Bourbon Chocolate Stout Extract Recipe Feedback?

[scottedk]

So I got the Groupon deal from Midwest Supplies and decided to pick up their Irish Stout recipe kit. I have yet to brew a stout so I am excited to get my feet wet with it. I decided to do some edits to the basic recipe and wanted some feedback.

The original recipe was:
4oz Chocolate Malt (steep)
4oz Caramel 10L (steep)
4oz Roasted Barley (steep)
4oz Flaked Barley (steep)

6 lbs Dark LME (60 mins)
1 tsp Gypsum (60 mins)
1/2 oz Nugget (60 mins)

1 oz Willamette (2 mins)

Munton's Dry Ale Yeast (I forget the exact kind)



I decided to update this a little bit in the following ways:
4oz Chocolate Malt (steep) - same
4oz Caramel 10L (steep) - same
4oz Roasted Barley (steep) - same
4oz Flaked Barley (steep) - same

6 lbs Dark LME (60 mins) - same
1 lb Light DME (60 mins) - added extra pound of DME
1 lb Brown Sugar (may or may not) - will possibly add 1 lb of brown sugar
1 tsp Gypsum (60 mins) - same
1 oz Nugget (60 mins) - added extra 1/2 oz of Nugget

1 oz Willamette (2 mins) - same

8 oz Cocoa Powder (flameout) - added cocoa powder

Munton's Dry Ale Yeast (I forget the exact kind)

Rack to secondary on top of:
4 oz Cocoa Powder
8 oz Bourbon

Bottle on top of:
Priming sugar
4 oz Cocoa Powder
8 oz Bourbon





Does this look like it will work? Be really disgusting? Other thoughts?

 

[Yooper]

Why the gypsum? If it's to enhance hops, that may or may not be the correct thing to do, depending on your recipe. I'd leave it out unless you are confident of your water profile.

The extra nugget hops will make the beer 50% more bitter. If you like a very very bitter beer, that might work. I wouldn't, as I think it would go against the wonderful roast of the original recipe.

I don't know what the projected OG of the beer is, but with an extra pound of DME and a pound of brown sugar it won't be the same beer. I personally hate the taste of brown sugar once it's fermented, as the sweetness is gone but it leaves behind a weird molasses flavor, but I think some people like it.

I don't know about cocoa, so I'll have to let someone else answer to that.

I actually like the original recipe much better than the improvements, but if you really want a bourbon chocolate stout, you can try using cocoa nibs and soaking them in bourbon first to give you a good flavor without using the cocoa powder.

 

[scottedk]

Thanks for the input, I will definitely take it into consideration.

The main reason I wanted to add in some extra fermentables is because I wanted the final %ABV to be a tad higher. The projected OG is supposed to be 1.042-1.046 and the projected FG is supposed to be 1.010-1.012 (max ABV of 4.73%).

I think I will decrease the extra amount of both DME (0.75 lbs) and the Brown Sugar (0.5 lbs). I am willing to risk the extra bitterness a bit, I am more of a fan of beers on the bitter side anyways.

I have decided to not necessarily go the bourbon route. I will decide closer to racking/bottling time.

 

[Blackmuse]

I'm a NOOB but I just thought I'd let you know:

I just did a Ginger Chocolate Porter and I used Cacao Sweet Nibs (raw) - 2 oz. Threw it right in the fermentor just before the yeast and though it isn't done yet I did a taste test and it was superb! I can't wait to bottle it!

Taste test was after a week and it had this awesome hint of dark chocolate that left an awesome aftertaste! Great ginger notes to it too. But the choc. aftertaste was beautiful.

Go with the nibs instead of cacao powder!

 

[zman]

Why the gypsum? If it's to enhance hops, that may or may not be the correct thing to do, depending on your recipe. I'd leave it out unless you are confident of your water profile.

The extra nugget hops will make the beer 50% more bitter. If you like a very very bitter beer, that might work. I wouldn't, as I think it would go against the wonderful roast of the original recipe.

I don't know what the projected OG of the beer is, but with an extra pound of DME and a pound of brown sugar it won't be the same beer. I personally hate the taste of brown sugar once it's fermented, as the sweetness is gone but it leaves behind a weird molasses flavor, but I think some people like it.

I don't know about cocoa, so I'll have to let someone else answer to that.

I actually like the original recipe much better than the improvements, but if you really want a bourbon chocolate stout, you can try using cocoa nibs and soaking them in bourbon first to give you a good flavor without using the cocoa powder.

Hijacking!!

I am doing this kit tonight. First Extract kit in years and I am going to do a Full boil. I plan to do a 25% extract addition at the beginning of the boil and the remaining 75% at the end and reducing the hops by 20%.