New Beglium LOF Cocoa Mole

[Mattyc88]

Does anybody with really ridiculous taste identification know what a clone recipe for this beer would be? If you haven't had it, go get it.

 

[basplaer]

I like this beer a lot! It's also delish on tap. I'm interested in trying something similar at some point, so I'm gonna watch this thread for clues.

 

[NateLTB]

I love this beer! I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this thread because I would love to brew something similiar to this.

 

[PintoBean]

It's a damn good beer, wish I would have thought of cloning it when I was drinking it, but if I can find another bottle, I'm going to attempt it. Seems to be a very complex brew.

 

[AmandaK]

Straight from NB website:

Just the facts Ma'am...
Hops - Target
Malts - Pale, C-80, Chocolate, Dark Chocolate
OG - 22
Fruits/Spice - Cocoa, Chili, Cinnamon

That's a start at least!

And I agree, this is an awesome beer.

 

[usfmikeb]

I wasn't overly impressed with it...

 

[NateLTB]

It reminded me of a chocolate habanero stout that I had a few years ago with just a little something extra added in. Must be the cinnamon.

 

[jlgroves1]

Though I've had almost all the NB beers this is one of the ones that has eluded me. Need to get a hold of some apparently. By the way AmandaK great brewery name, GO CARDS!!!!!!

 

[Dukeone]

OK guys, I'm a noob with less than half-a-dozen brews under my belt, one of you is going to have to dial this one in for me. I'm thirty minutes from the brewery and it's already hard to find in the store.

 

[AmandaK]

OK guys, I'm a noob with less than half-a-dozen brews under my belt, one of you is going to have to dial this one in for me. I'm thirty minutes from the brewery and it's already hard to find in the store.

Okay... so you want the beer, but you don't want to spend the time to figure it out?? I'll give you some hints on recipe, but I'm not going to spend several months trying to get it right.

Like I said before:

Hops - Target
Malts - Pale, C-80, Chocolate, Dark Chocolate
OG - 22 Plato
Fruits/Spice - Cocoa, Chili, Cinnamon

OG should be 1.092
If you're extract, you can figure out how much DME/LME you need to get to that gravity. If you're all grain, that's about 18 lbs of pale malt (could be 2-row, could be Maris Otter or what have you).
Based on my fuzzy memory, I would probably start with a half pound each of C80, Pale Chocolate and Chocolate.
For five gallons, start with 1 oz of Target at 60 minutes.
For the spices, well, start with 1/4 ounce of each, some for flavor (20 minutes) and some at flame out.

Or hell, you live close to the brewery, you could just go there and talk to the brewers. Chances are that they are pretty nice and will help you out since it is such a limited release beer. Imitation is flattery, eh? You could also just go there, have it on tap and take notes. Let your palate take you to the recipe.

If you want to keep cloning beers, Designing Great Beers would be a great investment.

Hope that helps a bit!

 

[BierFour]

I made something very similar to the cocoa mole about 3 months ago. I have plans to remake and tweak a little. I just tried the cocoa mole last night and it was exactly want I wanted my beer to be...I think the lactose is the biggest difference to the NB Cocoa Mole...
...here is the recipe...feel free to modify
ADDITIONAL NOTES FOLLOW

Supposed to be:
OG: 1.071
FG: 1.018
what I measured:
OG: 1.09
FG: 1.032

Grains (30 min at 150)
Munich 2 lbs
Chocolate 0.44 lbs
Aromatic 0.75 lbs
Carafe 0.44 lbs

Liquid malt 7.5 lbs (just listed as golden/pale/light)
Lactose 0.75 lbs

at 15 min remaining
6 oz. cocoa (unsweetened)
1 tsp irish moss
1/8 tsp yeast nutrients

at 5 minutes
3/4 tsp chipotle
1 guajillo chopped
1/2 tsp anise
2 tsp cinnamon

after cooled to 65
1 oz madagascar vanilla

.95 Tettnang hops at 60 & 30
.25 liberty at 5

Yeast German Ale / Kolsch #29

after 2 weeks of fermentation added:
1 vanilla bean soaked in 2 ounces Makers Mark (removed the pod before dumping the soak into the bottle bucket)
priming sugar (sorry my notes are light...)

THIS WAS ONLY MY THIRD BEER AND MY FIRST CUSTOM MIX. THE RECIPE IS BASED ON ROCKY RIVER BREWING "CHOCOLATE JITTERS" MINUS THE COFFEE. I ONLY PULLED 3 GALLONS OF PRODUCT AS THE BOTTOM OF THE BUCKET HAD A TON OF SETTLEMENT. THE HEAD IS SPICIER THAN THE BEER AND THE BEER ITSELF IS SLIGHTLY LESS SPICY THAN THE COCOA MOLE. I THINK I COULD HAVE FERMENTED THIS LONGER, AND GOTTEN A HIGHER ABV BUT (AS I SAID) THIS WAS ONLY MY THIRD BREW AND I LEARNED SOME BY DOING IT WRONG.

 

[menkros]

Brewing Steps: Cocoa Mole Clone
Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer
Type: Extract Date: 8/29/2012
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal Brewer: Mike Young
Boil Size: 5.70 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: My Equipment
Final Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0
Taste Notes: brewers note: mike young: The beer was pretty tasty. Next time I brew it, I'll go lighter on the chipotle peppers and heavier on the ancho. I transferred the chilies over to primary and the spice was a little strong at first. Overall, it turned out very well.
Prepare for Brewing


Clean and Prepare Brewing Equipment
Total Water Needed: 7.86 gal

Mash or Steep Grains


Grains to Steep
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
1 lbs 8.9 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 1 10.2 %
7.1 oz Chocolate Malt (400.0 SRM) Grain 3 2.9 %
7.1 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 2 2.9 %
3.6 oz Carafa II (412.0 SRM) Grain 4 1.5 %

Remove grains, and prepare to boil wort
Boil Wort

Add water to achieve boil volume of 5.70 gal
Estimated pre-boil gravity is 1.081 SG

Boil Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
12 lbs 8.6 oz Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract 5 82.5 %
1.00 oz Nugget [13.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 6 37.2 IBUs
4.00 oz Cocoa Powder (Boil 15.0 mins) Flavor 7 -
3.00 Items Chipotle Pepper (Dried) (Boil 1.0 mins) Spice 8 -
1.00 Items Ancho Chile (dry) (Boil 1.0 mins) Spice 9 -
0.50 tsp Cinnamon (Boil 0.0 mins) Spice 10 -

Estimated Post Boil Vol: 5.20 gal and Est Post Boil Gravity: 1.093 SG
Cool and Prepare Fermentation

Cool wort to fermentation temperature
Transfer wort to fermenter
Add water to achieve final volume of 5.00 gal

Fermentation Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
1.0 pkg Safale American Ale (DCL Yeast #US-05) [50.00 ml] Yeast 11 -
Measure Actual Original Gravity _______ (Target: 1.093 SG)
Measure Actual Batch Volume _______ (Target: 5.00 gal)
Fermentation
8/29/2012 - Primary Fermentation (4.00 days at 67.0 F ending at 67.0 F)
9/2/2012 - Secondary Fermentation (10.00 days at 67.0 F ending at 67.0 F)

Dry Hop and Prepare for Bottling/Kegging
Measure Final Gravity: _________ (Estimate: 1.019 SG)
Date Bottled/Kegged: 9/12/2012 - Carbonation: Keg with 10.20 PSI
Age beer for 30.00 days at 65.0 F
10/12/2012 - Drink and enjoy!
Notes
Chilies Chopped (Ancho .38oz, Chipotles .36 oz)

From New Belgium:
22 Plato
Pale, C80, Chocolate, Dark Chocolate
Cocoa, Cinnamon, Peppers (ancho, guajillo, chipotle)
4 dried chipotle peppers - flameout (remove seeds, Source: http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=73868 and http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=52235 )

Cinnamon - Added tincture of 1TB cinnamon & 100ml vodka since the spice wasn't coming out as much as I would like.
Created with BeerSmith

View attachment cocoa mole clone.bsmx

 

[bl00]

Has anyone had any luck with an extract version of this?

 

[menkros]

Has anyone had any luck with an extract version of this?

I posted the beersmith extract recipe, just waiting on you to be a brave soul.

 

[NateLTB]

I posted the beersmith extract recipe, just waiting on you to be a brave soul.

But you haven't brewed it yourself yet?

 

[bl00]

I'll be brave in the summer maybe (to have it ready for fall), I'm not sue justify having that much dark, hot cocoa beer around when its warm out and something more refreshing is in order.

 

[Mattyc88]

I posted the beersmith extract recipe, just waiting on you to be a brave soul.

I am going to brew it in the next couple weeks.

 

[NateLTB]

I am going to brew it in the next couple weeks.

Thank you for being the brave soul! Please keep us posted on how it turns out. Been dying to find a good recipe on this one.

 

[Mattyc88]

Thank you for being the brave soul! Please keep us posted on how it turns out. Been dying to find a good recipe on this one.

I was the one who originally started this thread, so it would be lame if I wasn't the one to try it.

I may try to change it to all-grain though. I will post more information as/after I do it. I am very busy this week, but hope to make time to do it this weekend. If not, definitely the week after.

Cheers

 

[jbags5]

I used menkros/Mike's recipe as a baseline for a cocoa mole beer I made a few weeks back. I transferred it to secondary today, and it's pretty much exactly what I was looking for and maybe the best tasting uncarbonated 10 day old beer I've ever made.

I went with AG, lightened up on the grain a bit (around 1.060) and changed a few things here and there. Main differences being: I lightened up the color just a bit; went with 2 anchos, 4 chipotles (anchos are bigger), dried deseeded and chopped up; columbus instead of target; added Lactose to the boil; a bit more cinnamon; didn't transfer chilis over to primary; and racked into a secondary with 4oz cocoa nibs + Vanilla Bean chopped up and soaked in vodka for a few days. Will post the results (and the full recipe if needed) once I bottle/taste in a few weeks.

Thanks for the inspiration, menkros!!

 

[NateLTB]

That sounds absolutely amazing Jbags!

 

[menkros]

I used menkros/Mike's recipe as a baseline for a cocoa mole beer I made a few weeks back. I transferred it to secondary today, and it's pretty much exactly what I was looking for and maybe the best tasting uncarbonated 10 day old beer I've ever made.

I went with AG, lightened up on the grain a bit (around 1.060) and changed a few things here and there. Main differences being: I lightened up the color just a bit; went with 2 anchos, 4 chipotles (anchos are bigger), dried deseeded and chopped up; columbus instead of target; added Lactose to the boil; a bit more cinnamon; didn't transfer chilis over to primary; and racked into a secondary with 4oz cocoa nibs + Vanilla Bean chopped up and soaked in vodka for a few days. Will post the results (and the full recipe if needed) once I bottle/taste in a few weeks.

Thanks for the inspiration, menkros!!

Sounds like your version would age well.

 

[Firedevil]

Any update? I haven't been able to find this beer this year, so I've been thinking on venturing out to create my own. This seems like a great starting point!

 

[DerekV]

Looks like a great beer to brew up for the Fall.

 

[Im_Lars]

Looking for any up-dates.

 

[jbags5]

I used menkros/Mike's recipe as a baseline for a cocoa mole beer I made a few weeks back. I transferred it to secondary today, and it's pretty much exactly what I was looking for and maybe the best tasting uncarbonated 10 day old beer I've ever made.

I went with AG, lightened up on the grain a bit (around 1.060) and changed a few things here and there. Main differences being: I lightened up the color just a bit; went with 2 anchos, 4 chipotles (anchos are bigger), dried deseeded and chopped up; columbus instead of target; added Lactose to the boil; a bit more cinnamon; didn't transfer chilis over to primary; and racked into a secondary with 4oz cocoa nibs + Vanilla Bean chopped up and soaked in vodka for a f
ew days. Will post the results (and the full recipe if needed) once I bottle/taste in a few weeks.

Thanks for the inspiration, menkros!!

Just an update:

I bottled mine in early March and still have a few bottles I'm trying to save. But it's hard, because I love this beer, am damn proud of it, and want to show it off to my fellow beer enthusiasts and homebrewers

Again, I used menkros' as a baseline, and made some alterations as described above. Next time, I'll probably make a few changes, namely,
(1) I want a bit more chili flavor/bite, as it's starting to fade quickly, which I know can happen. I erred on the side of caution, but next time, I'll probably double the anchos, and maybe even throw a few seeds in there at flameout for that extra bite that will survive a bit longer. I could also transfer the chilis to primary, but fear that may be a bit too much.
Also (2) I'll probably up the cinnamon at the end a bit, and add another vanilla bean or so to secondary. Again, some of my favorite flavors are starting to fade a bit after almost 4 months. Not a surprise, but this beer was a beast after about 2 months - I want that to last a bit longer next time. But right now, it's actually turning into a quite enjoyable session beer!

If anyone wants the recipe, I'll post it here:

Recipe: Moly! Moli! Mole!
Brewer: Martin
Asst Brewer:
Style: Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Didn't transfer chili peppers to primary - 2 ancho, 4 chipotle
Add 4 oz. cocoa nibs + vanilla bean to vodka for a few days then into secondary for about a week

OG ended up at 1.057, and FG at 1.020, for about a 5% beer

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 7.12 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.72 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.25 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.058 SG
Estimated Color: 30.1 SRM
Estimated IBU: 38.0 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 73.8 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
8 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 72.3 %
1 lbs 8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 2 12.8 %
8.0 oz Chocolate Malt (400.0 SRM) Grain 3 4.3 %
4.0 oz Carafa II (412.0 SRM) Grain 4 2.1 %
0.75 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Boil 60. Hop 6 38.0 IBUs
1.00 tsp Cinnamon (Boil 0.0 mins) Spice 10 -
2.00 Items Ancho Chile (dry) (Boil 1.0 mins) Spice 8 -
2.00 Items Chipotle Pepper (Dried) (Boil 1.0 mins) Spice 9 -
4.00 oz Cocoa Powder (Boil 5.0 mins) Flavor 7 -
1.0 pkg Safale American Ale (DCL Yeast #US-05) [ Yeast 11 -
1 lbs Milk Sugar (Lactose) (0.0 SRM) Sugar 5 8.5 %
4.00 oz Cocoa Nibs (Secondary 0.0 mins) Flavor 12 -


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 11 lbs 12.0 oz
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In 155.0 F 60 min

 

[NateLTB]

I picked up the ingredients for JBags recipe this weekend. Looking forward to brewing it sometime this week. Thanks everybody for all the help constructing this recipe. I'll keep you all posted on how my attempt turns out.

 

[sepoohsam]

Any new info on this recipe, want to do this and wanted to see if there is anything more I need to know before brewing it.

 

[MC_McMic]

I brewed this recipe this past weekend. It's the first beer I've made in about 2.5 years. I had a kid and some of my hobbies just fell off a cliff, unfortunately.

I did make the adjustments jbags suggested... extra cinnamon and ancho chiles (and I'm going to use an extra vanilla bean in the secondary). I'll let y'all know how it turns out, but I do have a question:

After I chilled the wort, my initial readings seemed to vary quite a bit on the refractometer. I initially got a *very* low reading of 1.046, and I couldn't believe I missed the OG by that much. About 10 min after that I took a second reading and got 1.050. I was curious as to whether this was a common occurrence. Does this have something to do with all the additions to the wort falling out of suspension or something along those lines?

Assuming my second reading of 1.050 was correct, I'm attributing the fact that I still missed the target OG of 1.055 by so much to the fact that I'm just really out of practice, combined with some potentially imprecise water measurements. My boil-off calculation was a bit off as well (different burner).