Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer Chocolate Oatmeal Porter

[bolus14]

I used a pound of lactose in a Cream Stout with an OG of 1.052 and FG of 1.016 and I think it came out pretty good. I brewed it on 1/4 and just now it's starting to have the creamy mouthfeel I was expecting. Until the point it's at now some bottles had a thinner feel than others, but now they're all consistent and have turned into what I was looking for. As a lot of things go in home brewing, time tends to change things for the better!

I would start with 1lb and see how it turns out, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

 

[FATC1TY]

Id start around a pound and see what you think. I would probably say to use a slightly more attenuative yeast to help. The lactose will give you a higher finishing gravity, so you'll have a fair bit of residual sweetness.

I haven't done it, I'm not a huge fan of lactose as it stands, but it could probably be good in a bigger beer.

 

[phoney]

I've brewed this one several times now. Fantastic!!!

Though I sub NB for Magnum and Willamette for Fuggles, or even EKG. Yeast I use WY1099 Whitbread.

I've added two scraped vanilla beans to secondary, as well as oaked it on bourbon barrel chips. I also up the cocoa to 100g (3oz)

The next time I'm planning on subbing half of the MO with Weyermann smoked malt, and adding 3 -4 dried chipotle peppers at flameout. (or sanitizing them in boiling water for 1 min and adding to secondary). Thoughts?

 

[Ridire]

I'm going to brew this beer this up coming weekend and age it until Christmas. I'm upping the base malt, adding a pound of lactose and pitching yeast I harvested from Bell's Porter. Thoughts: if I'm making this bigger by adding the additional 2-row, should I increase the darker malts, too.

 

[Savage1005]

You definitely need to scale up the dark malts too if you are upping the abv. I made an 8 % version and I uswd more dark malt but it came out not as dark as I wanted

 

[Ridire]

You definitely need to scale up the dark malts too if you are upping the abv. I made an 8 % version and I uswd more dark malt but it came out not as dark as I wanted

Here is what I plugged into Brewers Friend, and got a SRM of 40.

13 lbs Maris Otter
2.0 lbs Flaked Oats
0.75 lbs Crystal 80L
1.0 lbs Chocolate Malt
0.5 lbs Black Patent

EDIT: and, yes, I realize that I have now gone way off the reservation of this recipe and perverted into an imperial stout.

 

[Hanso]

Made this according to OP on Sunday. Smelled great going into the fermenter. Slightly worried the cocoa powder is too much as it was very strong smelling in the boil and cooling but I have faith that is just the nature of using cocoa powder in a beer... first time for me.

 

[Ridire]

Made this according to OP on Sunday. Smelled great going into the fermenter. Slightly worried the cocoa powder is too much as it was very strong smelling in the boil and cooling but I have faith that is just the nature of using cocoa powder in a beer... first time for me.

If you went according to the OP recipe, do not worry about the cocoa. It is not overwhelming, by any means. This is a good beer as written. I gave it out as Christmas presents last year and people did not believe I made it in my garage with a 5 gallon plastic bucket.

 

[inkman15]

Will this be okay doing a 60 minute boil? If I do that, should I move my bittering hops to like 40 minutes or so? Or just go with 60 min?

 

[Hanso]

The hops should go in at 60 regardless of the total boil time. I actually didn't realize that it was a 90 minute boil and did a 60 recently as well.

 

[inkman15]

Anyone have rings around the neck of the bottles at the fill line for this recipe? Praying it's not infected. If it is, I'm never brewing with cocoa again.

Same thing happened to me with a chocolate stout - looked kinda weird in the fermenter but everyone said it was just the cocoa fat/oils trapping CO2 bubbles. Had rings in the bottles and they all turned sour/gushers.

I'm afraid that is where this one is heading too. I never get infections when not using cocoa.

 

[Hanso]

Did this recently as well but I kegged mine so i dont know if it gives rings like that. Could depend on a lot of other factors, but I wouldn't suspect the rings are an infection. Almost certainly the cocoa powder is at play here.
For some reason, not blaming the cocoa powder per se, but I did get terrible head retention. Pours like Dr. Pepper and fizzles away the head in a matter of seconds. Could be a process thing or something too.

 

[MrSpaz]

Brewed this this morning without the cocoa and with dry yeast. Smelled great, slight dark chocolate aroma before I pitched yeast. Looking forward to it!

 

[cmschlatt]

I just brewed this today. The smell is fantastic... Don't know if I'll be able to wait for it to age

 

[cmschlatt]

Would cold crashing this before bottling have any negative effects?

 

[kalmah21]

I've been looking something more "sessionable" to replace my breakfast stout as my always on tap dark beer. This recipe sounds like just the ticket. I will be brewing it as written in the OP next weekend.

 

[COEBRA]

Did this recently as well but I kegged mine so i dont know if it gives rings like that. Could depend on a lot of other factors, but I wouldn't suspect the rings are an infection. Almost certainly the cocoa powder is at play here.
For some reason, not blaming the cocoa powder per se, but I did get terrible head retention. Pours like Dr. Pepper and fizzles away the head in a matter of seconds. Could be a process thing or something too.

Mine does this exact thing. Super carbed and the heed disappears in a minute or two. Decent flavor though. I might try this one again sometime with a few changes.

 

[bolus14]

If both of you bottles and its super carbed, how much priming sugar did you use? As long as things were well cleaned and sanitized the rings at the top shouldn't turn sour, I have had a couple other beers leave rings and had no issues with being over carved or going bad. How long did you let it ferment before bottling, may have just needed more time for the cocoa to settle, or you racked some of it into your bottling bucket.

As for head retention I would think adding some roasted barley would be a good way to fix that.

 

[COEBRA]

I used 4.6 oz for 5 gallons in the bottling bucket. 4 week ferment at 65 for 2 weeks and 67 for the last two. Conditioned for another 3 weeks. All the bottles are super carbed but it doesn't stay in the solution (beer) long. I don't have any rings and its not sour or infected. It tastes fine. I've been mixing it 50/50 with a blueberry wheat I brewed and its good. I've just never had a brew carb weird like this one. I'll be moving to kegs really soon do I'm not to concerned about it.

 

[bolus14]

If you used table sugar that would be about 2.6 vol which is higher than most porters. I would try to stick closer to 2, although some go up to 2.5 so its not as if you're extremely high.

Unless you got some wild yeast that's just taking its time to show itself in taste or smell I can't think of anything else.

 

[COEBRA]

I used dextrose. I cracked another one tonight and the head retention is actually pretty good. Laces well too but it foams like crazy while pouring. It's a good beer, I'll just probably wait to brew it again until I'm kegging.

 

[Atomook]

Did this recently as well but I kegged mine so i dont know if it gives rings like that. Could depend on a lot of other factors, but I wouldn't suspect the rings are an infection. Almost certainly the cocoa powder is at play here.
For some reason, not blaming the cocoa powder per se, but I did get terrible head retention. Pours like Dr. Pepper and fizzles away the head in a matter of seconds. Could be a process thing or something too.

Yeah, I had the same exact experience. Rings in the bottles, gushers, and zero head retention. Never seen anything like it. No taste of infection, but something was definitely amiss. I'm going to blame the cocoa I used and have since changed. Still, I'm sadly hesitant to use cocoa again. Looked like a killer recipe too

 

[COEBRA]

Yeah, I had the same exact experience. Rings in the bottles, gushers, and zero head retention. Never seen anything like it. No taste of infection, but something was definitely amiss. I'm going to blame the cocoa I used and have since changed. Still, I'm sadly hesitant to use cocoa again. Looked like a killer recipe too

I don't think it's the cocoa. I use ALL ORGANIC cocoa from a health food store when I make chocolate beers and usually have no issues. This recipe might just need some mash temp adjustments and a little less priming sugar at bottling to make it just right. The taste is really good and makes a great "mixer" porter. The head retention is better than my stouts. I didn't have any gushers or rings but they were way over carbed. I've just learned to pour them slow lol.

 

[Hanso]

I agree, it very well could not be the cocoa... in my experience it was the first time I'd seen the problem, and it coincided with the same time I used cocoa. So definitely not a causal relationship here.

It could very well have been a problem of having too hard of water combined with high acidity from the dark malts and cocoa. I definitely did not properly treat my water... My cocoa powder was not super fresh either. Lots of things I could point the finger at besides simply the overall idea of using cocoa powder itself.

 

[shortyz]

man that was some sticky mash, had to sparge the living hell out of that! dam oats.

i used 1 oz of nibs in the boil and imma drop another oz in the secondary after soaking in some bourbon.

i will report back.

 

[Herman558]

The original recipe list 9 pounds of pale malt, maris otter as grain 2. Am I missing what grain 1 is? Also when I add the grain together I don't get 13.5lbs. This will be my first all grain and I want to make sure I am seeing this correctly.

 

[MrSpaz]

There are 6 different grains to add up to the 13.5

 

[Herman558]

I have looked this over numerous times and I keep getting 12lbs 13oz.

9lbs pale
1lbs 8oz oats
12oz caramel 80
11oz chocolate
8oz pale chocolate
6oz black

Not sure what I am missing/calculating incorrectly.

 

[Herman558]

I have looked this over numerous times and I keep getting 12lbs 13oz.

9lbs pale
1lbs 8oz oats
12oz caramel 80
11oz chocolate
8oz pale chocolate
6oz black

Not sure what I am missing/calculating incorrectly.

I found my answer buried in the post at some point, the missing oz are of rice hulls. Do people that have made this recipe use rice hulls in their mash or are they not necessary?

Also I was wondering about the strike water and sparge water amounts.

If you use the 1.5qt/lb of grain for mash you come to 19.97qt (just under 5 gal), not the 18.64qt (4.66 gal) that the OR calls for. Is that because you want it to be a thicker mash? Also the sparge amount is throwing me off, what amounts are others using?

 

[Herman558]

I brewed this on Sunday, it's bubbling away right now, but seems a little odd. Very little krausen on top, maybe half inch, with rather small bubbles. Vigorous fermentation going on below though. Almost seems like the cocoa is sitting on top in the krausen. This is my first all grain, everything seemed to go fine. I was nervous about the cocoa though. Has an odd layer on the bottom of the ferment or too. Does this all look normal?View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1426601934.624528.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1426601949.998514.jpg