Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer Double Chocolate Oatmeal Snout

[AugustDerleth]

Omfg. Opened one after only 6 days in a bottle, and holy shnikes! Smells exactly like haagen daaz Chocolate ice cream and tastes FRECKIN amazing! Still flat, obviously, very early but this is going to be fan-****ing-tastic once it's mature. THANK YOU ChshreCat

 

[ChshreCat]

Omfg. Opened one after only 6 days in a bottle, and holy shnikes! Smells exactly like haagen daaz Chocolate ice cream and tastes FRECKIN amazing! Still flat, obviously, very early but this is going to be fan-****ing-tastic once it's mature. THANK YOU ChshreCat

:rockin:

 

[zcaad9]

just bought the ingredients for this today, im excited for it

 

[Wortimer75]

I broke my brewing cherry with this recipe. It sounded so good and I wanted to brew the kind of beer I like to drink. Great recipe. I added about 8oz. of black onyx cocoa powder. Made the wort turn black as night. I pitched the yeast, and as of this morning, its bubbling away.

O.G. = 1.066ish

Cheers Everyone!

 

[thebigt85]

Just started fermenting this bad boy 3 days ago but I forgot to put in the cocoa powder. Do I have to boil it up in some water and then add or should I just rack right onto it in secondary with the vanilla?

 

[ChshreCat]

Hmmm... not sure at this point. I'd probably boil up a little water, stir the cocoa into suspension, chill while stirring and add it to the fermenter.

 

[Waunabeer]

Sweet success so far with my batch. Yesterday it was exactly 3 weeks so I moved it to the secondary on the vanilla bean. I took a hydrometer reading (using a wine thief) and tasted the sample and wow. It was already as good as a Guiness Foreign Extra Stout with chocolate notes and it's still green. I hope it stays or gets even better with time. I always get nervous at this stage and hope that I didn't screw something up yesterday during the secondary process.

I'm stoked right now though.

 

[AugustDerleth]

My apologies for the continual posts, but to those who are making this: it cleans up a LOT the longer you let it sit. Obviously this is true with most beers, but I have noticed a great change in flavour from 3 weeks in a bottle to about 2 months in a bottle. If yours taste "too bitter" initially, just let them keep sitting and wow. The gf thought they were okay after 3 weeks, but is trying to wipe me out of them now. Luckily I've got some other stouts on deck so I can save a few bottles of this to crack in 4 or 5 months. Alright, I'm out.

 

[Smashing]

I bottled this today. Wow! Great chocolate with a bit of hot liquor. Can't wait to try it for real. FG ended up @ 1.021

 

[ChshreCat]

I've been breaking into a case that I've had aging for a year. soooooooo good.

 

[Smashing]

I bottled this today. Wow! Great chocolate with a bit of hot liquor. Can't wait to try it for real. FG ended up @ 1.021

Beersmith tells me that this came out to be 6.8% - not bad. This thing had a huge yeast cake too. Wondering if it was from being in the primary for 4 weeks.

 

[ChshreCat]

Beersmith tells me that this came out to be 6.8% - not bad. This thing had a huge yeast cake too. Wondering if it was from being in the primary for 4 weeks.

The cocoa powder contributes a lot to that. It doesn't dissolve so much as just suspend, flavor the beer and then fall out with the yeast.

 

[badmajon]

My next brew is going to be an all-grain chocolate oatmeal stout that is going to be based on your ideas here. The ingredients will look somethign like this:

9 lbs pale 2-row malt
1lb flaked oats (i might toast these.. not sure yet)
3/4 lb crystal 60L
3/4 lb chocolate malt
1/2 lb cara-pils
1/2 lb roasted barley (I may reduce this to 1/4 lb)
1 oz Chinook @ 60 mins
1 oz Glacier @ 5 mins
WLP001 California Ale or S-05 yeast
6 oz cocoa nibs (soaked in small amount of vodka) dumped in secondary
1 or 2 vanilla beans done the same way into the secondary

5.5 gallons into the fermenter

I'm trying to decide what type of body I want for this beer. I'm currently thinking about a medium body and a 154° mash, but I might mash slightly higher but not up to 158°... maybe 155 or 156...

EDIT - 9/15/2009

I did modify this recipe just a little and I will post the update after I have taste tested sometime in December....

For all grain I propose:

8 lbs pale 2-row malt
2 lbs munich malt (for sweetness)
1lb flaked oats (for mouthfeel)
3/4 lb crystal 60L
3/4 lb chocolate malt
1/2 lb cara-pils
1/4 lb roasted barley
1 oz Nugget or Galena @ 60 mins (any decent generic bittering hop)
Wyeast British Ale
6 oz cocoa powder @ 15 mins
8 oz lactose @ 15 mins
1 or 2 vanilla beans soaked in vodka and thrown into secondary

I wanted something a bit sweeter (more like a milk choco) and less bitter. Judging from the reviews, all those hops just made the thing too bitey when the 6 oz of cocoa powder was added. Roasted Barley adds an astringent flavor (think Guiness extra foreign stout) and dark color right? So I thought 1/4 lb would be good.

Ideas? Will this be dark enough? (I need to buy beersmith... I know) What about using Maris Otter?

 

[ChshreCat]

The hops in the original recipe do very little, to be honest. They just give a basic bitterness to offset the malt and let the chocolate shine through. Fuggles are a pretty mild bittering hop, I've found.

Dark enough? The original recipe is dark as night and Beersmith says yours is three points darker. Yeah, it'll be dark enough for ya.

 

[Smashing]

I just cracked my first bottle for sampling after 2 weeks. Light carbonation, nice and dark, great aroma and still a bit of alcohol on the tongue. 2 weeks till my next taste.

 

[rca]

Quick question. I was playing around with this recipe in Beersmith and my IBUs come out around 25. I know I'm not adjusting for the cocoa bitterness, but did you adjust for it in the IBUs as posted with the recipe?

I think you show them up around 38. Was that with 8oz of cocoa?

Recipe is making me thirsty, lol.

Ron

 

[ChshreCat]

Quick question. I was playing around with this recipe in Beersmith and my IBUs come out around 25. I know I'm not adjusting for the cocoa bitterness, but did you adjust for it in the IBUs as posted with the recipe?

I think you show them up around 38. Was that with 8oz of cocoa?

Recipe is making me thirsty, lol.

Ron

Nope. The IBU's are just what Beersmith spit out. Did you set it to add the extract at 15 minutes?

 

[rca]

I was working on an all grain version, but I reset it for the Amber Extract at 15 minutes and I still only see 25.2 IBU. Is there a hop addition missing on the first post? All I see is 2oz of Fuggles for 60 min, which shows 28 IBU. Then the description shows 38.2 IBU.

Maybe I missed something. I'll look again.

Ron

 

[ChshreCat]

What's there is cut and pasted right from BeerSmith.

I know there's a setting on how IBU's are calculated. Perhaps you have a different setting on yours than mine is set for. I don't remember what might is using but I can check it when I get home this evening.

 

[Bithead]

I have a similar batch in the fermenter right now. Left out oats but put 1lb lactose in boil. I was thinking creamy chocolate milk. Samples have been wonderful. Have to say, the head on ChshreCat's OP looks fantastic. I'm wondering, for those who bottle, how many volumes are you carbing at. I want the great head and am concerned the fats from the chocolate will kill the head and guess some is to be expected as I used a very high quality black chocolate powder and don't know the fat content.

 

[rca]

What's there is cut and pasted right from BeerSmith.

I know there's a setting on how IBU's are calculated. Perhaps you have a different setting on yours than mine is set for. I don't remember what might is using but I can check it when I get home this evening.

That's probably what it is. I forget that is there sometimes. I had mine set to Tinseth. When I reset it to Rager it was much closer.

Thanks.

Ron

 

[ChshreCat]

I was working on an all grain version, but I reset it for the Amber Extract at 15 minutes and I still only see 25.2 IBU. Is there a hop addition missing on the first post? All I see is 2oz of Fuggles for 60 min, which shows 28 IBU. Then the description shows 38.2 IBU.

Maybe I missed something. I'll look again.

Ron

Ok, I played around with my settings and it comes out to 38.2 using the Rager formula, and 28 using Tinseth.

I have a similar batch in the fermenter right now. Left out oats but put 1lb lactose in boil. I was thinking creamy chocolate milk. Samples have been wonderful. Have to say, the head on ChshreCat's OP looks fantastic. I'm wondering, for those who bottle, how many volumes are you carbing at. I want the great head and am concerned the fats from the chocolate will kill the head and guess some is to be expected as I used a very high quality black chocolate powder and don't know the fat content.

I like mine at about 2.5 volumes. I use a fat free cocoa, but other folks have used fatty stuff and still report decent head retention... although they include the oats.

 

[jason81]

i will be brewing this recipe tomorrow morning, il probably cut back on the cocoa though sounds realy chocolaty. this will be my second brew ever i only started my first one 2 days ago, lol i think i see an addiction spawning

 

[rca]

Welcome to the mania!

Ron

 

[jason81]

how long of a boil is good for this recipe? 1hr?
well my girlfried was out looking for some fat free cocoa and came back with something she thought was fat free but from the label i worked it out to be 10%fat which i dont think will be to bad since most other cocoa powders are around 20% and she got me enough to do about 5 batches, she also found me a nice vial of bourbon soaked german vanila beans. just finished roasting my oats i think i need to get to work now

 

[ChshreCat]

Yeah, I do one hour boils.

 

[jason81]

Well just finished up a batch with an og of 1.067 will this darken as it ferments?

 

[ChshreCat]

Are you using a carboy? Beers always look lighter when you first put them in a carboy because of yeast and trub particles in suspension reflecting light.

 

[jason81]

Yes I am. The wort looked prety light on the stove too id say 20srm it was opaque but seemed kinda light.

 

[jason81]

it has darkened a bit from trub settling but not much i think i didnt cruch my grains good enough, i just used a ziplock bags and whent over them a few time with rolling pins, in order to keep a high gravity i ended up with a bit less than 5 gal. from reading an old thread i found i think my best bet is to steep some more roast barley and/or choc malt in like 2 litres or water and add it to the fermenter