Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer Andes Mint Chocolate Stout

[thadeus_d3]

I just finished brewing this one. I used Black Malt instead of Carafa 3 and s-05 yeast. Made a few mistakes...the biggest being that I accidentally made a 5.5 gallon batch instead of 5 gallons. I also had a few tea bags open during the boil, leaving peppermint leaves in the the wort. I'm still very excited to try this in a few months!

 

[Sepanik1986]

I just finished brewing this one. I used Black Malt instead of Carafa 3 and s-05 yeast. Made a few mistakes...the biggest being that I accidentally made a 5.5 gallon batch instead of 5 gallons. I also had a few tea bags open during the boil, leaving peppermint leaves in the the wort. I'm still very excited to try this in a few months!

I made this one yesterday. Used S-04 and put the tea in the boil out of the tea bag. When putting the wort in the fermenter, I use a paint strainer bag wrapped around the fermenter.

 

[AkBrew907]

This sounds delicious and with the leaves changing color and temps starting to drop this sounds like something I need in a regular rotation in my keg.

Will do a batch this weekend

 

[BlackIce]

I just moved this to the keg today. It was stuck after a week at 1.044 . I did try some stuff but it was not moving. This is the 1st beer I have made that finished this high. Ill taste it in about a week.

 

[modernlifeisANDY]

I just moved this to the keg today. It was stuck after a week at 1.044 . I did try some stuff but it was not moving. This is the 1st beer I have made that finished this high. Ill taste it in about a week.

You kegged it at 1.044? I would go back and pitch something neutral to try and finish it off. Did you do a taste test before you kegged? Maybe your hydrometer was off - it should be way too sweet at that gravity.

 

[BlackIce]

You kegged it at 1.044? I would go back and pitch something neutral to try and finish it off. Did you do a taste test before you kegged? Maybe your hydrometer was off - it should be way too sweet at that gravity.

Yes I did taste some and all I got was lots of mint. Im going to check my refractometer tomorrow and see if maybe its calibration is off.

 

[modernlifeisANDY]

Yes I did taste some and all I got was lots of mint. Im going to check my refractometer tomorrow and see if maybe its calibration is off.

Did you do the proper conversion for your refractometer reading? Once the wort has fermented, Brix doesn't translate straight across to SG once alchohol is present in the liquid. Try the second calculator here.

http://www.brewersfriend.com/refractometer-calculator/

 

[BlackIce]

Thanks for the help I will check this out tonight. Im at work so I do not have the numbers with me.

 

[modernlifeisANDY]

Thanks for the help I will check this out tonight. Im at work so I do not have the numbers with me.

No problem. That's a rule that's easy to forget about. I did the same thing measuring my Pumpkin Ale the other night - thought I had stalled and needed to repitch when I was sitting at 1.013

 

[BlackIce]

Looks like I'm ok. I'm at 1.027. This is still high but I will take it over the 1.044. Thanks for all your help. I will make sure I use that calculator.

 

[TonyR]

Just brewed this again today following the original recipe, can't wait for it to be ready!! I first brewed this 5 years ago when the recipe was first posted!! Definitely shouldn't have waited so long.

 

[babaganuj]

I just brewed this on 11/15/15 with a few changes to the original recipe.

My LHBS didn't have Carafa III so I used black patent instead. I alsoused Maris Otter, upped the Chocolate Malt, used Crystal 80, and included a bit of Cara-Pils.

It wasn't my best brew day and my current mash tun isn't as insulated as my last one. Mashed closer to 150 than 154. I'll have to figure something out for the future.

Mash at 154

8.0 lb Maris Otter
1.0 lb Flaked Barley
12.0 oz Chocolate Malt
8.0 oz Crystal 80L Malt
8.0 oz Black Patent Malt
4.0 oz Cara-Pils

75 minute boil

1:00 - 1.0 oz Target Pellet (9.8% Alpha)
0:15 - 6.0 oz Cocoa Powder (Unsweetened)
0:15 - whirlfloc
0:10 - 5 bags Peppermint Tea
0:02 - 5 bags Peppermint Tea

Cool to 70F
Pitch 1 Tube WLP004 (New - tube instead of vial )
Ferment at mid to low 60s

I just transferred to secondary and brought it upstairs to warm up closer to 70. It's currently at 1.020 :banghead: but I was hoping to get down to 1.016. I may elect to add lactose at kegging or cocoa nibs into the secondary.. We'll see how lazy I am :sly:

 

[babaganuj]

Sorry the pictures were saved from my Snapchat and are crappy quality.

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[modernlifeisANDY]

Loving these updates! I will be brewing this weekend for the holiday - looking forward to it!

 

[Genghis]

I have a batch of this carbing in a keg. Cold crashed it in the garage since mother nature was being co-operative. Made a world of difference in the clarity going into the keg. That cocoa powder takes forever to drop out.

 

[babaganuj]

I fermented in the mid 60s and then warmed up to 70 towards the end of 2 weeks. The batch is sitting in a secondary carboy and won't budge from 1.020 which is especially odd because I was LOW on my mash temp. I'm going to cold crash it and keg this weekend, I can't wait much longer as I want to bottle (from keg) some for my friends and family back home over the holidays.

Any last second suggestions on gravity? Also, I'm thinking about trying out gelatin on this one to precipitate some of the cocoa but I haven't heard if that would work or not. Would clarity take away from the chocolate feel this has?

 

[BlackIce]

I did do a review on this. This is a nice beer with age. From the time we made the video until now its turned out well.

Here is a link to the video if anyone wants to take a look
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RYlafQBeeE[/ame]

 

[mnm6677]

Thank you for sharing the recipe. I brewed this a few weeks ago. Its been sitting in the keg waiting to get placed in the chest freezer. Fist time Ive had a back up issue...Good problem to have!

The sample from the carboy tasted great. I might have added too much mint but it should mellow with time. I went to a herbal tea store, bought two ounces of fresh spearmint. I threw in one ounce at the end of the boil. I also dry hopped with 3/4 of an ounce in the secondary for a 4 days. Looking forward to tasting.

 

[babaganuj]

The sample I had at kegging was really quite good, and CLEAR! It felt a little thin but we'll see after it goes on NITRO tonight!

 

[babaganuj]

Update: I put this on Nitro and it looks fantastic. I think the mint needs to mellow out a bit but otherwise it tastes great too. Next time I brew this - there will definitely be a next time - I'll use cocao nibs in secondary for a bit more chocolate taste as well as backing down to 4oz of cocoa powder to reduce bitterness. I'll update once more when I get opinions from friends.

P.S. I put this on beer gas at 35 psi, shook for a few seconds, let sit overnight, shook again the next day, and it's ready to pour 48 hours later. AMAZING!

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[Craftfan]

Brewed this two days ago as my first AG BIAB. Used the recipe from the OP with the only addition being +10% base malt to compensate for decreased efficiency. Also added 1lb lactose at boil. Hit my numbers better than anticipated with OG of 1.065. Wort tasted bittersweet (as expected with cocoa) and the peppermint was at the perfect level. Dry pitched US-05 and had bubbles at 12 hours @61 degrees. 36 hours and going very strong. Can't wait to try this! Thanks for this recipe.

 

[blizz81]

For the OP and those that have not experienced any trouble w/cocoa powder sediment, curious...when you xfer from BK to fermenter, do you xfer everything? Leave behind trub in the kettle?


A version of this beer is on deck for me. I generally auto-siphon my wort into fermenter and take pretty much everything I can, trub and all. My hop trub is minimized by one of the nylon hop bags...pondering putting the cocoa powder in the bag.

 

[babaganuj]

For the OP and those that have not experienced any trouble w/cocoa powder sediment, curious...when you xfer from BK to fermenter, do you xfer everything? Leave behind trub in the kettle?


A version of this beer is on deck for me. I generally auto-siphon my wort into fermenter and take pretty much everything I can, trub and all. My hop trub is minimized by one of the nylon hop bags...pondering putting the cocoa powder in the bag.

I put the cocoa powder right into the kettle (I use hop bags as well). I'd suggest you hold back as much of the trub as you can bear because the cocoa won't settle very easily and you don't want too much extra bitterness.

 

[scottconnor]

Made some adjustments and this is one of the quickest kegs I've gone through. Here's what I did:
Brew day: 9/15/15. OG: 1.051
Kegged from primary on 10/15/15. FG: 1.015. Mint was VERY faint. This was basically a chocolate stout. (I used the mint tea bags suggested in the recipe.) I added 2oz of peppermint extract to the keg, and let it sit for two months. I tapped this in the end of December, and it was fantastic. Got even better about 3 weeks later.

I'll definitely brew this again, probably skip the tea bags, and then add peppermint extract to the keg again and let it sit for 2-3 months. I'll brew 10 gallons, and either make 10g of this or maybe split the batch and do 5g of something else (chocolate raspberry?).