Irish Stout into Chocolate Stout? Help

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Zoombaboomba

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I recently received a Irish Stout extract with a brew kit. Im currently in the fourth day of primary and was wondering if it was too late to turn it into a Chocolate or even a Chocolate Cherry Stout in secondary. Could i add them to secondary, and if so, what ingredients, what amounts, and when and for how long. The recipe kit was from MidwestSupplies and the recipe ingredients for this kit include: 6 lb. Dark liquid malt extract, 4 oz. Chocolate Malt, 4 oz. Caramel 10L, 4 oz. Roasted Barley, 4 oz. Flaked Barley specialty grain, 1 tsp. Gypsum, 1/2 oz. Nugget, 1 oz. Willamette pellet hops. Im looking any tips, tricks, etc, etc. Keep in mind this is my first brew, but difficulty is not an issue, Im just looking to excite this brew a little more with some complexity. ANY help would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks, Mike
 
Yes you can make it a vanilla stout, chocolate stout, or a choc cherry stout....I am sure others will voice their opinions as well and I am fairly new to this so I do not have a ton of info, but I will say since you have gone past the boil stage your abillity to add flavor from grains is over but you still can do multiple options...you can put a vanilla bean or two sliced open in your secondary and rack on top of it...maybe soak them in just enough jameson whiskey to cover the beans and steralize them and leave the couple oz of whiskey too for added flavor....you can also add one of any sorts of flavoring extract additions to the bottling bucket such as chocolate, vanilla, or cherry or a combination of those....You still have plenty of options all the up until bottling to add additional flavors to the beer just depending the desired goal and the route you chose (secondary or at bottling)...hope it helps some

In regards to quantities and timing, it will be to your taste...some people want sweeter like a dessert beer others just want a hint of the flavor....vanilla beans can sneak up on you in secondary so I would not go over 2 IMO...If its at bottling the secondary will not matter much for length, the stout is only about a 4.2% potential ABV so if you have 2 total weeks of fermentation you should be good, unless racking with vanilla beans and maybe whiskey, then i would let sit an additional week in secondary before bottling...if doing flavor extracts at bottling you can do different flavors for portions of the bottling or various ammounts for differnt bottling as you go, it can be fun to have a variety in one batch
 
Yeah you can add to your secondary and do more with it. With stouts the only things I've added after the fermentation was coffee. That can be done a couple ways. Coffee beans in the secondary or brew a strong cup of coffee and add it to your bottling bucket. You could bottle half your batch as a the Irish Stout and then add your flavoring to the rest of the beer in the bottling bucket. Warning add with caution that you do not put too much in.

Personally it being your first batch I'd keep it simple, dont mess with the kit recipe, drink it fast and brew again.
 
I agree with keep it simple. When I first started brewing my biggest mistakes were trying to do too much to a beer. None ended well that I can remember. I say keep it to the kit instruction for several batches. Get the process down and understand what they should taste like with out additives. Then start modifying in small amounts and test.
 
+1 for the KISS method... I provided a few suggestions if you had the urge to tweak the flavor slightly or maybe do a few bottles different at time of bottling but overall I completely agree about staying simple, the process is not hard but its good to go through brewing a few times before changing things, it will also help to determine what went correct or wrong in a brew with less variables...
 
I've got the same kit. Any recipe ideas?
Like my previous post said, keep it simple. I suggest making the as per the instructions and getting the process down and put out some good beer. Lots of beginners, myself included, try to do too much and mess up good beer.
 
I read your previous post and thank you for your insight, but if anyone has some suggestions to adapt this kit into a chocolate cherry stout I'd appreciate the input. I've got a pretty good idea of what I want to do with it and would like to bounce some ideas off someone. If I wanted to keep it simple, I wouldn't have posted on the thread
 
Fair enough...there are several ways of doing it. I have used cocoa powder before but its pretty astringent and not sweet. I have heard of people using hersheys syrup. I think the most popular way around here is to use cocoa nibs. Use a small amount of pure vanilla extract to help sweeten it up. As for the cherry flavor, probably best to use cherry extract. A good rule to remember is that a little goes a long ways. I used 4 ounces of vanilla extract in a porter and it was way way to much. I would suggest for a chocolate cherry stout maybe using a couple of cocoa nibs, an ounce of pure vanilla extract to help it bring out the chocolate and about 2 oz of cherry flavoring extract. Hope this helps and I did'nt mean to offend you.
 
Why not enjoy your first batch for what it is? You did something that most people can't do. Anyone can pour chocolate syrup and cherries in a mug of Guinness. If you want more complexity and a harder project go all grain. To each his own though.
 
Thanks for the feedback Wyoming. I've worked cacao powder before and it's a little sweet for my liking. Though I might use a little along with some roasted barley. I'd like to use some black cherry extract (sweet cherry I think), but I haven't used it before, still curious though.
 
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