Our Chocolate Mead Experiment

[corexcore]

I have two pressing questions about this recipe;

1. For the Nesquick (I can't remember if it was mentioned, I read through the post again but might have missed it) do you use powder or the chocolate syrup?

2. Has anyone ever tried adding strawberries to this, as was mentioned a couple pages before? If so, how did it come out? Valentine's Day coming up put me in the mood for something seductive, maybe get a brew going and have it ready, aged, and tasty by V-Day 2011 for me and the lady. Chocolate and strawberries sounds like a very good flavor, I wonder how it'd be in a mead. Sounds like something good for the romance to me, at least.

 

[dinich]

1. just regular powder, As a tip it will blend better in warmer water

2. We haven't added anything yet, but have discussed many options.
One was strawberrys, we also considered some kind of nut flavoring, or maybe orange.

If you do the strawberry keep us updated.

D

 

[corexcore]

Yeah, I don't really care for beer, but there's a rather excellent sounding stout recipe for a Chocolate Orange flavor that makes me think I might brew up a batch sometime, here on HBT. Thanks for the tip with the regular powder and all. I fully intend to add some strawberries to a one gallon batch and will post with the results in a year or so when I have 'em.

 

[jcobbs]

Yeah, I don't really care for beer, but there's a rather excellent sounding stout recipe for a Chocolate Orange flavor that makes me think I might brew up a batch sometime, here on HBT.

I'm thinking perhaps a Joe's Ancient Orange Mead with the 6oz Nesquick from this thread = Chocolate Orange Mead???

 

[corexcore]

Hmm. A brilliant sounding plan!

 

[dinich]

I'd like to know the results of that. Sounds good.

D

 

[corexcore]

If I was gonna do that, I'd probably go a MAOM rather than JAOM. Joe's is a great recipe, but its unpredictable. I've made two gallons of it and tried 4 bottles of them (both batches made within a week of each other, bottled after 7.5ish weeks, they were pretty golldurn clear) and each of the 4 bottles has tasted wildly different from the others, varying degress of dryness and sweetness, one had bottle carbed. I'd rather have something with a known quantity and strength of yeast, so I could be a little bit more sure of what I was going to get.

 

[Androshen]

I have an important question .... we have looked and looked for Nesquik cocoa milk mix but can only find Nesqik "chocolate flavored drink mix". Is this considered the same thing? Or am I just not looking in the right places?

 

[dinich]

Yes, that's the right stuff.

As an update:


We racked our chocolate mead over to a tr-imary last night.
It was off the hook, Very nice chocolate / liquorish smell and extremely good chocolate flavor

Will be bottling in 4 to 6 months and have anothwer update then

D

 

[oldmate]

Sorry for resurrecting such an old thread, but how did it turn out in the long run?

I'm thinking of doing a 5gal batch of #35 and mixing half with a banana mead to give a chocolate and banana mead? Good/bad idea?

 

[dinich]

We've not tasted our original batch since New Years. We wanted to give it some time in bottle age and mellow out. Will probably be New years before we tap another bottle.

 

[oldmate]

Based on your new years taster, what do you reckon a banana/chocolate (#35) would come out like?

 

[dinich]

I would think it would taste good.

 

[MedsenFey]

035 – 6oz by weight Nesquick coco milk mix

35 Clear golden color, smell chocolate sweet, taste chocolatey and sweet, drinkable

Number 35 is still the clear winner.

Doug

Doug this is a very interesting experiment you've run. I'm curious about the final gravity of each of the batches as I didn't see them posted (perhaps I missed them). I'm curious to know if the Nesquik batch has the highest gravity? I'm wondering if that is why it tastes best?

Was the Hershey's syrup the sweetened or unsweetened?

Nesquik powder is mostly sugar (13 g of sugar in a 16 g serving size) so most of the 6 ounces was sugar. That works out in a gallon to be about 36 grams per liter more sugar than is in the cocoa powder batches, which would be enough to raise the gravity about 0.014. Did you get a difference in the final gravity numbers?

Thanks for conducting a cool test.

Medsen

 

[MikeRoBrew1]

What happened to all the pictures??? Thats kinda disappointing.

 

[BoxMan]

And again, this thread is resurrected.

I'm probably going to try a 1 gallon batch of #35 soon. Any word on the chocolate and fruit combinations?

 

[vipe228]

I like to see such an old thread brought up again. The OP made it 3 years ago now! I want to know if all the batches mellowed out to taste decent, or if they were tossed out, or? How was the newer bigger batch? Merry belated christmas and happy brewing.

 

[calicojack]

i've got a batch of the nestle aging as we speak. it's on about month 7 right now. i'm going all the way to 12 months before i try it again. i tried it at 4 months, it was alright. we'll see what a year does to it.

 

[Banefoul]

so how did everything turn out?

 

[braindead0]

More resurrecting. This thread is the best reference material I've found for chocolate mead..

Kicked off a 6 gallon batch of what amounts to #35 8/1/16. 15# clover honey, 35.5oz Nesquick (family size container). NO acid, NO nutrients. Red Star Premier Blanc dry yeast

8/1/15 - Original SG 1.095
8/12/16 - final SG 1.000, Racked off to carboy

It's dry.. very subtle chocolate flavor. Intend to leave in carboy for 1 year and decide if I'm going to backsweeten or add any acid then.

 

[clintonsimmons]

Heyyyyy. I'm also resurrecting!!!!
I have a chocolate mead (Lord Rhys) in Primary now since 18 Sep. It is down to 1.010, and now its waiting time. I see everyone likes three months in primary, but I wanted some more feedback. Anyone out there want to talk total time in primary? Any hints?

thanks, yall!

 

[braindead0]

I started min 8/1 1.095, primary done 8/9 1.010. Racked to a 6gal carboy to get off the gross lees and it's been sitting since. I'll probably taste again early next year.

Much of the chocolate flavor seems to be over shadowed by the alcohol... not worrying about it until it's been in the bottle for 6 months..

 

[clintonsimmons]

thanks