bakers chocolate in a porter

[2pugbrews]

I hope I haven't goofed.
I decided to do the Papazian recipe for Goat Scrotum Ale (p199 in Joy of Brewing). It suggests several additives - I decided to use the 6 oz of Baker's Chocolate and 3 oz of grated ginger.
Papazian says to add it all at the beginning of the boil. I asked my HBS and he said to add the chocolate 15 min before the end. I did.
After I cooled down and poured into my fermenter I saw what looked like little bb sized balls left in the pot (my guess is the equiv of 1/2 oz.) It tasted for all the world like chocolate.
The BYO site has a discussion on using chocolate which says about using Baker's: [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Sans-Serif]"Any beer made with these and other types of oil-containing chocolate must include a long and vigorous boil time to volatilize the oils, otherwise the beer will suffer from poor head retention."
I only had the chocolate in for 15-20 minutes plus I used Papazians boil time of 45 min where I've always used a 1 hr boil time. (the ginger went in at the beginning.)
So, can I expect the oils in the chocolate to mess up my head retention and did my technique lead to other not good results.

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[Yuri_Rage]

So, can I expect the oils in the chocolate to mess up my head retention and did my technique lead to other not good results.

Never tried it, but I'm guessing that you'd want to boil the snot out of it to get it right. In general, oils/fats and beer don't go well together. It's done now, so RDWHAHB, and see what happens! If it works, call me a liar and change nothing next time!

 

[Evan!]

Yeah, I made a chocolate-coffee imperial stout, and added 8oz of bakers chocolate to the boil. I added the chocolate 20 mins before the end of the boil. It looked like it boiled out okay, but you never know. It's been aging in secondary since the end of august, and I still don't think it's done, but when I bottle it and try it out, I'll report back. Relax, it'll be fine. Worst case, your head retention isn't optimal. At the end of the day, unless it's for competition, it really doesn't matter. What's important is that it tastes & smells good.

Um, I just noticed something: I made my own version of the Goat Scrotum, and I don't remember baker's chocolate being one of his suggested options. I know it called for cocoa powder, which is much different than baker's chocolate. I'll double check when I get home, but I don't remember it calling for baker's. Not that it won't work, I'm just sayin...

 

[TheJadedDog]

I just used chocolate this weekend in a porter myself. I added 8oz of unsweetened cocoa powder for the last 2 minutes of the boil. It made quite a mess and unless the beer turns out superb, I think I'm starying away from chocolate in the future.

 

[Evan!]

Whaddayamean by "a mess"?

 

[david_42]

I suspect he means the boil exploded when he added all of those nucleation sites.

I've tried many forms of chocolate/cocoa and only use dutch processed cocoa powder early in the boil. The dutch processing helps keep the powder suspended. I use chocolate malt most of the time, but adding some cocoa to a recipe is even better.

 

[Evan!]

I suspect he means the boil exploded when he added all of those nucleation sites.

I've tried many forms of chocolate/cocoa and only use dutch processed cocoa powder early in the boil. The dutch processing helps keep the powder suspended. I use chocolate malt most of the time, but adding some cocoa to a recipe is even better.

I've got a couple pounds of coffee malt in my inventory. Haven't used it yet, but I'm excited to try it out.

 

[TheJadedDog]

Whaddayamean by "a mess"?

Took a long time to get it to disolve, not all of it did turning the bottom of my brew kettle into chocolate central, and it clogged up my strainer when I went to pour my wort into the fermentor.

Like I said, if it makes a good beer I would use it again, otherwise, it's not worth the effort to me.

 

[debtman7]

Took a long time to get it to disolve, not all of it did turning the bottom of my brew kettle into chocolate central, and it clogged up my strainer when I went to pour my wort into the fermentor.

Like I said, if it makes a good beer I would use it again, otherwise, it's not worth the effort to me.

I just finished a chocolate oatmeal stout a few weeks ago and didn't have any problem with the boil. I added it 10 minutes before the end and it dissolved fine and smelled fantastic. The only real problem I had was that after 1 week in the primary, there was a 2-3" layer of 'fudge' on the bottom of the fermenter... I also used 8 ounces, and I'm wondering if it was too much since so much of it settled. On the plus side it tasted good, the cocoa added a slight chocolate flavor but mostly a complex bitterness.

 

[2pugbrews]

Yeah, I made a chocolate-coffee imperial stout, and added 8oz of bakers chocolate to the boil. I added the chocolate 20 mins before the end of the boil. It looked like it boiled out okay, but you never know. It's been aging in secondary since the end of august, and I still don't think it's done, but when I bottle it and try it out, I'll report back. Relax, it'll be fine. Worst case, your head retention isn't optimal. At the end of the day, unless it's for competition, it really doesn't matter. What's important is that it tastes & smells good.

Um, I just noticed something: I made my own version of the Goat Scrotum, and I don't remember baker's chocolate being one of his suggested options. I know it called for cocoa powder, which is much different than baker's chocolate. I'll double check when I get home, but I don't remember it calling for baker's. Not that it won't work, I'm just sayin...

After 10 or so batches I agree that if it tastes & smells good and it's drinkable I'm pleased.
Your 20 min before the end is reassuring. As to Baker's vs cocoa powder, my recipe is out of the 1984 version - maybe he changed it in later versions.
I checked SG last nite and tasted the sample - I think its going to be very good. It has a nice choclatey taste to it - the ginger's not noticable.
Only concern is that after 3 days no action in the fermenter and SG only down to 1.027 (OG 1.047.) I read that the Windsor yeast I used finishes high.

 

[Chairman Cheyco]

Another thing to keep in mind is that the nasty oils in your brew from the chocolate float. This means that with some extra care while racking, you can remove almost all of them buy staying well below the surface.

 

[wulax25]

I recently brewed a similar chocolate stout and it really turned out well. I used two large Ghirardelli 100% Cacao Unsweetened Baking Bars, and added them at the start of a 60 min. boil. I also used 6oz of maltodexterin in the boil. At bottling I added 4oz of Ghirardelli cocoa powder. I still get a nice head on the beers, and the chocolate is nicely subtle, but definetly present. I think the bars gave it a nice aroma while the powder added the right amount of flavor. Anyway, just my $.02 since I just made somthing similar!

 

[Evan!]

Another thing to keep in mind is that the nasty oils in your brew from the chocolate float. This means that with some extra care while racking, you can remove almost all of them buy staying well below the surface.

No doubt! That's why I've racked to a third vessel...and even now, you can see some junk on top. Not as much as before, though.