Chocolate Vs. Head

[SkaBoneBenny]

A difficult quandry, I know...
Anyways, I recently put together a chocolate stout recipe based on some suggestions from HBT and somewhat upped the ante with my Ghiradelli chocolate additions. I used about a cup of the dark baking/cooking cocao powder. When putting the beer into the first fermenter and then transfering to secondary I noticed it has no head at all.

After snooping around the forum it seems the culprit is most likely the oils in the chocolate. Is there anything I can do to counteract this? Will the addition of the ever mysterious "heading agents" help bring back my stout's head? So far the brew tastes goddamned delicious and looks great... except for a head...
-Ben

 

[Torchiest]

Well, I believe most, if not all, of the oil should be floating on the top of the beer. So when you rack to secondary, if you leave that last bit in the primary, you should dodge most of the oil and eliminate the problem.

 

[user 4295]

I enjoy both!

 

[the_bird]

The chocolate vs. head debate is an interesting one, with major ramifications for Feburary 14th

 

[magno]

Everytime I have brewed with chocolate there was plenty of krausen in the fermenter. When you transfered to secondary was there a ring around the sides that showed fermentation had taken place?

The lack of head associated with chocolate is in the glass, not the fermenter as far as I know. I have never tried any heading agents, but have heard that priming with wheat DME is an option.

- magno

 

[butler1850]

I recently did just about the same thing. Though I used 1lb (2x8oz) of Hershey's cocoa in my wort (added w/ 10 minutes to go in the boil. WOW, what a foaming!)

Should be interesting to see how it comes out, though I really don't care about head on my beer. I still don't understand it's "purpose", and usually do all I can to avoid forming a head on a pint when I pour.

A minor hijack... anyone know the effects of adding cocoa to the wort with regards to OG? The recipe from the LHBS called for just about 1.05 and I measured 1.04 or so. I assume that the fats in the cocoa caused a reduction in density of the wort due to the fat being emulsified in the boil Thoughts?

 

[Torchiest]

I used cocoa powder in porter a month ago, but I added it before I added anything else. I boiled it for about 20mins and scooped out all the floating oil I could, then steeped my grains for 20mins and proceded normally. I think it increased my SG some, because the final gravity was a bit high, but I don't know how much effect it had.

 

[SkaBoneBenny]

Well I can only assume there was krausen in the fermenter. There was the ring around the side, but by the time I checked on it, yesterday, and transfered it to secondary, it had fermented entirely and had receeded. In fact, in 5 days it had fermenter from 1.060 to 1.012 and hadn't left a Krausen. Very speedy.

Also there was visible trace of oil on the surface of the brew. What can I use for heading agents? I just know it's gonna have little to no head. That's just not gonna fly for a St. Patrick's day party. I need to show these bad boys off in all their delicious goodness.
-Ben

 

[MariaAZ]

I brewed a 5 gal porter recipe using 8 oz of cocoa powder. I didn't do anything to filter the wort when it went into primary, and I racked to secondary after 10 days fermentation (also did nothing special to avoid any oils that might be floating on top), bottled 12 days later. At 3 weeks in the bottle it forms a nice head when poured.

 

[Orfy]

I find the best way to get head with chocolate is to get SWMBO drunk first.

Sorry..............................