Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer Double Chocolate Oatmeal Snout

[verboten]

ingredients purchased, now to get the time to make this!!!

 

[431brew]

I brewed a 2.5 gallon batch yesterday and used 3 oz. of cocoa. When I racked it to primary, it had a rich chocolate taste...not a bitter one. Should I expect it to become bitter or is this the extent of the chocolate flavor? If this is it, I may dry hop to tone down some of the sweetness/richness. Thoughts or comments?

 

[ChshreCat]

You're getting a LOT more sweetness than you'll end up with after it ferments out. There's tons of sugar there that won't be there in a few weeks.

 

[431brew]

Thanks, ChshreCat. This is my first chocolate brew and have never drank one either, so not sure what to expect. I know the sugars will ferment out, but again, I just don't know what to expect in the end.

I drank an 8 oz glass of it as I was putting it in the primary. It was that good even though it was warm, flat, green, and had stuff in suspension!

 

[bobz32]

I have been extract brewing for a few months, and want to try a partial mash. I've decided to use your recipe! I would have a difficult time boiling 3.5-4g of water without keeping a lid on it, so I was hoping to steep in around 3-3.25g of water. Think there would be much of a problem with this, or just a little less efficiency? Also, did you just get your water to the right temp, throw in your grains, then throw the whole pot in your oven?

Also, have you ever thought of throwing in a few cocoa nibs with your vanilla bean in secondary? I love Southern Tier's Choklat, so I sort of want a chocolate overload (plus I love dark chocolate).

 

[ChshreCat]

I have been extract brewing for a few months, and want to try a partial mash. I've decided to use your recipe! I would have a difficult time boiling 3.5-4g of water without keeping a lid on it, so I was hoping to steep in around 3-3.25g of water. Think there would be much of a problem with this, or just a little less efficiency? Also, did you just get your water to the right temp, throw in your grains, then throw the whole pot in your oven?

That's pretty much it. Just run the oven for a few minutes first so it gets warm and then turn it off when you put the pot in. It's the residual heat you want that makes the pot cool down much more slowly.

Also, have you ever thought of throwing in a few cocoa nibs with your vanilla bean in secondary? I love Southern Tier's Choklat, so I sort of want a chocolate overload (plus I love dark chocolate).

I've thought of using cocoa nibs with other brews, but not with this one. It's already chocolate overload. I doubt you'd notice any difference.

 

[bobz32]

That's pretty much it. Just run the oven for a few minutes first so it gets warm and then turn it off when you put the pot in. It's the residual heat you want that makes the pot cool down much more slowly.



I've thought of using cocoa nibs with other brews, but not with this one. It's already chocolate overload. I doubt you'd notice any difference.

Sounds good. I just purchased the ingredients, and hope to make it this Saturday. It will be my first partial mash. The Belgian Strong extract I made last month will be coming out of secondary shortly, just in time to hold this tasty brew. I will let you know how it goes!

 

[Sibem]

Sounds like a very interesting recipe. I am a beginner and this will be my second brew. I did a partial mash as my first one, still in the primary...
I want to do this recipe this week-end but I have a few beginner question:

1) We are doing a partial mash, can I do it in 3 Gal of water, continue with my boil and at the end, after the chill, add the water necessary to get to the 5 Gal of the total batch?

2) Do we need to crush the grain before the steep?

Thanks a lot, and I will let you know how everything will go.

 

[Jtd6628]

Yes it is fine to top it off at the end of boil i find the only affect that is notable is the IBUs will be less but not to noticeable.
Yes crush the grains.

 

[ChshreCat]

Yep. Uncrushed grains will do nothing for you. Partial boil batches are always topped up with water to get your final volume.

 

[XtremeBrew]

I've brewed this recipe, but couldn't find the cocoa that Cat used. I tried Here's and it was too bitter. I used 8oz of cacao nibs the second time and it was fantastic. 8oz is a lot, but the taste was amazing. Love this brew. Thanks Cat

 

[Sibem]

Yes it is fine to top it off at the end of boil i find the only affect that is notable is the IBUs will be less but not to noticeable.
Yes crush the grains.

Interesting. I was just reading about the effect of hops utilization in a denser wort. In fact, I've just found and play with the equation that evaluate the IBU considering boiling time and density of the boil. It is in the John Palmer's book. Thanks a lot for your enlightening comments. My guess is that in this recipe, the quantity of hops is for a smaller boil, may be 2.5 or even 3 gal, and the IBU is evaluated with this consideration in mind.

 

[Sibem]

Yep. Uncrushed grains will do nothing for you. Partial boil batches are always topped up with water to get your final volume.

Thanks a lot, now everything is clearer for me. This recipe will be very interesting to do. Thanks a lot for posting it. One more thing: I lived in south florida. For the primary fermentation, I can use a big tub with ice bottle to keep the temperature around 68-70. After the first week of active fermentation, do you think I could keep the primary fermenter at room temperature for the additional 2 weeks? In my home-office, the A/C keep the temp at 72F. Should be fine, no?

 

[Jtd6628]

Yeah I do the same thing in eastern NC just water bath with frozen bottles of water for like the first 10 days of fermentation at 65 degrees then I take it out and let it stay at room room temp which for me is around 78 ( i am a poor 24 year old so 78 is as much as i can spend on ac from july to september) until I hit 3 week mark then I bottle. I have made good beer this way. Other people might have other opinions though but just try it once and if you like it do the same way again if you dont change the method.

 

[XtremeBrew]

I usually just wrap a wet towel around my carboy and that helps keep the temp around 70-72 with no problem.

 

[ChshreCat]

Tub of water and ice bottles works wonders. I kept a beer in the 60's with it was triple digits with no ac.

 

[bobz32]

Brewed this recipe today! First time doing a partial mash, think it went pretty well. Ended up with an OG of 1.073 ish. I eyeballed the last pound of LME, so I may have added a little more. I probably didn't have the most consistent mash temp, so if it ends up with less fermentables and a slightly higher FG, I am fine.

Used 8oz of cocoa powder. Couldn't find any non-fat in time, though. Oh well!

Also, I used the Northern Brewer's NeoBritania Wyeast instead. Should be some good stuff, thanks!

 

[Stevo2569]

I brewed this today. It was all-grain and I also used 8 oz cocoa. Damn that's chocolatey. It's for a good friends wedding. He requested a chocolate stout. I hope it's not too much. I came in at 1.080. Haven't figured it yet, but that's really good eff. ,specially being rushed. I had a birthday party to go to. Pulled it off in just over 3.5 hours. I'm siked. Thanks for the base recipe. Anybody adding cream at bottling/kegging? What kind,how much and where to get it?? Thanks.

 

[ChshreCat]

Cream stouts don't actually have cream in them. You use lactose and you can get it at your LHBS.

 

[Stevo2569]

Cream stouts don't actually have cream in them. You use lactose and you can get it at your LHBS.

I knew that but I saw recipe somewhere on the recipe database that listed Cream.

 

[ChshreCat]

I knew that but I saw recipe somewhere on the recipe database that listed Cream.

Unless you're adding it to the glass, that's not going to work out well at all. I'm not going to want to drink cream that's been sitting at 70+ degrees for 3+ weeks.

 

[Stevo2569]

Unless you're adding it to the glass, that's not going to work out well at all. I'm not going to want to drink cream that's been sitting at 70+ degrees for 3+ weeks.

Gotcha, I think I'll stick to Lactose. No since in risking a bad batch. I always added lactose in the boil, obviously it's too late for that. I usually keg but am going to bottle prime this one. Add at bottling?? Recommended amount? Thanks.

 

[ChshreCat]

Lactose can be added at any time in the process. Some folks will add a minimum amount to the boil, then add more to taste at bottling.

 

[Brihaus]

This was great fun. I did the original post recipe yesterday.

Being my first mash, I did not have have the proper equipment. Or at least I didn't think I did. I tried putting my oats (quick oats) and grains in two grain bags and stuffing them into a pot with 2g of water. I got the temp to about 150 and put it in the oven for an hour. The temp did not hold well and was down to about 120 by the end.

Not knowing how it was going to turn out, I dumped my sacks into the 2g water in the pot and put it back on the burner, keeping it at 150-160 for another hour.

I went to the garage and found an old cooler. I scoured it with a brillo pad and then sanitized it good. When the mash was done, I poured it through a collander - the expandable rectangular kind - that I had placed over the cooler. After the grains drained into the cooler, I sparged with 3g of 150 degree water by pouring the water over the grains, letting them drain into the cooler.

Then I put the cooler on a chair and pulled the spigot, letting the wort pour into the brewing kettle. So basically, it was 5g of water minus whatever the grains absorbed.

After the hour boil, I cooled the wort, took a reading of 1.082(!), and transferred to the carboy. It needed another 2/3g of water to get it back to 5g. I don't know how much of that was boiled off vs soaked up by the grains. Anyone know how the water addition will affect the OG? I did not take another reading after that.

This was also my first time pitching with dry yeast. I did not hydrate it beforehand - just tossed it right in. The wort was a little less than 80 degrees at the time. Should I not have done that? I forgot to check in on it this morning before I left for work to see if there was any activity.

Overall, I was pleased that I ended up being able to mash without having to purchase any new equipment. It was really quite easy.

Thanks to all of you for the last few years' worth of comments on this thread! This one encouraged to try more all grain recipes.

 

[ericdaryl]

Then I put the cooler on a chair and pulled the spigot, letting the wort pour into the brewing kettle. So basically, it was 5g of water minus whatever the grains absorbed.

After the hour boil, I cooled the wort, took a reading of 1.082(!), and transferred to the carboy. It needed another 2/3g of water to get it back to 5g. I don't know how much of that was boiled off vs soaked up by the grains. Anyone know how the water addition will affect the OG? I did not take another reading after that.​

Adding that much water at the end is definitely going to drop your OG way down---off the top of my head, I'd guess 1.040. If you've got a pot (or pots) big enough, on your next batch you should start with 6.5 or 7 gallons of water total (split between mash and sparge) so that you don't have to add water at the end to make up for what you've lost to the grains and the boil. I end up using 3 pots during my process, even though I've got one that holds 5 gallons.

Hope it turns out for you!

Just had another bottle of this recipe yesterday (I've been Scrooge-ily saving them for months) and it's only getting better with time.

 

[Brihaus]

Adding that much water at the end is definitely going to drop your OG way down---off the top of my head, I'd guess 1.040. If you've got a pot (or pots) big enough, on your next batch you should start with 6.5 or 7 gallons of water total (split between mash and sparge) so that you don't have to add water at the end to make up for what you've lost to the grains and the boil. I end up using 3 pots during my process, even though I've got one that holds 5 gallons.

Ouch! I hope I didn't murder my OG that badly. It really didn't seem like much topping-off water at all, 2.5 quarts I guess. If it's really down to 1.040, then it will sap 5% off my abv!

Obviously, I should have taken another hydrometer sample after adding a little water. But next time, I'll try your suggestion of starting with more water in the mash and sparge.

 

[ericdaryl]

Ouch! I hope I didn't murder my OG that badly. It really didn't seem like much topping-off water at all, 2.5 quarts I guess. If it's really down to 1.040, then it will sap 5% off my abv!

Obviously, I should have taken another hydrometer sample after adding a little water. But next time, I'll try your suggestion of starting with more water in the mash and sparge.

Your post above had you adding "2/3g" which I took to be GALLONS. So, yeah, adding 3 gallons of clear water to get to 5 gallons really will cut your OG way down, but adding 2/3 quarts shouldn't hit it that hard. You ought to be fine. Again, off the top of my head, but I'd guess around 1.070 or so.

Sorry for the misunderstanding!

It does take a few rounds to tweak your process so that you start out with the right amount of water and end with the right amount of beer! One of my saddest HB moments came when I had about 3-4 quarts of extra beer that fit into my primary bucket but wouldn't go home to the secondary carboy. Painful to watch it circle the drain!

 

[Brihaus]

Your post above had you adding "2/3g" which I took to be GALLONS. So, yeah, adding 3 gallons of clear water to get to 5 gallons really will cut your OG way down, but adding 2/3 quarts shouldn't hit it that hard. You ought to be fine. Again, off the top of my head, but I'd guess around 1.070 or so.

Oh, by "2/3g" I meant "two-thirds of a gallon," which is a little more than 2.5 quarts I think. I'll be pleased if I didn't drop below 1.070 since that is the target.

 

[ChshreCat]

In the future, you wanna take your gravity reading after you top up to your final volume and mix it really well. I'm sure you're doing quite well so far.

I always used to sprinkled dry yeast right onto the wort until I learned I should hydrate it first. I hydrate now and (to be honest) haven't noticed any difference in how it acts but still hydrate because it's an easy thing to do and stacks the odds of good beer slightly more in my favor.

 

[Brihaus]

In the future, you wanna take your gravity reading after you top up to your final volume and mix it really well. I'm sure you're doing quite well so far.

I always used to sprinkled dry yeast right onto the wort until I learned I should hydrate it first. I hydrate now and (to be honest) haven't noticed any difference in how it acts but still hydrate because it's an easy thing to do and stacks the odds of good beer slightly more in my favor.

Still shots of fermenting beer are particularly boring. But here's where it's at. I came home yesterday and the airlock was busy clicking, fermenting at 71-72 degrees. Interesting that there was almost no krausen head. It was fizzing like an active bottle of Coke. This morning it's at 70 degrees and had slowed down quite a bit until I kicked it a couple times.