Mashing Chocolate (The food, not the malt)

[KingBrianI]

I think in honor of my recovery that you should save a bottle for me....

I'm just sayin.

I think I could manage that. Good luck on Monday!

 

[Revvy]

I think I could manage that. Good luck on Monday!

Thanks Bro!!!!

And thanks for the pics during this brew!!!!

 

[emjay]

The fat in the chocolate shouldn't be an issue at all at that point. I noticed when my melted (double-boiled) 85% chocolate was in the kettle for just 5 minutes, the fat seemed to separate and float to the top, and I wouldn't be surprised if none of it made it to the fermenter. We'll see what happens when I add 2 more bars to the fermenter... though I still haven't settled on whether to melt it or just chop it into pieces. Any sanitation issues with chocolate?

Nice thermapen by the way. I love mine. In fact, I love my thermapen so much, I wanna take it behind the middle school and get it pregnant.

 

[chapa]

Very interested to hear the outcome of this!

 

[KingBrianI]

Just kegged the beer with 2 oz of chocolate extract and 1 oz of vanilla extract. Taste was awesome! Very reminiscent of Young's Double Chocolate Stout, but with even more chocolate flavor. The chocolateyness was very similar to Young's, just stronger. Color is a bit light. When I make it again I may add a touch of carafa malt just to darken it up a bit, but the flavor is really just what I wanted. Can't wait to get it carbed up.

 

[KingBrianI]

By the way, to get as much of the cocoa powder out of suspension as possible, I crash cooled the primary after fermentation was done to 44 F. Then after 4 days at 44, I racked to secondary on top of some gelatin and chilled to 32 F. It stayed there for 2 days until I kegged it tonight. It resulted in a very clear beer.

 

[bovineblitz]

I'm curious about cocoa powder vs other forms because cocoa powder is the solids removed from the oils and such, but IMO the oils carry a lot of the nuttier and fruitier flavors with it. Hopefully eventually I can do a cocoa powder vs mexican chocolate vs cacao shells vs nibs vs european style chocolate bar and note the differences and combinations.

In my experience so far, cocoa powder drops out and contributes way less than I wanted and shells contribute strongly to the dark chocolate/nutty/fruity aspects. I hope to do more within a few months.

 

[jfr1111]

That looks tasty as hell. I'm not a big fan of adding "stuff" to beer, but chocolate, hmmm...

I saw that you used 1968. Did you try harvesting the yeast, or was there too much solids and other assorted crap to do so ? I would use 1318 and I've noticed that on hoppier brews, my second skim wasn't as clean as it could be if I had been making something like a Scottish Export or a Mild.

 

[KingBrianI]

That looks tasty as hell. I'm not a big fan of adding "stuff" to beer, but chocolate, hmmm...

I saw that you used 1968. Did you try harvesting the yeast, or was there too much solids and other assorted crap to do so ? I would use 1318 and I've noticed that on hoppier brews, my second skim wasn't as clean as it could be if I had been making something like a Scottish Export or a Mild.

I did not harvest the yeast because I knew there was a ton of cocoa in there. And when I racked to secondary I had to muck through the trub to find the grommet I accidentally popped through when trying to put the airlock on and the yeast was brown with the stuff all the way through.

 

[jfr1111]

That's what i thought, thanks. I have an Oatmeal Stout on deck with chocolate malt (pale and dark) plus some amber and crystal. Your post made me consider mashing a bit of chocolate too for good measure ! I'll throw some "last gen" 1318 so I won't feel guilty about not harvesting it.

 

[KingBrianI]

Had a pint last night in celebration of St. Patrick's Day. It is sooo good. Smooth, creamy, chocolatey, roasty. A nitro pour through the stout tap results in about a 1 finger, off-white, creamy head. Retention is decent, but it does reduce somewhat as you work down the glass. I'm very happy with the recipe, but can't help but wonder, was the chocolate bars and cocoa really necessary? I definitely got flavor from them, at least at kegging time, because the beer was cocoa-chocolatey even before I added the extract. But after sitting at 50 F for a week or two, I can't tell if it's adding to the flavor, or if the extract is what is giving it the chocolate. I think I'll have to try the recipe again, with no bars or cocoa.

 

[Dymnas]

Any sanitation issues with chocolate?

Chocolate has an absurdly long shelf life and acts as a preservative. I'm not sure of the mechanism for it but I know that things that have chocolate, cream and butter in them all have very long lives.

 

[molsonG]

so is as chocolatly as youngs and southern tier?

honey malt might be a nice addition

 

[KingBrianI]

so is as chocolatly as youngs and southern tier?

honey malt might be a nice addition

Chocolateyer than Young's by about twice. I've never had Southern Tier so I can't compare.

 

[emjay]

I highly recommend secondarying (or tertiary) if you use real chocolate in your beer, especially if you throw it in the primary, or secondary, respectively. Why?

Well, attached is a picture of a beer I bottled on Monday. It transferred with the appearance of chocolate milk, though it's cleared up quite a bit and looks more like an actual stout now. I use a single clear bottle at the end of every batch to monitor clarity, so this is drawn from the bottom which I agitated slightly with the racking cane, meaning the actual bottles meant for consumption are likely not as bad but still, that's over an inch! There was an extremely thin layer of yeast above it, lighter in color, but it's very loose since it's been bottled less than a week, and disappeared when I moved it upstairs to take the pic.

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

Chocolateyer than Young's by about twice. I've never had Southern Tier so I can't compare.

Southern Tier's Choklat is about 10x more chocolate-y than Young's. I don't find Young's to be all that chocolate-y, ST's is kind of 'over-the-top'.

I do agree that it seems that much of the added chocolate and cocoa powder ends up in the bottom of our carboys.

 

[emjay]

Southern Tier's Choklat is about 10x more chocolate-y than Young's. I don't find Young's to be all that chocolate-y, ST's is kind of 'over-the-top'.

I do agree that it seems that much of the added chocolate and cocoa powder ends up in the bottom of our carboys.

I didn't find Young's to be all that chocolately at first, but I just had one yesterday and it's definitely there. I bet if they brewed it with a good amount of lactose, you'd probably be noticing it a lot more, but I think the lack of sweetness makes it difficult for many people to pick out.

Never had ST's though.

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

I didn't find Young's to be all that chocolately at first, but I just had one yesterday and it's definitely there. I bet if they brewed it with a good amount of lactose, you'd probably be noticing it a lot more, but I think the lack of sweetness makes it difficult for many people to pick out.

Never had ST's though.

Yeah, it's there but once you try a Choklat you'll see what I mean. If for no other reason than to see 'how chocolate-y a beer can possibly be'; try Choklat if you get a chance. It really is liquid choclate.

 

[KingBrianI]

Here's the beer.

 

[Ravenshead]

That looks yummy.

Too bad it's too late/early in the year for this one. I'll have to remember in September to try my own version out.

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

That's purty KingBrian. How do you get the foam so light-colored?

 

[KingBrianI]

That's purty KingBrian. How do you get the foam so light-colored?

I'm not sure actually. I know I've done stouts before with darker foam, but this and my guinness/murphy's style dry stouts have very light-colored heads. I'm sure the nitro dispense helps lighten the color (since it creates such fine bubbles) but other than that, it must just be the relatively low amount of dark grains. I think the SRM for this beer was around 30 or something.

 

[emjay]

Nice, mine should hopefully look the same... I even have the identical glass.

 

[ChshreCat]

That's purty KingBrian. How do you get the foam so light-colored?

Photoshop

 

[Dymnas]

isn't roasted barley supposed to yield a white head while the other roasted malts give off brown?

 

[KingBrianI]

isn't roasted barley supposed to yield a white head while the other roasted malts give off brown?

I'd heard that too, but the only dark malt in the beer in the photo I posted was chocolate malt.

 

[emjay]

It really depends more on the proportion of darker malts. If you're using a ton of base malt and a bit of roasted malts, I've found the head ends up much lighter than achieving the same SRM through the use of a greater amount of less dark malts like caramel, brown, pale chocolate, etc.

 

[molsonG]

how is this one doing with age? chocolate increasing? fading any?

 

[fastricky]

Great thread! Curious to know the brand of extract you used?

 

[KingBrianI]

how is this one doing with age? chocolate increasing? fading any?

Its holding pretty steady. So far so good.

Great thread! Curious to know the brand of extract you used?

I used the star kay white stuff I linked to on the first page.