3 weeks ago I brewed an Imperial Stout with 6 oz of cocoa powder @ 5 min in the boil. I am planning to rack it soon and give it the "Mayan Cocoa" treatment of vanilla, pepper and cinnamon. There is a nice chocolate aroma and flavor in the beer already (although if needed it can sit on some nibs to beef it up). The remainder of the spices will be done via dry hopping in secondary but I'm not sure of the best way to go about it. I've come up with 3 options:
First is to do it all at once so all the flavors will develop together. I would probably add each item in a separate mesh bag in the carboy suspended from some sanitized stainless wire (I have some very thin wire that should seal just fine with the rubber stopper) so that I can pull them out at different times.
Next is to go in a sequence such as: rack onto vanilla beans until the flavor is right, then rack off the vanilla and onto peppers, etc.
Finally I also had the idea of pulling off 3 separate jars of about ~1/2 gallon of the beer to steep with each of the adjuncts then sit down to have a blending session.
It seems to me that each option gives increasing control over the final product but also gets more complex and labor intensive with each step. Any thoughts on what's worked best for you guys would be appreciated. Especially where the peppers are concerned.
Cheers!
First is to do it all at once so all the flavors will develop together. I would probably add each item in a separate mesh bag in the carboy suspended from some sanitized stainless wire (I have some very thin wire that should seal just fine with the rubber stopper) so that I can pull them out at different times.
Next is to go in a sequence such as: rack onto vanilla beans until the flavor is right, then rack off the vanilla and onto peppers, etc.
Finally I also had the idea of pulling off 3 separate jars of about ~1/2 gallon of the beer to steep with each of the adjuncts then sit down to have a blending session.
It seems to me that each option gives increasing control over the final product but also gets more complex and labor intensive with each step. Any thoughts on what's worked best for you guys would be appreciated. Especially where the peppers are concerned.
Cheers!
