Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer Choconut Porter

[explosivebeer]

Recipe Type

Extract

Yeast

California V Ale Yeast (WLP051)

Yeast Starter

No

Batch Size (Gallons)

5

Original Gravity

1.060

Final Gravity

1.022

Boiling Time (Minutes)

60

Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)

10 @ 70*f

Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)

14 @ 70*f

Additional Fermentation

None

Ingredients:
8 lbs Dark LME
18 oz Chocolate Malt
18 oz Caramel Malt 80L
1 oz Northern Brewer hops (7.5% AA) for bittering
1 oz Perle hops (7.2% AA) for aroma
8 oz Ghiradelli unsweetened cocoa (by volume)
2 oz Hazelnut flavoring
California V Ale Yeast (WLP051)

Instructions
Bring two gallons of water to 160*f, turn off the heat, and steep the milled grains for 20+ minutes. Remove the grains and discard. Bring the grain tea to a boil, turn off the heat, and stir in the malt extract until completely dissolved. Return to a boil and add the bittering hops. Boil for 60 minutes, adding the chocolate powder five minutes before the end of boil and the aroma hops at flame out. Cool to 70*f, top off to five gallons, and pitch yeast. (I carefully poured the hot wort onto two gallons of ice that I'd previously frozen, which brought the temperature down below 70*f almost instantaneously; watch for splashes!).

Ferment at 70-72*f for 10-14 days, until the gravity readings have stopped dropping. Transfer to a keg or your bottling bucket and add the hazelnut extract. Let it condition for two or three weeks and you should have some very tasty brew on your hands!

The Result
I haven't plugged this recipe into a brewing program but my batch ended up being 5.2% ABV. It turned out very creamy and smooth, with good but not overpowering elements of chocolate and hazelnut to go along with the caramel malts. It was definitely a crowd pleaser. I'll definitely be brewing this one again.

Here's the all-grain version. Round as you see fit. Any American or British yeast can be used to good effect. I reduced the amount of extract from 2 oz to 1 oz since the more I use it, the more sensitive I get to it.
BeerSmith Recipe Printout - www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Choconut Porter All Grain
Style: Robust Porter
TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 5.72 gal
Estimated OG: 1.059 SG
Estimated Color: 40.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 30.8 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
8.52 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 75.1 %
1.41 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 12.4 %
1.41 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 12.4 %
1.00 oz Northern Brewer [7.50%] (60 min) Hops 25.4 IBU
1.00 oz Pearle [8.00%] (5 min) Hops 5.4 IBU
1.00 oz Hazelnut Extract (Bottling 5.0 min) Misc
8.00 oz Cocoa, Unsweetened (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs California Ale V (White Labs #WLP051) Yeast-Ale

Mash Schedule: My Mash
Total Grain Weight: 11.34 lb

 

[toasted]

No secondary fermentation?

 

[explosivebeer]

I rarely do secondaries, especially for darker beers. And in fact, I'm usually leaving them in primary for 3-4 weeks now to let the yeast clean up after themselves. Good luck if you try this recipe. Let us know how it turns out.

 

[Opherman47]

yah i only primary all my stuff, for like 4 to 5 weeks turns out great

 

[Myrdhyn]

Brewing this one today, sounds delicious.

 

[explosivebeer]

Brewing this one today, sounds delicious.

Great to hear. I need to brew it again myself. I hope it turns out as well for you as it has for me.

 

[Myrdhyn]

One question, did you end up with a rediculously high OG? I ended up with something like 1.0750 temperature corrected. Maybe I should have checked OG before adding the cocoa? I know my hydrometer is fairly accurate b/c it reads right at 1.000 for distilled water temperature corrected.

Also, this one took off FAST, in just about 2 hours I had airlock activity and it continues to bubble away nicely today.

 

[explosivebeer]

One question, did you end up with a rediculously high OG? I ended up with something like 1.0750 temperature corrected. Maybe I should have checked OG before adding the cocoa? I know my hydrometer is fairly accurate b/c it reads right at 1.000 for distilled water temperature corrected.

Also, this one took off FAST, in just about 2 hours I had airlock activity and it continues to bubble away nicely today.

I'll have to take a look at my notes when I get home since it's been a year since I brewed it. I don't think the cocoa should affect the gravity since there isn't any sugar in it. I'll let you know when I dig up my notes.

 

[Myrdhyn]

Anything that increases the specific gravity, i.e. density of the liquid should increase the reading. Salt would do it for example (you use a hydrometer to measure salt in solution for a saltwater fish tank). I just assumed dissolving/boiling something else in there would do it also. I'll be interested to hear your notes though, and I'll try to remember to post up what my FG when this get's done fermenting.

 

[explosivebeer]

So it looks like my OG was 1.060. Since most of the sugars are coming from the LME, the most likely thing that would skew the OG is what volume you ended up at. I was up around 5.75-6 gallons. If you had a lower volume and ended up at 1.075, all the better.

 

[Myrdhyn]

Yeah, I shoulda been at 5gals or just over.

 

[Oscbert]

Sounds like a lot of hops. Do the dark malts counter act the bitterness?

Also this will all work for a 5 gallon carboy right?

I'm planning on making this my second brew.

 

[explosivebeer]

Sounds like a lot of hops. Do the dark malts counter act the bitterness?

Also this will all work for a 5 gallon carboy right?

I'm planning on making this my second brew.

The hops are very mild and really only used to balance this beer. Many dark malts can add their own roasty bitterness if overdone, but these are not over the top. If you're concerned about it, you can use a de-husked carafa malt which won't add any malt bitterness.

As for volume, you could put this in a five-gallon carboy but I'd use a blowoff tube if you do. It would probably be better in a 6-gallon bucket.

Anyway, good luck.

 

[Oscbert]

Thanks! I will probably follow the reciepe exactly like it says to make things easier for me.
Do I need to use priming sugar for the bottles or will the Hazelnut extract work as the priming sugar? I was just going to add the sugar (if needed) and the hazelenut into my bottling bucket.

 

[explosivebeer]

Thanks! I will probably follow the reciepe exactly like it says to make things easier for me.
Do I need to use priming sugar for the bottles or will the Hazelnut extract work as the priming sugar? I was just going to add the sugar (if needed) and the hazelenut into my bottling bucket.

Yeah definitely still use priming sugar if you're bottling otherwise you'll end up with some very flat beer. I keg all my stuff and force carbonate so I failed to mention that.

Also, don't worry about getting that exact yeast strain. I think that's the only time I used it but I've heard some mixed things on it since then. Any clean American strain (WLP001, Wyeast 1056, US-05) will work, or you could even use a British strain if you wanted a little more breadiness and richness.

 

[Oscbert]

Thanks again! It will be about a month or two, but I will let you know how it turns out.

 

[brewyourbrews]

here's the winner for my 3rd beer. wish me luck; sounds delicious!

 

[Beavdowg]

Could someone convert this to an All-Grain recipe. This sounds very tasty!

thanks

 

[Oscbert]

FYI: This beer turned out excellent. I actually went without the hazelnut just because I didn't purchase enough hazelnut extract. I also added a little extra hops because i had some leftover.
It is very good. I have had several friends try it and they thought it was delicious.
Thanks for this receipe!

 

[explosivebeer]

Cool. Good to hear. I recently modified this a bit and made a milk stout with it that turned out a bit too rich with the lactose in the equation. But it's great with some whiskey or Grand Marnier in it to add a little more astringency and balance it out.

 

[Beavdowg]

Can we get an all-grain recipe of this, please?

 

[Beavdowg]

Anyone, anyone? Maybe put the extract recipe into Beersmith and convert it to all-grain. Thanks

 

[explosivebeer]

I'll try to find some time tonight to do that conversion for you. I'll let you know...

 

[Beavdowg]

I'll try to find some time tonight to do that conversion for you. I'll let you know...

Thanks, looking forward to it.

 

[explosivebeer]

Ok I posted the all grain recipe in the first post of this thread. Hopefully it helps. Good luck if you try this one.

 

[Beavdowg]

Thanks.

 

[ericw]

I'm brewing this right now, but haven't found the hazelnut extract. Did you get it at the brew shop, or at a grocery store?

 

[ericw]

Nevermind, I checked the website of another local brew shop, and they have the extract.

 

[barson777777]

I brewed this yesterday. unfortunately the store was out of dark LME so I substituted 6 lbs of amber extract and one pound of DME. I followed the rest of recipe but the wort came out more of a dark brown than a black. Any thoughts?

 

[explosivebeer]

I brewed this yesterday. unfortunately the store was out of dark LME so I substituted 6 lbs of amber extract and one pound of DME. I followed the rest of recipe but the wort came out more of a dark brown than a black. Any thoughts?

18oz of chocolate malt should add quite a bit of darkness, and the chocolate itself adds some murkiness. If the crush on the chocolate malt was very course, you might not get as much flavor and color out of it.

Regardless, this isn't a very delicate recipe so I'm sure you'll be fine if things skewed one way or another.