Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer Mint Chocolate Stout

[Captain_Bigelow]

What I did was to take my chiller out when I added the cocoa powder. I stirred and let it mix into the wort, then I put the chiller back in.

Some did stick to the chiller, but it came right off with the hose pipe after I was done.

 

[jacko623]

Hey Tony,

Unfortunately the extract is volatile and won't survive any point of the boil. My advice is to drop it into the mix immediately before you bottle your beer. I added mine to the secondary and after a week or two, the scent is completely gone.

The cocoa powder has to be desolved, so that you will need to add to the boil. But you're right - the cocoa powder goes everywhere. If I were to make this again, I'd cut the heat at the instant you want to add the powder. Let the boil pull back, then add the cocoa powder in slowly while stirring. After a seconds, turn the heat back up and let the boil continue. When I dumped mine in, the boil just blew it off onto the side of the keg.

 

[Tska]

On a side note, someone mentioned a kegged/nitro carbed setup - this would obviously be ideal, but I'm not set up that way yet...how does it vary if I were to bottle this instead (CO2 vs. nitrogen blend)? Does it affect the head/pour? Taste?

 

[Golddiggie]

Any thoughts on using 4oz of course ground cacao nibs instead of the chocolate powder? Thinking that this could be my next brew, and first all-grain venture. Might scale it down to a smaller batch size (3 gallons) to better fit in my current pots, unless I can get a brew-buddy to bring over larger pots to use...

 

[jacko623]

Golddiggie, the cacao nibs have fat/oils that adversely affect the wort. Cocoa powder is the way to go, but it's bitter and doesn't fully disolve in the boil, makes a mess, etc.

 

[Golddiggie]

jacko, I'm planning on more research before I do the recipe, to make sure it will come out on target. Not sure if I'll add any nibs in primary, but I could see racking onto some in secondary (or tertiary) for some flavor extraction. I'm not adding any non-grain flavor elements to either the boil, or even primary fermentation (other than honey, and even there, only once the wort is below 110F). I could just brew up with the course ground nibs (in my coffee pot/maker) and pour that into secondary. That should leave the nasty parts behind... Thinking of doing the same thing for the coffee flavor addition.

 

[Tska]

Golddiggie, the cacao nibs have fat/oils that adversely affect the wort. Cocoa powder is the way to go, but it's bitter and doesn't fully disolve in the boil, makes a mess, etc.

Went on the Sam Adams brewery tour last week - they said they used cacao nibs specifically in many of their beers. Didn't think to ask specifics, but apparently it's possible...I don't know much about it, though.

 

[azscoob]

Also considering making it a milk stout if I do that change. Any idea how much lactose should be added to it?

I make this as a milk stout all the time, I add 1 lb of lactose in the last 5 minutes of the boil, I also do a couple other small changes to the recipe that I find I really enjoy in the finished product. First I halve the chocolate malt addition to .25lb, and add in .25lb of debittered black, gives it a nice depth of flavor, I also use fresh chopped mint, 2/3 oz in the last 5 minutes of the boil, then another 2/3 oz chopped and soaked in vodka for a souple weeks, I skip secondary fermenting and go right to kegging, I strain the mint through a coffee filter and into the keg, then rack the beer on top of it.

 

[TomorrowsVerse]

I make this as a milk stout all the time, I add 1 lb of lactose in the last 5 minutes of the boil, I also do a couple other small changes to the recipe that I find I really enjoy in the finished product. First I halve the chocolate malt addition to .25lb, and add in .25lb of debittered black, gives it a nice depth of flavor, I also use fresh chopped mint, 2/3 oz in the last 5 minutes of the boil, then another 2/3 oz chopped and soaked in vodka for a souple weeks, I skip secondary fermenting and go right to kegging, I strain the mint through a coffee filter and into the keg, then rack the beer on top of it.

Awesome! Thank you very much for the advice on the lactose. Can't wait to try it. I'm gonna play around with this one a bit and see what I can do to make it as close to an alcoholic chocolate milk as I can.

 

[Captain_Bigelow]

On a side note, someone mentioned a kegged/nitro carbed setup - this would obviously be ideal, but I'm not set up that way yet...how does it vary if I were to bottle this instead (CO2 vs. nitrogen blend)? Does it affect the head/pour? Taste?

CO2 will be just fine. But with the nitro it makes it creamier and gives you that more authentic touch. I personally love my nitro set up. I am really glad I made one of my taps a stout faucet with the nitro. It not only makes the stouts excellent and is also a great conversation piece when people come around to try my beer.

 

[InYerMouth]

This one is on the "to do" list....sounds awesome!! I to will be hooking up a nitro system this summer...PLan to have a rotating stout tap....hopefully this one will fair well on it...

 

[wickedtigerbrewery]

So I brewed this a week ago on Tuesday and pitched at 72 degrees. In the week that its been in the primary I have nothing going on. No foam no bubbling nothing. Anyone have any thoughts as to why nothing is happening or do stouts take longer to start to ferment. This is my second all grain attempt, and my first stout.

 

[jacko623]

What temperature have you stored your primary at? Were you reusing yeast or perhaps didn't use a starter?

 

[wickedtigerbrewery]

Primary is at 72 and holding new yeast but no starter.

 

[azscoob]

What was your starting gravity? have you checked the current gravity to see if it is fermenting?

When I brew this I rarely get much krausen during fermentation. get a gravity reading and let us know how it is going.

 

[jacko623]

My krausen was thick as hell lol.

 

[SkylerChaBro]

A few brew-virgin buddies and I just finished brewing a pumpkin spice ale a few days ago. Now they want to make another for winter, and this sounds pretty damn good.

Two questions:

- How do I figure out the potential of cocoa powder for input into beersmith?

- If I go the milk stout route, how can i decrease the ABV a bit? Would cutting the base grains down 1-2lb make any noticeable difference in the end? An estimated abv of 5-5.5 would be ideal.

Also, to anyone who is worried about doing AG: Pick up a cheap turkey fryer from amazon and look up how to do the BIAB method stickied to the AG board. There are some great tutorials here and it's quite easy.

 

[jphebbie2]

Has anyone tried this with hershey's SYRUP? Ive heard that syrups are the best/cleanest ways to impart chocolate because they readily dissolve and add a bit of fermentables so they dont leave much behind besides delicious chocolate flavor.

Thanks
JP-

 

[scratchex]

I don't think you want to use chocolate syrup, it's not the same thing as baking cocoa. It has high fructose corn syrup, sugar, preservatives, & added water. Hershey's chocolate syrup only has 5% cocoa. All of those things will more than likely change the end result of this stout. You're better off going w/ Hershey's unsweetened baking cocoa.

I'm going to brew this for the first time tomorrow. We're going to make an extract for the mint. Was originally going to infuse in some vodka but we're going to infuse in Vizcaya vanilla rum instead. Going to start the extract today so that it will be ready to pitch once we rack to the secondary.

Also going to use London Ale yeast. I initially forgot to put the yeast from this recipe in beer smith so I couldn't remember what was used. After talking to some folks at Austin Homebrew who have made this several times they suggested the London Ale Yeast.

Can't wait to try this out! Might have my nitrogen setup once this is ready to pour. If not we have Perlick faucet that should give it that nice creamy head.

 

[caughtablaze]

brewing today... making this a yearly beer for me, adding some lactose to see how it does this time. I'm so excited, I want to drink it now!

 

[jyda]

Brewed this last weekend. Took a sample to check the gravity and it had almost no chocolate taste. I used 6 oz of the chocolate powder and it seems it wasn't enough. Is there anything I can do at this point?

Edit: I just wanted to echo the sentiment that this is a good stout recipe so I'm not worried about the outcome. Worst case it's a great stout. Just really liked the idea of the chocolate mint.

 

[rycov]

hows the mint?

i would think you can still add chocolate nibs or something like that.

 

[jyda]

hows the mint? .

I haven't added the mint yet, was going to wait until I kegged to toss that in.

 

[tgmartin000]

I made this last weekend, with a few changes ....added a pound of flaked oatmeal and kicked up the og to about 1.065.

My grocery store had actual mint cocoa powder, so I used 4 oz with 3 oz nesquick powder. I boiled it in about 2 qt of extra runnings for 10 min before adding it to the main boil with 5 min to go. Plan on racking to an oz of chocolate mint in the secondary. My theory is that the mint cocoa powder will give it a longer lasting mint flavor.

 

[slinky0390]

So I really want to try this recipe, but with school weighing me down, I'm super hesitant to break out my mash tun. Could I brew this as a partial mash (extract/steeped grains) as such?

4.8lb Light DME

Steeped Grains
1lb Flaked Barley
1lb Roasted Barley
12oz Cara-Pils
8oz Crystal
8oz Chocolate

I'm worried I'll have a problem with the conversion of the barley, I think I read somewhere that flaked stuff doesn't steep well but I could be wrong.

Also, to have a more "stand out" mint flavor, could you soak chopped mint leaves in vodka for lets say 4 weeks, strain it into a bottling bucket, and rack from primary over the the extract and then bottle, skipping secondary completely?

Edit: Completely forgot, but there won't be ANY conversion in the steep, guess I've been too preoccupied with architecture to remember that. Anyway, I guess my question is, if there is no conversion on those grains that are steeped, aside from a lower OG, will it have any negative effect on the brew?

 

[onthedot]

I plan to brew this in a few days but the brew shop was out of Golding East Kent hops! They said they wouldn't have any variety of goldings for a while.

They recommended williamette or perle hops... can anybody advice which one and how much to use in replace of 1oz goldings east kent?

 

[chefchris]

I'd go with Williamette.

 

[SauceBoss]

question, does anyone using BeerSmith know how to add the cocoa powder to the recipe? I cant locate how to do it anywhere.

 

[tgmartin000]

Just cracked my first one! I used mint chocolate cocoa powder along with fresh chocolate mint
it's still a bit green, but very tasty regardless.

Relatively pronounced mint up front. I think I might prefer it more at the finish. How would that be controlled?

I did .1 oz mint in the boil, 4 oz mint cocoa last 14,and. 5 oz fresh mint soaked in 2oz peppermint schnapps, which randomly was the only liquor in the house.

 

[onthedot]

I just sampled this beer as I was moving it to the keg... it's a very good stout on it's own and I'm interested to see how the mint character fits in with the rest of the flavors.

I have never brewed a Chocolate Stout before and was kinda disappointed that I couldn't taste any chocolate in my sample! The only chocolate stout I've ever drank is Young's Double chocolate stout which is quite chocolatey.

I added 8oz Herseys Cocoa Powder in the last 5 of the boil (first heated it up on the stove with a half gallon of water to ensure it was mixed well). Mine tasted very... roasty but not much chocolate flavor... can anyone chime in if this is normal or not?