Already done a ton of research on this over the past couple years and I’ve managed to cause a train wreck in my head with all the possibilities. Of course, I want that one perfect solution – you know; the one that doesn’t exist – to maximize the chocolate flavors and aromas in my stout with the least amount of work/mess/cost/contamination/etc. This all started back in Georgia some years ago when I tasted a Fort Collins double chocolate stout at a brew fest (Secret Stash Bash) – very well balanced stout, not too big, but ample chocolate in the nose and on the palette. THAT is what I’m looking for.
I think I have managed to narrow it down to water- or alcohol-based extracts and roasted cocoa nibs in various stages of the brew. Never brewed a chocolate anything so there is no experience here. Plenty of porters and stouts to my credit, just nothing with chocolate other than chocolate malts. So far, these are the “basics” I have come up with for a 5-gallon batch size:
Chocolate Malt can be a blend of pale and regular chocolate malt for 10% of the grist.
Roasted cocoa nibs (medium or dark roast, or a blend of the two) can be used at a rate of up to 8 oz in a hop spider for the last 5 minutes of the boil.
Roasted cocoa nibs (medium or dark roast, or a blend of the two) can be used at a rate of up to 8 oz in the fermenter post-fermentation (or in secondary) for up to two weeks (would recommend a tincture here).
Up to 2 oz “good quality” chocolate extract in the keg prior to racking.
Seems to me the tincture and the extract I mention above could be one in the same. I could take 6 oz of roasted nibs and drop them in a Mason jar along with a vanilla bean slit up the middle and chopped into small pieces, cover with vodka or a nice dark rum, seal it up and let it sit for a week giving it a shake periodically. Run this through a coffee filter into another smaller jar, seal it up and pop it in the freezer overnight. Take out the next day and scrape off the fat layer on top and bada-bing! Extract! No?
Really just wondering what folks are doing these days to get that “wow” in their chocolate stouts, what with all the new products on the market now – Cholaca, “Brewer’s Blend” roasted nibs, etc. I’m looking to do a medium gravity (6% or so), don’t want too bitter or too sweet (.5 BU/GU or so), not like biting into a bar of 70% Scharffenberger, but definitely there in the nose and on the tongue.
I think I have managed to narrow it down to water- or alcohol-based extracts and roasted cocoa nibs in various stages of the brew. Never brewed a chocolate anything so there is no experience here. Plenty of porters and stouts to my credit, just nothing with chocolate other than chocolate malts. So far, these are the “basics” I have come up with for a 5-gallon batch size:
Chocolate Malt can be a blend of pale and regular chocolate malt for 10% of the grist.
Roasted cocoa nibs (medium or dark roast, or a blend of the two) can be used at a rate of up to 8 oz in a hop spider for the last 5 minutes of the boil.
Roasted cocoa nibs (medium or dark roast, or a blend of the two) can be used at a rate of up to 8 oz in the fermenter post-fermentation (or in secondary) for up to two weeks (would recommend a tincture here).
Up to 2 oz “good quality” chocolate extract in the keg prior to racking.
Seems to me the tincture and the extract I mention above could be one in the same. I could take 6 oz of roasted nibs and drop them in a Mason jar along with a vanilla bean slit up the middle and chopped into small pieces, cover with vodka or a nice dark rum, seal it up and let it sit for a week giving it a shake periodically. Run this through a coffee filter into another smaller jar, seal it up and pop it in the freezer overnight. Take out the next day and scrape off the fat layer on top and bada-bing! Extract! No?
Really just wondering what folks are doing these days to get that “wow” in their chocolate stouts, what with all the new products on the market now – Cholaca, “Brewer’s Blend” roasted nibs, etc. I’m looking to do a medium gravity (6% or so), don’t want too bitter or too sweet (.5 BU/GU or so), not like biting into a bar of 70% Scharffenberger, but definitely there in the nose and on the tongue.