So I may have overdone it.

[shortyjacobs]

I wanted to make a Chocolate Coffee Stout. I brewed it yesterday with some coffee malt, chocolate malt, black patent, and 8 oz of hersheys cocoa in the last 15 minutes of the boil.

Apparently the cocoa has a lot of fat in it , it was fermenting like crazy this morning, but ZERO krausen. It's just got an activity ring, like a starter. I'm guessing this beer isn't gonna have a great head.

Oh well, the hydro sample tasted awesome.

 

[david_42]

Right, Hersheys has 11-15% cocoa butter, so you've got an ounce or so in your batch.

 

[shortyjacobs]

So, for future reference, is there a better option?

Edit: Got home after work, checked on it. Yup, about 6 or 7 bubbles per second from the blowoff tube, sucker is CHURNING, but no krausen what-so-ever. It's so weird looking.

 

[toman8r]

I've had commercial beers brewed with cocoa nibs and the head retention has been fine. Here's a BYO article on using chocolate in beer.

 

[garbs]

I brewed a chocolate stout a few months ago using cocoa powder. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the low fat versions that many people on here were talking about so I just used the regular stuff from the grocery store.

The beer didn't really have a krausen and looked super weird in the primary (think large fat bubbles on the surface), but I was very careful when racking and don't think I sucked up much.

To my surprise, the head on this beer was perfect. It was nice and creamy and pretty much lasted right to the end of the glass.

You'll be fine

 

[ChshreCat]

This looks like a job for... Wondercocoa!!!

This is the stuff I use in my Double Chocolate Oatmeal Snout and it's great stuff. All the cocoa solids, no fat. I get it at the local hippy store (food co-op).

 

[Runyanka]

I also made a double chocolate stout with hersheys in it. I also then added 2 oz of chocolate extract when bottling. It turned out fantastic, and had great head. Probably one of my favorite beers to date.

 

[shortyjacobs]

I brewed a chocolate stout a few months ago using cocoa powder. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the low fat versions that many people on here were talking about so I just used the regular stuff from the grocery store.

The beer didn't really have a krausen and looked super weird in the primary (think large fat bubbles on the surface), but I was very careful when racking and don't think I sucked up much.

To my surprise, the head on this beer was perfect. It was nice and creamy and pretty much lasted right to the end of the glass.

You'll be fine

Yup, this is my hope too. I ended up with 6+ gallons in the fermenter, (my efficiency was crazy on this one, 90%+, somehow, so I didn't boil off all that much). This should give me plenty of extra beer so I can rack from the middle, and hopefully not get the skin of fat on top or the crap at the bottom.

Thanks Cheshire for the cocoa suggestion, I'll look for that next time.

 

[wscott823]

Personally I've had no issues with head retention using hershey's cocoa in my chocolate stouts. I've usually used 4 oz. per 5 gals. I wonder if there is some other factor in play here.

 

[shortyjacobs]

Personally I've had no issues with head retention using hershey's cocoa in my chocolate stouts. I've usually used 4 oz. per 5 gals. I wonder if there is some other factor in play here.

Yeah, I dunno. Perusing recipes I see everything from 2 oz to 1 lb per batch....I figured 8 oz sounded decent enough.

It's definitely still fermenting madly, tons of bubbling, but zero krausen...very strange looking, but from the taste of the hydro sample before I pitched yeast, it should be very tasty, head or no head.