Chocolate in a Brewer's Best Oatmeal Stout?

[BubbaMan]

I'm a newb and I'm learning on Brewer's Best kits, mostly because that's what the shop in the small town I live in sells.

I love stouts, especially chocolate stouts and oatmeal stouts.

So, how can I make the BB Oatmeal Stout kit come out with a chocolate flavor? Can I simply just add some chocolate to the wort? If so, what KIND of chocolate (sweetened, unsweetened, etc). Should I add it to the boil? How much would I use?

Thanks!

 

[specharka]

Chocolate is a pretty easy flavor to get from a standard stout recipe without resorting to non-malt adjunct. You can steep a pound of pale chocolate malt in your boil kettle. If you’re looking for something more assertive, I’ve heard of individuals adding powdered cacao at flameout (2-4 ounces max). I’ve also racked stouts to secondary on top of Brewers Best cacao nibs and that works as well.

But you definitely don’t want to use actual chocolate. The amount of oils in cocoa butter will destroy any semblance of head retention.

 

[day_trippr]

^agree^ with the conclusion, don't go throwing Snickers bars in your boil kettle

So, you can conjure chocolate character at multiple points: mash or steep chocolate malts, add powdered low-fat cocoa at the end of the boil, use cocoa nibs (preferably having been marinated in spirits for a week or more - commonly using vodka but I prefer dark rum) at "secondary", and adding (preferably high quality) chocolate extract at packaging (in the keg or bottling bucket).

The imperial chocolate stout I do uses the first three. If you've ever had Young's Double Chocolate Stout on tap (not the cans) this is better...

CHeers!

 

[BubbaMan]

@specharka & @day_trippr
Thank you!!!

 

[Toxxyc]

I added 180ml of unsweetened, powdered cacao powder in a 5-gallon batch of dry irish stout alongside 300g of lactose in a batch I made (picture on the left is the one). It added chocolate flavour and sweetness, but nowhere near enough. I didn't add it to the boil, but instead added it after primary. I aimed for a chocolate stout but instead ended up with way more coffee flavour (which I tried to kill).

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Have a read of this thread about cloning the Sam Smith chocolate stout (and Saltaire Triple Chocoholic).

There's also a thread at the moment which suggests chocolate spelt can help in that direction.