Chocolate cider

[OdinOneEye]

I've recently got a vague idea in my head to try and make up a chocolate cider and I'm just looking for some advice before I go and do something stupid- would it work best if I started with, say, cocoa powder mixed in with the cider, used chocoloate chips or did something with a Hershey's Candy bar?

I'd especially like opinions from anyone who's made/tried to make chocolate beer (with actual chocolate, not just the so-called chocolate malt) with any hint of success and what's worked for them.

 

[Muntzster]

I dont think using something like nesquick would work, maybe if you grind up some actual cocoa beans and mixed that with water and sugar, maybe chocolate syrup to ferment? idk, but if you do this and it works i want to know im trying it.

 

[colonel_colon]

I brewed a chocolate mint stout using 9oz of semi-sweet baking chocolate. I have only done it that one time, but the chocolatey flavor I was hoping for was far too mild. I've had a roastier-chocolate flavor by using chocolate malt.
The fat/oils in the chocolate killed my head retention. With it being a stout, I wasn't too happy. Although its not like head retention is something you really need with a cider.

 

[david_42]

Dutch-processed cocoa powder boiled for 15 minutes is about the only workable way to put chocolate in a ferment.

 

[OdinOneEye]

How much per gallon would you say would work best? Or, better question, how much is typically used in beer, so I have a good base to start my experimentation from?

 

[david_42]

There really isn't a standard and quite frankly I'd never put chocolate in cider. One of those flavor combinations that doesn't appeal. I use 4 oz of cocoa powder in 5 gallons of ale, but I'll also have a pound of chocolate malt or more.

I might try steeping some caramel malt for my next cider.

 

[Muntzster]

Ive had chocolate liquor before, i dont think someone could drink that much chocolate at 6% you would just get sick, the abv has to be in the 40s

 

[the_bird]

I used baking cocoa in my latest batch, but I don't think that would work very well in a cider. The chocolate flavor in beer isn't - and doesn't have to be - sweet. Beer's a bitter drink, and it's not too hard to impart a bitter chocolate flavor (through chocolate malt, through cocoa, or a combination).

Cider, though, doesn't really want to be bitter, IMHO. It doens't have to be sweet, but it doesn't have that hops-base, that core bitterness that complements the fairly bitter chocolate. If you DID have a chocolate flavor, it would have to be a sweeter taste, and that's a lot harder to impart because of the fermentation process.

I'm with David, the combo really doesn't appeal to me. Now, a pint of cider in one hand and a big-ass chocolate bar in the other - that I can get into!

 

[Muntzster]

I think im going to find a 1 gallon fermenter and try some things .

 

[david_42]

Buy your cider in gallon glass jugs (tough to find in some places). I've got a bunch of them & a carboy cork fits nicely.

 

[Muntzster]

Buy your cider in gallon glass jugs (tough to find in some places). I've got a bunch of them & a carboy cork fits nicely.

If I could find a store like that around here i would buy them out, i just got a 1 gallon rootbeer jug from a friend that we bought at a flea market about 3 years ago. What stores near you sell apple cider like that? thanks.

 

[fezzman]

I might try steeping some caramel malt for my next cider.

Now that sounds tasty. Maybe even a bit of cinnamon in it. Mmmmm

 

[Caplan]

I've recently got a vague idea in my head to try and make up a chocolate cider

Don't bother. the_bird hit it with the hops/cocoa bean bitterness partnership with malt. Perfect to experiment with stouts but not cider.

 

[the_bird]

I might try steeping some caramel malt for my next cider.

That does sound pretty good. I've got a little bit left over from my last brew, I think a half pount of 60L. Got a little bit of lactose left, as well - maybe a quarter pound. Hmm, I think I need a decent cider recipe, something real basic.

Is it possible to use DME in a cider? Little bit more sugar, and some non-fermentables so that it will maintain a little bit of body. I'd like to do a sparkling cider and I can't keg, so killing the yeast is out of the question.

I know nothing about cider, but it looks like I'm about to find out! Got a 3 gallon carboy that's calling for some action...

 

[NurseNan]

I don't know about cider, but there have been experiments done with chocolate mead...
http://www.ladybridget.com/m/chocmead.html

Hope it helps!!

 

[veggiess]

Buy your cider in gallon glass jugs (tough to find in some places). I've got a bunch of them & a carboy cork fits nicely.

What size cork do you use?

 

[david_42]

Don't know the size, it's one of the non-solid stoppers designed for 5 gallon carboys (with the don't drop it into the carboy lip) I took the jug to the LHBS for a fitting. It's probably what Northern Brewer calls a 6 1/2 universal carboy bung drilled.

Sometimes Mott's will be in glass, but I've gotten all of my jugs from a roadside stand associated with an apple orchard in Newberg, OR.

 

[Spyk'd]

I bought a couple gallon glass jugs from here. Seriously, $4.00 isn't the most I've ever spent on brewing equipment and it was better than buying a gallon of Frank's Red Hot and having to dump it on everything to get through the bottle....

...wait, I do dump it on everything, doh!