Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer Dark Chocolate Stout

[MrRoboto]

I brewed this one out yesterday it smelled great and it's very dark and thick. I pitched yeast and it started actively fermenting within 12 hours can't wait to try this one it sounds like a good Christmas beer

 

[Straight6TT]

Brewing this tomorrow! I love chocolate stouts!

 

[discooby]

Brewing this tomorrow! I love chocolate stouts!

Nice! I had planned on doing 10 gal of this today… but seeing as it’s past 5am, and I’ve been up for over 25 hrs, it might have to wait till Saturday

I’m going to add the cocoa powder to the mash tun as a previous poster mentioned… and hopefully eliminate most of the sludge that carriers over from bk to carboy to keg.

I’m looking for an abv of around 7%; not sure if I should age it, as in extending fermentation (after reaching fg) for an extra week or two or racking it to a secondary…?? Was also thinking about adding some vanilla beans soaked in 2oz of vodka for the last week.

This is a good recipe… I highly recommend serving on nitrogen!

Cool, post what you did and I will too! Cheers!

 

[Straight6TT]

UGH.....forgot to buy lactose, I had some but only about .5 lb. Hopefully its still good....

 

[inkman15]

Brewed this today with some slight variations. I did 4 gallons of water for the initial mash (target of 154) and 3.5 gallons for the sparge bringing my boil volume to somewhere around 6.5-6.75 gallons.

Added the lactose (1 lb) with about 10 minutes left in the boil and then the cocoa powder (8 oz) with about 7 minutes left in the boil. Hop additions were as mentioned in the OP.

I ended up with an OG of 1.065 which I wasn't expecting. Guess my mash tun was too efficient or I used too much water. Anyway, smells amazing. Will report back when it's ready to drink.

Thanks for the recipe.

 

[Straight6TT]

Is organic chocolate extract ok?

 

[Straight6TT]

UGH.....forgot to buy lactose, I had some but only about .5 lb. Hopefully its still good....

Should I add more lactose on kegging day or leave as is?

 

[discooby]

You can add more lactose when you keg, just boil it in some water first… then let it cool to room temp.

 

[discooby]

Is organic chocolate extract ok?

Sure, if you think you’ll like the taste… are you kegging it? If bottling then I might wonder if it might hold up over time (i.e. go bad or rancid???)

 

[KeyWestBrewing]

Sorry if this has been asked before........ How would this turn out without the lactose? Im looking for an award winning chocolate stout recipe to use for my homebrew club's club brew next month. Catch is it cant have lactose, one of our member is lactose intolerant. Thanks!

 

[cbehr]

Looking to brew this in the next few days. Has anyone used choc. nibs instead or in addition to the cocoa? I've been reading really good things about using nibs.

 

[Straight6TT]

Sorry if this has been asked before........ How would this turn out without the lactose? Im looking for an award winning chocolate stout recipe to use for my homebrew club's club brew next month. Catch is it cant have lactose, one of our member is lactose intolerant. Thanks!

Well the OP said the beer would be too bitter and undrinkable without the lactose. Try a search, as I believe there are other unfermentable sugars you could add to sweeten the beer.

 

[Straight6TT]

Looking to brew this in the next few days. Has anyone used choc. nibs instead or in addition to the cocoa? I've been reading really good things about using nibs.

I bet the nibs would be great! The only issue I see is the beer would have to age longer on the nibs then with the cocoa.

 

[cbehr]

I plugged this in ProMash and am only getting an estimated OG of 1.047 compared to your 1.053? I'm trying to figure out how much grain I have to buy due to my BIAB method in which I'm more in the 70% range compared to your 82%. Am I doing something wrong?

 

[stewby117]

Looking to brew this in the next few days. Has anyone used choc. nibs instead or in addition to the cocoa? I've been reading really good things about using nibs.

I used cocoa in the mash and nibs in the fermenter for 3.5 weeks I would definitely use the nibs any way you can think of mash, flameout, or fermenter after primary is complete. I split my batch and soaked oak chips in Maker's Mark and it is pretty good.

 

[stewby117]

I plugged this in ProMash and am only getting an estimated OG of 1.047 compared to your 1.053? I'm trying to figure out how much grain I have to buy due to my BIAB method in which I'm more in the 70% range compared to your 82%. Am I doing something wrong?

No your not doing anything wrong add some more base malt and using the percentages from Promash you can get the correct amount of specialty malts. This is a great recipe and very well balanced. Happy Brewing

 

[Imbibeer]

I brewed this beer and just bottled last week and also had a problem with stalling out a little high. I used ~5.5lbs of extract & 1lb lactose and came up with an OG of 1.062. After 3 weeks I checked the FG and it was 1.030, so I moved it from my basement to a little bit warmer spot and gently stirred. 2 weeks later and it was still at 1.030 so I bottled.

The pre-bottle flavor and smell seemed good so we'll see how it goes. This is the first time out of 6 batches I have been so high, usually around 1.015-18. I'll try and post my results in a few weeks.

I also had some small lumps of cocoa powder after I dumped the trub, so make sure you mix in the cocoa powder well.

 

[lxxenigmaxxl]

Anyone try this recipe with vodka soaked nibs in secondary for a couple of weeks instead of cocoa powder in the boil? I here you get a better chocolate flavor without the mess. Also there has been a number of people complaining of stalled fermentation and was wondering if anyone found the cause?

 

[cbehr]

Anyone try this recipe with vodka soaked nibs in secondary for a couple of weeks instead of cocoa powder in the boil? I here you get a better chocolate flavor without the mess. Also there has been a number of people complaining of stalled fermentation and was wondering if anyone found the cause?

I'm one week in now with this method. After reading a bunch I thought I'd try to nibs instead of cocoa.

 

[lxxenigmaxxl]

How is fermentation going so far .

 

[cbehr]

How is fermentation going so far .

Great, left it go a little over a week, then racked to secondary w/ chocolate and a vanilla bean. Looking good now, I'll try to grab a pic.

 

[lxxenigmaxxl]

Well its been 13 days in the fermenter and I think its ready to start secondary. The SG started at 1.070 and finished at 1.020. I did alter the recipe a bit to have a slightly higher ABV thinking stouts should have a little heat to them for the cold winters.

Switched from Nottingham to London Ale III to get rid of the tang that Nottingham tends to have. Also +added 3 more pounds of pale malt, 6oz of corn sugar(for heat). Left out the cocoa powder for 2-3 weeks in secondary on top of 6 oz of vodka soaked cacao nibs.

I left out the cc powder because I here it adds bitterness and also screws with head retention. I'm hoping the nibs do the trick. I don't think swapping out the Nottingham was a great idea as the beer is a little sweet for my liking. I think the Nottingham would have added that bit of sourness that you get from most stouts. Depending on how this turns out I might try it again with 3-4 oz less lactose.

Anyway, I will post my thoughts when everything is done.
Thanks for listening to my rambling

 

[MrSnrub]

I used this recipe as a base for a Mexican chocolate stout. I steeped 4 oz. cacao nibs, 3 cinnamon sticks, and one dried chile de arbol in vodka for about 6 weeks and added the extract to the keg. This did not produce enough "Mexican" flavor so I put 5 cinnamon sticks and 3 chiles in a mesh bag and tossed it in the keg. Within a few days the flavors got to where I wanted them. Great beer! Next time I will skip the extract and add all the stuff directly to the keg.

 

[Bertleman]

Was the chocolate extract the only priming sugar added. I don't have a keg but would like to give this a crack so wondering what to prime with. Also where to get milk sugar?

 

[truckmann]

You will need to add priming sugar in order to bottle. The chocolate extract is mainly for aroma and some additional flavor. Lactose can be had from the same places you buy your beer ingredients. It is an unfermentable sugar that is commonly used in beers like milk stouts to add sweetness.

 

[Bertleman]

So just the usual cup of malt extract or should i lower it to counter for the sugar content of the extract? Just a little worried about stout exploding all over my carpet!

 

[Bertleman]

*chocolate extract sorry

 

[truckmann]

I wouldn't worry about sugars in the chocolate extract. It's mainly just flavor and aroma oils and some alcohol. You should be fine with your normal amount of malt extract or priming sugar.

 

[hethacker12]

so i brewed the young's double chocolate stout variant on this about a month ago and kegged it last week, OG was spot on and FG was at 1.019.
i compared it to an actual youngs and noticed that it was not as crisp and more bitter than the youngs. the chocolate was also subdued and i added the .6 oz of choclate extract. any ideas to lower bitterness and increase crispness?

 

[Bad_Horse_Brews]

So, I'm thinking of using this recipe with vanilla and clove added in, any thoughts?