Dropping secondary ingredients in the primary

[plazola86]

My wife wants to brew a xocoveca style stout for a Christmas party on the 24th so this leaves me with about 3 weeks from grain to glass. I have looked up some clone recipes on here and all call for the spices, pepper and chocolate to be added to the secondary after two weeks in the primary. Since I'm short on time what would be my best route? Add everything during the boil (spices and all) and ferment and keg like normal or wait until fermentation has slowed (4 days) and add the ingredients to the primary? I know this isn't ideal timing but she has her heart set on in. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[jbunton]

I just did the better not pout stout Recipe. All spices went in at 15 min left on boil. I don't see why you couldn't.

 

[LLBeanJ]

Add a dose of spices and pepper during the last two minutes of the boil. If you find you need more, add another dose to the keg.

What are you using for chocolate? If using cocoa powder, add it to the boil with the spices. If using nibs, soak in vodka for a couple weeks and then add the vodka and nibs to the keg. Put the nibs in a hop sack so you can pull them out when the desired level of chocolate is reached.

I definitely wouldn't secondary this beer.

 

[plazola86]

I like the idea of adding everything to the boil so all the flavors could start blending together as soon as possible. Ill just stick to the recommended amount's and add them to the boil, pull a sample after fermentation has slowed and add more if needed. Would there be much of a difference to make a tincture with bourbon instead of vodka other than the spirit taste itself? I'm assuming Vodka leads to a cleaner taste of whatever flavor your trying to extract and bourbon would have will...a bourbon flavor along with it?

 

[LLBeanJ]

Would there be much of a difference to make a tincture with bourbon instead of vodka other than the spirit taste itself? I'm assuming Vodka leads to a cleaner taste of whatever flavor your trying to extract and bourbon would have will...a bourbon flavor along with it?

Exactly right. Vodka will impart no taste, while bourbon will. Both will extract the flavor from whatever you are soaking in it, so if you also want some bourbon flavor, use bourbon instead.

 

[apl_seed]

I've found that adding cocoa powder gives you a grainy mouthfeel. Kinda like nestle quik powder in a glass of chocolate milk. I'd use the nibs as suggested above.