Cacao nibs gave GROSS flavor

[Happywanderer]

To recap posts #6,#12, and #17. Yes, you have to roast nibs so they will taste like chocolate. If they are handled properly you get a ton of flavor w/o worrying about fats ruining the head on your beer. Here is the trick:
roast nibs until they smell like chocolate 10-12 minutes at 275* F or so, immediately pour them into enough vodka to cover them and crush while warm. Cover and let rest. After a few days have passed, place the nibs and vodka into a narrow mouthed glass, and put in freezer after inserting a straw. When the cocoa butter has hardened, remove straw and pour out through hole made by straw. This will leave the fats in the glass and the essence in the alcohol.

This is the method i use. Except I got impatient on the fats solidifying. 2-days in the freezer and no real solidification of fats. So I just dumped the entire slurry into the secondary. There was a noticeable oil slick on the surface of the secondary.

Taste - nice very understated cocoa taste - especially on the back end.

Next time I'll up the cocao/vodka slurry ... probably do 6oz nibs. I think I did 3 last time.

Also - using this method gives a nice little ABV bump from the vodka.

 

[IJesusChrist]

So just to recap - the gross flavor definitely is reminiscent of cacao nibs. However there is a sour/putrid flavor that may also accompany it and confusing my taste buds.

I'm unsure but I will be now dunking every adjunct in alcohol tinctures from now on, even when sitting at >9% ABV!

 

[Brew_Meister_General]

Wow, there IS a lot of conflicting information on this thread and a lot of often repeated (but well-meaning fallacies)...

You will get more out of flavor additions by adding them in secondary than earlier in the process; earlier in the process and you're mostly wasting those expensive flavor additions (chocolate, coconut, whatever).

I've used 3 different brands of cocoa nibs and they were all pre-toasted but re-toasting them again on a pan on the oven on low while constantly stirring them does help to bring the aromas and flavor oils out again so I'd always recommend it. I also like to then grind the toasted nibs in a mortar and pistol to get more flavor out of them and to aid in faster flavor extraction.

Hey I just bought cacao powder instead of nibs based on the fact it has 11g of fat instead of 52g but am wondering now if I made an unfavourable choice. I imagine it'll be impossible to remove from secondary or do nibs turn into a paste anyway? What do you think? Should I just roast the powder and then pitch or would going back and switching be the sensible option?

 

[MindenMan]

Cocoa powder adds the "hot cocoa flavor" which most of us call "chocolaty" and in large quantity it adds a level of bitterness too. I used 8oz of cocoa powder @ 15 minutes for a 5 gallon batch. Nibs don't turn into a paste per se, unless they were powdered after roasting. Cocoa nibs are roasted and then the liquor is separated into cocoa butter and cocoa powder "cake". I have never thought about re-roasting cocoa powder, so I can't comment on that. When I made my last Chocolate Stout, I used chocolate malt, cocoa powder, cocoa nibs, and Torani sugar-free chocolate syrup. Even two years in the bottle later it is still very chocolaty, and everyone that has tasted it really liked it. It isn't knock you over the head with chocolate flavor, but there is no way to not know it is a chocolate porter.