Missed my OG by a lot (came in around 10424. Late night with a lot going on in the kitchen, who knows what went wrong), but the wort smelled amazing. I tried the no chill method on this one out of necessity. Took it off the flame around 2am Sunday morning, covered it, let it sit until morning and transferred it to the bucket. Pitched my starter around 5pm and I had blowoff by this morning.

The only change I made was adding half of the recommended cocoa powder. If it's not chocolatey enough after the primary, I'll add some cocoa nibs to make up the difference.

Looking forward to tasting this one!
 
Sepanik1986 said:
So, after brewing this I had 2 questions. When 10 tea bags were listed, was it ten double bags or 5 double bags. (i used 5) also my strainer that I use to filter dropped into my bucket while pouring into the fermenter, along ith the break materials, is that ok
Click to expand...

I used single bags. Specifically, the Celestial Seasonings peppermint tea - those come with two attached together, but break off into individual bags. That's how I counted.

Strainer is sanitized so I'm sure it's fine.

Loving the revival this recipe is getting lately - it's a good one!
 
My first all grain brew went great, the wort smelled awesome and is actively fermenting away as I type this. I am going to keg this for the the holidays and have never kegged before. I want to do the set and forget, think I read i this thread that the PSI should be set to 10. Is this true? Any other tips.
 
Hey, I have an organic food store in town and I was wandering through today and noticed Organic Chocolate Extract. Has anyone messed around with this in comparison to nibs or powder?
 
ImageUploadedByHome Brew1413949626.232788.jpg and we are off! Props to Andy for the recipe and for loving modern life is war and doomriders!!
 
I'm kind of regretting using a hop bag for the boil. I went to check the gravity and all I got scent wise was a nutty smell. No hint of mint. Gravity is at 1.020 after a week fermented at 61 degrees fahrenheit. Took a taste and got a roasted nut and chocolate flavor, again, no hint of mint. Gonna give it another week of primary, then I'm gonna rack to a secondary to clear out extra yeast and get it off the trub. If at that point still no mintiness, I'll debaate on using some peppermint extract or a dry addition of more mint bags.
 
I did my first PM today with this recipe. Forgot to add the flaked barley right away since it was in my other ingredient bag, so I had to open everything back up to get it in. Final temperature at end of mash was down to 146. I added 1/2 lb. of lactose and pitched a saved mason jar of WLP004. I ended up going without a starter. I have another jar in the fridge that I can use if it doesn't take off.

That hydro sample was deeeeelicous. Minty, chocolatey, and just a hint of hops. If the finished product is as good as that tasted, I'll be a happy camper.

Thanks for the recipe! I look forward to sharing these at Christmas.
 
If this comes out as good as I hope, I'll share the PM recipe I used. Someone posted a rough extract recipe early on in the thread that I based it on, and I figure I'd hopefully add a little clarity to other PMers interested in this.
 
Question for those that have brewed this, since the only hop addition is at 60 minutes is there really any flavor or aroma contributions? I'm thinking about brewing a batch of this, and wondering if I can just bitter with some neutral hops I have on hand, or if I should go ahead and get the actual hops.
 
Carros said:
Question for those that have brewed this, since the only hop addition is at 60 minutes is there really any flavor or aroma contributions? I'm thinking about brewing a batch of this, and wondering if I can just bitter with some neutral hops I have on hand, or if I should go ahead and get the actual hops.
Click to expand...

Anything neutral is probably fine. I've brewed it with Magnum before and that was fine, too.
 
Sepanik1986 said:
I'm kind of regretting using a hop bag for the boil. I went to check the gravity and all I got scent wise was a nutty smell. No hint of mint. Gravity is at 1.020 after a week fermented at 61 degrees fahrenheit. Took a taste and got a roasted nut and chocolate flavor, again, no hint of mint. Gonna give it another week of primary, then I'm gonna rack to a secondary to clear out extra yeast and get it off the trub. If at that point still no mintiness, I'll debaate on using some peppermint extract or a dry addition of more mint bags.
Click to expand...


I agree, I ended at 1.014 and it's more of a nutty taste, almost like a dark Newcastle (which I'm not complaining about, just not the chocolate mint taste I envisioned). Do you think racking to a secondary with some priming sugar, and more mint and chocolate powder would jack up the flavors before bottling?
 
I just racked mine to a secondary with a teaspoon of mckormick mint extract. I'm going to let that sit for another 2 weeks before attempting to bottle. Even if it's not as expected I can still say I tried. And it'll be drunk so it won't be like I wasted money
 
I just noticed that the AA of the EKG in the original recipe was only 4.5%. Mine were 7.2%. I added 2 oz. of them into my 3.5 gallon boil. I don't have Beersmith on this computer, so I'm wondering how much extra bitterness I'll end up with. I imagine it's not a simple math equation, but if it is, mine should come out fairly close.

Anyone have any thoughts on how mine might compare to the original?
 
I'm going to be brewing this weekend, but my LHBS only has Carafa I and II. Would one of these work as a substitute for the carafa III?
 
I bought Carafa Special III thinking it was the same just that I wouldn't have to milll it. I'm now reading that is not the case. If I use the special will that have a significant negative impact on the flavor? Should I mill it?
 

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