Chocolate stout report

[Nate]

Finally kegged my chocolate stout and it's not bad. Pretty smooth and finishes with a slightly bitter but fairly pronounced chocolate flavor. Threw quite a bit into it... cocoa powder, vanilla, lactose, oats, chocolate malt, and medium crystal. Served on nitro the head is thick and creamy. If anyone wants the recipe, I'll post it.

 

[disaffected]

I'd like your recipe, but I probably won't brew it for a couple of months. I love chocolate stout (e.g., Young's Double Chocolate Stout). However, I consider such brews to have a high "meal replacement" value, and I can't drink more than a couple at a sitting and still manage to eat dinner! I plan to build up my stock of bitter pale ales and amber ales first before I tackle a heavy duty stout.

I didn't think that chocolate stouts had any actual chocolate in them. I thought that the chocolate flavor was from the particular type of dark malts used in brewing.

 

[david_42]

It's like everything else in brewing, sometimes you use chocolate malt, sometimes chocolate or both. I've used cocoa powder in my Church of Chocolate Brown, but I like the results with chocolate malt better.

 

[Nate]

Here's the recipe. It's pretty good but I'm curious to see what it does after a little more aging. The chocolate flavor has already diminished quite a bit but it's definitely still there... it was initially very strong. I'd call this a dessert beer for sure.


Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
73.2 15.00 lbs. Pale Malt(2-row) Great Britain 1.038 3
2.4 0.50 lbs. Roasted Barley Great Britain 1.029 575
4.9 1.00 lbs. Milk Sugar Generic 1.030 0
9.8 2.00 lbs. Crystal 55L Great Britian 1.034 55
4.9 1.00 lbs. Flaked Oats America 1.033 2
4.9 1.00 lbs. Chocolate Malt Great Britain 1.034 475

Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.


Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.50 oz. Goldings - E.K. Pellet 5.70 20.3 60 min.
0.25 oz. Goldings - E.K. Pellet 4.75 0.8 15 min.


Extras

Amount Name Type Time
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
16.00 Oz Cocoa Other 15 Min.(boil)
4.00 Oz Real Vanilla Other 15 Min.(boil)


Yeast
-----

WYeast 1084 Irish Ale

 

[Nate]

There was something not quite right with this so I added some more vanilla and it smoothed right out. Next time I'd either add more vanilla or add it to the secondary as opposed to the boil... the boil may have diminished the vanilla. Vanilla also seems to vary a little from brand to brand so adding it to the secondary makes it easier to adjust.

 

[Turricaine]

You have done a mammoth grain schedule which is good I suppose, i'd be interested in knowing how much water you used in the sparge when dealing with this much grain, and how many gallons you evaporated during the boil.

The hop schedule is ok i guess, though not the strongest i have seen.

In fact everything sorta looks ok i guess.

I wouldnt personally have added the cocoa powder but adjuncts such as that and the vanilla are opinionated so its not really hard science.

 

[Nate]

It's a 10 gallon batch which boiled down from about 12 gallons. OG was 1.059 and it finished around 1.025 (which is about right considering the attentuation for that yeast and the unfermentables). What's so mammoth about the grain schedule? My Scotch Ale recipe uses 34 lbs of grain. As far as the cocoa goes, I probably wouldn't use chocolate malt and cocoa again. What you get is 2 distinctly different chocolate flavors that hit at 2 different times... the malt first and then the cocoa.

 

[Turricaine]

For a 10 gallon batch thats not heavy at all, average in fact. Diluted into 10 gallons i'd say you have everything in proportion. It looks like a good brew in fact.

I thought you were in the UK! If I want a chocolate taste I just by myself a chocolate bar, but im not you. Therefore I dont wanna sound critical. But it looks like a nice recipe minus the cocoa powder, imo.