ginger chocolate porter

[rewster451]

My roommates and I have taken up the new hobby of homebrewing. So far everything is great, but we take turns coming up with what to brew next, and we've kind of gotten competitive about coming up with crazy beers to brew. It's now time for only our third beer, and one of my roommates wants to do a ginger chocolate porter. I think he's crazy, but I want to make it good if we're going to make it. Does anyone know what kinds of proportions to use, and what grains, extracts, hops, etc. should be used in that kind of recipe? I know we're in over my head, but it's not my turn to pick a beer. I just want to make sure we don't spend a month wringing our hands over a beer that was doomed from the get-go.
Thanks guys.

 

[mik82]

Imho the easiest thing to do would be to brew up a standard porter recipe. On bottling add ginger essence and chocolate essence to taste.

 

[Lost]

If you're going to use chocolate I'd suggest adding it during the boil. However, I understand that the oils in chocolate eliminate head retention... so you've been warned. Chocolate essence is another possibility.. I don't know how true to "real chocolate" the essences are. My local HBS guy talked me out of the fruit essences he sold though.. suggested real fruit instead. My guess is that you'd do best by adding some bakers chocolate to the boil. Consult the catsmeow or other receipe database for more ideas.

Now, I've never considered using ginger with a stout or porter.. I don't know exactly how that would taste. If others are doing it then go ahead, try it.. it may be good and you may be suprised. I know I was really suprised when I tried shipyard's pumpkinhead ale the other day... gawd that's great beer! You really wouldn't think pumpkin and all those spices would go well in a beer but they sure do.

And if you're gonna brew a stout/porter include some oatmeal in the receipe!

 

[Daneaux]

My good friend I may have just what you are looking for. My friend and I brewed an extract porter recipe with alot of ginger and bakers chocolate and we added some white chocolate to boot. We went crazy with it and its close to going into the second fermenter. Smells awesome. I can get more into more details if you are interested.

 

[rhinostylee]

I consider myself an optimist . . . but ginger chocolate beer? It just seems wrong. But please don't listen to me . . . I'd love nothing more than to have your idea turn into a tasty reality. Please document your recipe and keep us posted!

 

[gibfried]

Have you ever tried real ginger, from the root? Go down to the store and pick up a small ginger root and just take a tiny taste of it. You may be a bit surprised at the flavor to say the least. It is so strong that "Altoids" have made a new Ginger Altoid. It'll knock you on your a**. Target sells those.

But it may just be a good combination...Chocolate in a stout becomes a pretty dark, bitter, but subtle flavor (most of the sweet stuff that makes chocolate taste like chocolate is converted to alcohol). Ginger will add some real heat and zing.

Either find a good simple stout or porter recipe (I would prefer the stout with this), and add equal parts of cocoa (6 - 8 oz.) & dark brown sugar to the boil by first making a syrup out of them , then add the finely minced ginger to the secondary (or primary if you don't do the secondary). Be careful not to add too much ginger...too much of that stuff can bring you to your knees before the proctologist...or worse.

Good luck, let us know how it turns out.

 

[Daneaux]

Hey rhino and others who waneted to know how the chocolate ginger porter with habanero peppers turned out. It will take a good year for this one to fully condition although i sampled some at bottling. When I told everyone on this site what I was up to many had their oppinions. This hobby is about listening to your gut and the beer. That is what I did and it paid off. There is a fresh scent of chocolate with a smooth swat of ginger and the most lovely after taste of habanero. So, if you are interested in the recipe let me know.

 

[voodoochild7]

I posted a recipe here for a gingerbread stout. Adding some chocolate to it should be pretty tasty. I put it into the secondary on sunday and took a sample it tastes dang good. Here is the recipe again. This is from my beer journal so there are some personal notes. This was a recipe for a dry stout that I modified. Got the recipe from homebrewing for dummies.

Gingerbread Stout

Ingredients

7.5 lbs. Amber Liquid Extract
0.5 lbs. Black Malt
0.5 lbs. 40-L Crystal Malt
0.25 lbs. Roasted Barley
12 oz. Robust Molasses
2 oz. Fuggles for 60 min.
1 oz . Willamette for 10 min.
2 tsp. Ground Ginger for 10 min.
2 tsp. Ground Cinnamon for 10 min.
1 tsp. Whole Cloves for 10 min. (crush these between two spoons to get the flavor out.
1 tsp. gypsum (if needed for pH)
5 gal. water
1.5 tsp. Irish moss
White Labs Irish Ale WLP004


Brew Process

Brewed on 10/23/2005

Mash grain in 1 gal. water at 150-155 degrees for 1 hour
Sparge with 170 degree water (mashing and sparging I think is unnecessary as these are steeping grains but what the hey)
Add wort to brew pot and heat to 212 degrees
When wort temp. is at 212 degrees add malt extract, molasses, and Fuggles
At fifteen minutes to go in boil (1 hour boiling time) add the Irish Moss
At last 10 minutes of boil (1 hour boiling time) add the spices and Willamette
Cool the wort and pitch the yeast. I pitched at 70 degrees.

Fermentation

Original Gravity
Hydrometer reading was 1.074 Original Gravity is 1.075 corrected for temperature. The final gravity for this should be around 1.026.

Fermentation was noticeable after 6 hours

Althout mathematically speaking the FG should be 1.026 it was actually 1.018 when the reading was taken when I racked to secondary lots o' booze in this one like 8 percent

 

[Daneaux]

Sounds Yummy!!! Thanks for the recipe. That will be good for Thanksgiving time.

 

[rewster451]

Wow, I haven't even thought about this thread in a while. It's awesome to see so many people getting into this idea.
We boiled the chocolate and ginger into the wort. We did it at about ten minutes from finish. We used a blow-off and let it go for about five days. Then we airlocked it. It's now been about two weeks. We don't currently have the equipment to rack it, but we've decided to bottle it soon.
Otherwise we'll have to wait a week or two for an available carboy.
If anyone thinks we should wait and rack it later, let me know. I just think I want to get it off the sediment.

 

[homebrewer_99]

I've used ginger several times. Sometimes it takes 6-10 months for the ginger "bite" to settle out.

It really depends how much you use.

 

[Cheesefood]

This hobby is about listening to your gut and the beer. That is what I did and it paid off.

Amen, bro! Taste is subjective. We all like different flavor combos. I've seen recipes that sound hideous to me that the brewer claims tastes great, and [insert deity's name here] knows I've made some that sounded awful but tasted good to me (or hideous in the end).

In the end, it's all about you and your audience. If you like it and your peers like it then its a good recipe. I've had block-buster beers that I hate (fruit beers) and I've made beers that didn't sound good to others but tasted fab to me.

 

[Daneaux]

thank you Cheesefood! I am glad you agree. Had to let you know that i opened one of the chocolate ginger beers and still needs more time to carbonate like I prefer. yet it is complex and for the strangest beer to date it is damn drinkable. I wouldnt suggest a pilsner or bud drinker could appreciate this one. Ive been suprised before when neighbors who always drink light commercial beers enjoyed an imperial stout homebrew. This one is Special. By Christmas if i havent opened all of them yet will be a little smoother. I have to say the best combination in this one is the complimenting tastes of the ginger and habanero. Not too spicey just enough to say "whats that zip at the end?" The chocolate is faintly a smell with no noticable tastes. I am over all happy with it

 

[The Happy Mug]

For what it's worth now, I used 1 oz of Gnome Spicy Beer flavor extract in secondary for a simple honey ale kit from the homebrew shop.

I can't stand the stuff, and neither can my friends. The first 12 oz is fine, refreshing, nice actually. The second one you drink takes forever because you don't want it. It's weird. I was told this stuff could take a year to properly age. I don't plan to let my bottles sit in my closet that long, so most of this batch goes down the drain.

 

[rewster451]

So we decided to go out and buy a new carboy to rack the ginger chocolate porter. The gravity was at 1.023 with no bubbling, so we re-pitched a dry ale yeast that my HBS said was pretty neutral. It's bubbling away again now, and when we tasted a sample during the racking process, it was pretty tasty. I really do think this one is going to take a long, long time to age properly. The ginger is still too upfront and has a kind of "greeness" to it for lack of a better term.
It was supposed to be a christmas beer. Maybe next christmas.

 

[Orfy]

How much ginger and chocolate did you use and in what form?

 

[rewster451]

We used 1 1/2 oz. fresh ginger, and 8 oz. Ghirardelli unsweetened cocoa. We let it bottle condition for 3 weeks, and well...

It's an odd duck. Too much ginger, maybe, but like HB says, it may just take a long, long time to settle out. It's still really good though, just interesting. The only thing really wrong with it is the smell. It's still medicine-y. But the taste has layers. It comes on with strong ginger, then you start to notice the malts, and in the back of your mouth, on the finish, you can taste the chocolate.

I keep drinking it because I still don't know what to make of it. But it's definitely drinkable. I think I'm going to try this one again.

 

[bumpkinbrews]

Hey rhino and others who waneted to know how the chocolate ginger porter with habanero peppers turned out. It will take a good year for this one to fully condition although i sampled some at bottling. When I told everyone on this site what I was up to many had their oppinions. This hobby is about listening to your gut and the beer. That is what I did and it paid off. There is a fresh scent of chocolate with a smooth swat of ginger and the most lovely after taste of habanero. So, if you are interested in the recipe let me know.

Hey Daneaux,
I might be 15 years too late for this thread but I'm brewing a chocolate ginger honey stout and I'm working on how much raw ginger to add to the boil. Would you mind sharing your recipe with me?