Cacao Nibs in Secondary

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mgortel

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I have a NB all grain kit for Chocolate Milk Stout....brewed it today. Calls for 2 weeks primary and 2 weeks secondary....with cocao nibs added to secondary for the 2 weeks.

Do I need to soak Cocao nibs in vodka to sanitize or just toss them in and should be ok since at that point alcohol in beer will minimize risk of infection?

Not sure on this one as I have never done additives like this to secondary.
 
If they are sealed from NB, then yes you could just toss them in before racking on top. However....

If you really want to get fancy with it, you can soak them in vodka with a vanilla bean for ~7 days, then strain and add only the infused vodka. It comes out smelling (and tasting!) delightful.

I use 6oz vodka (Tito's is my preference), 3oz nibs, 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped (all of it going into the vodka). I shake it a few times everyday for 5-7 days, and then strain with a coffee filter or cheesecloth. I usually use about 3oz in my stouts, but YMMV.

It'll keep on the shelf for a long while too. Here's some I made a couple of months ago, plan on using some in a chocolate stout that in the carboy now:

2015-07-02 19.21.33.jpg
 
I was instructed to soak my nibs for 2 months at which time the extract has reached the peak, though longer won't hurt.
 
Made this beer 2 months ago. Just keged it yesterday. I kept in primary for 6 weeks and added nibs to primary for 2 weeks. Just opened the nibs and poured them in. Fantastic beer!!
 
Made this beer 2 months ago. Just kegged it yesterday. I kept in primary for 6 weeks and added nibs to primary for 2 weeks. Just opened the nibs and poured them in. Fantastic beer!!

Awesome...I am looking forward to it!

2.0 volumes sounds about right for Carb level?
 
How about using a carbonator cap with vodka and soaking under 30 PSI pressure? Would that shorten the time required to soak the nibs?
 
So I just transferred this to Secondary....and added Cocao Nibs.....they are all floating up at the top of the carboy......will they sink down into beer....? just wondering how flavor will get distributed throughout
 
I like 4oz nibs and 2 vanilla beans split, gutted, chopped into 1" or so pieces and all soaked in enough vodka to cover for 2 days.
Also 1/4 cup coarsely ground coffee cold brewed in 1/2 cup water 24 hours prior to bottling, strained into a sanitized bowl through a sanitizer soaked filter and added with the priming solution.
 
That reminds me, I was going to do an Orange Chocolate Robust Porter and soak the nibs in Grand Marnier. Gotta add that to my recipe pipeline. You can use something other than Vodka, be creative!
 
I didn't see so I will ask, your nibs are roasted first, right? If they are not roasted first, IMO they taste like chocolate hard candy (fake-ish), but if they are roasted first they really taste like chocolate.
 
That sounds delicious! Can you post the recipe?
2.5G recipe:
4 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 72.0 %
12.0 oz Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 2 12.0 %
9.6 oz Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 3 9.6 %
6.4 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 4 6.4 %

Mash at 152, London ESB yeast, add the nibs in primary after fermentation has subsided.

This is a great RP recipe, I think I got it from HBT.
 
2.5G recipe:
4 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 72.0 %
12.0 oz Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 2 12.0 %
9.6 oz Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 3 9.6 %
6.4 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 4 6.4 %

Mash at 152, London ESB yeast, add the nibs in primary after fermentation has subsided.

This is a great RP recipe, I think I got it from HBT.


Thanks. Can you post the hop schedule or is it the same hops from the NB kit that the OP posted about? I'm also thinking 4 oz of nibs with enough Grand Marnier to cover them.

This would be for a 5 gallon batch.

I plan on using the London yeast that I used on an ESB I brewed last week. Looking forward to this as the last Choco stout I brewed came out very good!
 
I didn't roast my nibs the first two times I did the extract version of this beer, but might on my third time around. However, I ended up soaking the nibs in vanilla flavored vodka for 2-3 days before adding the vodka + the nibs into secondary and then racking on top. This time around, I might try roasting the nibs and adding a vanilla bean - sounds yummy and always fun to experiment!
 
Thanks. Can you post the hop schedule or is it the same hops from the NB kit that the OP posted about? I'm also thinking 4 oz of nibs with enough Grand Marnier to cover them.

This would be for a 5 gallon batch.

I plan on using the London yeast that I used on an ESB I brewed last week. Looking forward to this as the last Choco stout I brewed came out very good!

1.4 ox. fuggles @ 60 minutes. Sorry to leave that out, don't know what happened.
 
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