experimenting with porter

[strangecarr]

Hi I just brewed 3 gallons of London porter. It was a partial mash - malt used was pale, cara, chocolate, black, roast barley. Fuggles hops too.

I am using 3 1 gallon demi johns for the secondary.

I want to experiment with each gallon.

For one, I was going to prime with some chocolate - has any one done this before?

For another, I was going to dry hop - is this a good idea, or against the style?

I was going to leave the third gallon as a control.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[orion2598]

I've added chocolate before, but my understanding was that you wanted to do it during the last 10 min of the boil. (I added Hershey's dark choclate power). Couldn't hurt to try it though!

As to dry hopping, it is probably not to style, but who cares. That's what being a homebrewer is all about!

Cheers
Greg

 

[TexLaw]

If you want to add chocolate to that one batch, go for it, but don't prime with it. I don't know what sort of chocolate you intend to use, but there aren't many forms suitable for priming. Most have too much fat and too little sugar. I wonder how Hershey's syrup would turn out, though?

And, I agree with the dry hopping. It's not to style, but it's up to you whether it's a good idea. It's just beer, and it's your beer. Play with it however you want.


TL

 

[strangecarr]

i was thinking about melting some organic chocolate in water and using this to prime. I think it is possible to caculate the sugar content using the nutritional information.

 

[TexLaw]

I see few problems there. First, melted chocolate and water don't always go together that well, as melted chocolate tends to seize up when water gets into it. Second, even if the chocolate and water did go together, that chocolate will not stay melted in the beer, and you'll have chocolate crud sediment in your bottle or keg. Third, you'll need an awful lot of chocolate to get enough sugar to prime. Fourth, the fat in that chocolate probably will not be pleasant in your beer.

I'm all for experiementing, but I also don't like repeating mistakes. Check out the information around here about adding chocolate to beer.


TL

 

[strangecarr]

cheers, think i might give that one a miss then!

 

[Jeepsn beer]

I add my chocolate during the boil with good results. You will end up with a bitter chocolate taste because the chocolate sugars ferment out. I've used lactose to help get the sweetness back, or use a little extra caramel malt. Roasted barley is generally associated with stouts. Roasted barley + fermented out chocolate could become pretty bitter/astringent when used together IMHO.

 

[CBBaron]

If you want a chocolate beer, add powdered cocoa to the fermenter and let it sit a month. Then prime and bottle as normal.
Adding a little lactose at some point also goes well with chocolate.
Chocolate has too little sugar and too much fat to go well into your bottles. You will end up with alot of crud and no head. Chocolate in the boil can work but powdered cocoa works best.
Craig

 

[Brett0424]

I've seen a beer that was primed with chocolate only to end up with a fat coating inside the bottle and zero head retention.