Imp. Choc. Stout - questions

[merline]

Greetings. Over the past weekend I brewed an imperial double chocolate stout. I don't have the receipe with me (at my day job) but if necessary I'll post that later. OG is/was 1.088 which is about what I was shooting for.

Thing is, for the chocolate, I added 3 oz of high quality cocoa power in the boil (15 min). This is for a 2.5 gallon fermentation by the way. I pitched on a S-05 cake from a 2.5 gallon pale ale I bottled while the stout was mashing. Getting the wort from kettle to fermentor was interesting in that it was pretty thick. I assume due to the cocoa powder (?). And now it's fermenting a bit strange but from what I've read... not abnormally for a stout with cocoa powder. That is, strong and correct smell, lost of bubbles but no krausen. Fermentation is at 66 degrees. This doesn't worry me.

What worries me is that thickness of the beer. I am planning a secondary with cacao nibs and vanilla. Should I do a pretty long cold crash before racking to secondary, to remove suspended cocoa powder grains? Maybe 4 days? And if so, would this help eventually with head creation and retention?

Many thanks,
Ellis in Raleigh, NC

 

[wonderbread23]

The no krausen aspect is what would concern me. It could mean that there were fats in the powder which would adversely affect foam stability.

The thickness should dissipate as sugars are converted to alcohol --- I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[merline]

Yeah, I agree about the fat content being a problem. Does anyone know... does the fat rise to the top (I could rack from the bottom in that case)? I was thinking that the boil process would reduce tha fat content - apparently not. Thanks for any advice.

 

[day_trippr]

This is from a batch of my triple chocolate imperial stout, which with an OG over 95 points pours into the fermenter like heavy syrup, ferments down to 1.020, and has 8 ounces of low fat cocoa powder added at the end of the boil, then sits on 8 ounces of nibs that were soaked in dark rum for a week prior.

That rocky head says fats from the cocoa aren't actually a problem in the glass, and other than a slight surface sheen during fermentation there aren't any obvious differences to tell it from my cocoa-less porter batches.

fwiw, I don't dry hop my stouts or porters, so I don't cold crash them. They're going to cellar and then cold carb/condition long enough that what I want to drop will have before the keg makes it to the keezer...

Cheers!

 

[merline]

Wow! That's one nice looking stout. Maybe I'm worrying about something which might not be a problem. I do plan to secondary with nibs (and a bit of high quality vanilla extract). Then bottle so it'll be a little while before I know for sure but I would really like to attain that kinda foam.

 

[ACarver]

This is from a batch of my triple chocolate imperial stout, which with an OG over 95 points pours into the fermenter like heavy syrup, ferments down to 1.020, and has 8 ounces of low fat cocoa powder added at the end of the boil, then sits on 8 ounces of nibs that were soaked in dark rum for a week prior.

That rocky head says fats from the cocoa aren't actually a problem in the glass, and other than a slight surface sheen during fermentation there aren't any obvious differences to tell it from my cocoa-less porter batches.

fwiw, I don't dry hop my stouts or porters, so I don't cold crash them. They're going to cellar and then cold carb/condition long enough that what I want to drop will have before the keg makes it to the keezer...

Cheers!

Would be very interested in your recipe if willing to share.

 

[BrewedDiachotomy]

Me too!! That looks amazing!

 

[HopSong]

Back to the OP.. I'm def no expert on reusing yeast.. but, what I have gleaned is that it is generally accepted to use yeast from one brew to brew another like beer.. Brewing an Imp Stout using S-O5 cake may be an issue. People with more knowledge on this hopefully will chime in. Could be this post MIGHT be better in the yeast forum??