Feedback on 3x Choc. Stout

[Resac]

Hi all. I've brewed a couple of kits and I feel up for the challenge of 'creating' my own recipe based on others I've seen. I'd really appreciate it if you guys could give me some feedback and maybe a few tips. Thanks in advance.



Extract recipe, 5-gallon batch size
Original gravity: 1.062 (?)
Final gravity: 1.024 (?)
Bitterness: 49 (?)
Alcohol by volume: 5.5 (?)


Ingredients:
8oz Chocolate Malt
4oz Black Malt
8lb Light LME
1lb Lactose
1oz Nugget Hop (pellet)
4oz Bakers Chocolate
8oz Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
4oz Cocoa Nibs
1pkg Cooper's Yeast

Process:
Steep grains @ 155˚ for 30 minutes in 3 Gallons. Sparge with water. Add LME + Lactose and bring to a boil. Add hops, Bakers chocolate and cocoa powder. Boil for 60 minutes... Cool down to 75˚ and pitch yeast.

Primary: 10 days
Secondary: 14 days (with vodka soaked nibs added)

Prime with 5oz of cane sugar dissolved in 4oz water. Let sit for 4 weeks. Sample.




Thoughts? Are those realistic gravity readings I posted?

I typed this recipe into the Brewer's Friend recipe calculator and it says my SRM is too light (?). I'm hoping it's because they don't have anything that takes the chocolate contributions into the equation. Am I wrong to think that and my brew will just turn out to be a really chocolatey amber?

 

[Resac]

Anyone?

 

[Michael_K]

You could consider adding .75 lb of dark crystal, and subbing roasted barley for the black patent - and then bump up your chocolate and roasted barley to .75 lb too. IBU's may be a little high too, depending on the AA of your nugget. 3/4 oz should give plenty of bitterness. All just my opinion, though.

 

[Calder]

Nix the bakers chocolate - it has oils that can give issues with head retention, and make it difficult to clean out the fermenter fully.

Gravity (OG) is fine, maybe a little low.

Do you really want a 1.024 FG, that is sweet? I'd drop the Lactose, especially if using coopers yeast, which I think is a low attenuator. You can always add it later (even at bottling) if the beer is not sweet enough for you. But, once it is in, you can't do anything about it. I'd swap it for a pound of LME, or just leave it out.

It may be light for a stout, but I don't like too much acrid black flavor. I don't like black; I use Roasted barley myself. I think you would get a better product if you upped the chocolate malt to 1 or even 1.5 lbs, or maybe used coffee malt rather than increase the black. These additional specialty malts will leave the beer sweeter, further reducing the need for lactose.

 

[McKnuckle]

Agreed on the warning about Baker's chocolate. It has fats that will emulsify during the boil. When your wort chills, they will rise to the top just like the fat on top of refrigerated stew. It's a tad disgusting, and actually imparts a greasy feel to the wort. I used a mesh strainer to skim the stuff off the surface, but it was a pain. The chocolate added some aroma but no significant flavor that I can detect. I used 4 oz in a 3 gallon batch.

 

[Resac]

Thanks for the insight. I ended up getting impatient and brewed before I had a chance to get back on here and see if there were replies. I hadn't heard about the oils in the baker's chocolate. All I had read was to make sure it was nothing but cocoa, I didn't have a clue that there'd be oils in there too. Bummer, I'll just keep my fingers crossed and hope for something that taste like beer.. I think after this one is bottled, I want to try again with your suggestions. Keep them coming.