Chocolate Covered Strawberry Dunkelweizen

[Apt31]

I put together a recipe for a chocolate & strawberry Dunkelweizen. Kind of a crazy concoction. Gonna be extract 5gal & I'd like to add real chocolate & real strawberries.
Anyone have suggestions on how to add these two ingredients?
I've heard frozen fruit during the boil works well.
I was thinking frozen in the boil, then Hershey's chocolate bars & strawberries added during secondary. Ideas? Am I crazy?

 

[fimpster]

Yes, crazy. But don't let that stop you! Sounds interesting to me.

 

[ob_1jr]

Use baker's chocolate if you want to actually use chocolate. The chocolate bars won't work real well in the secondary. You can put it in the wort at flameout.

Cocoa nibs work pretty good in the secondary after soaking them in some vodka or bourbon.

this does sound like a good idea if you can pull it off.

 

[dcp27]

do no use real chocolate, you don't want the fats/oils, etc. use cocoa powder (@flameout) or cocoa nibs (secondary). also, you don't want to add fruit to the boil, it'll cause a ton of pectin haze and lose some of the aroma. its best to add thawed frozen fruit at secondary.

 

[Roadie]

Strawberries impart very little flavor even in a blonde so I wouldn't expect much from them. If added I'd definitely add them to the secondary and not the boil. The two ways of getting chocolate flavor into the beer that I have used are adding unsweetened cocoa in the last 15 minutes of the boil or racking in the secondary onto like 4 oz of nibs per 5 gallons of beer.

 

[Apt31]

Thanks guys, appreciate the quick responses!
So I'll probably go with the nibs since that seems to be the best route.
Strawberries in secondary, any suggestion on the amount? I figure a couple pounds.

Would strawberry extract be more effective?


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[ob_1jr]

I would think that strawberry extract would be better. If you look up "I Eat Danger for Breakfast Stout" they tell you to use baker's chocolate, but I didn't want the mess so I used 4oz of cocoa nibs that were soaked in nearly a bottle of Maker's Mark. I also added cocoa powder to mixture. It turned out with a good chocolate taste.

 

[GilSwillBasementBrews]

Thanks guys, appreciate the quick responses!
So I'll probably go with the nibs since that seems to be the best route.
Strawberries in secondary, any suggestion on the amount? I figure a couple pounds.

Would strawberry extract be more effective?


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I'd think the extract would be more effective as stated earlier strawberry doesn't carry through all that much.

But to answer your other question I believe approx. 3lbs of fruit per 5 gallon is usually about what I see(and have used) when mixing fruit with BEERS.

I don't have much experience with meads so can't really comment on how the pear would affect it but I'd think you'd be ok

And yes if you dilute your fermented pear with a true 50/50 split you would halve your ABV since you'd be doubling your volume.



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[Apt31]

So I've decided to add 3lbs defrosted frozen strawberries in secondary, as well as 2oz extract at bottling. Hopefully will give me the best of both options.

Last question: should i strain my wort before putting in primary? Only using 1oz hallertau, but I'll be adding cocoa powder at flameout. Is it a waste of time to strain out the powder?
I'll also be adding nibs during secondary if that makes any difference.


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[ob_1jr]

I wouldn't worry about straining it. everything will settle out in the primary. You will want the cocoa powder to stay in there after it is beer anyway. That is why I usually add the cocoa powder and nibs in the secondary.