Veteran's, I need a recipe check and advice!

[sappnasty]

Fellas,

So I finally decided to brew something I have never done before and decided on a dark Porter. I looked at probably hundreds of recipes all over online (including here) and started writing down the most common ingredients and eventually I came up with my own recipe and a few ideas of my own. I want you veteran brewers to take a look at my recipe, how I plan to do it and let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions or changes. Here is what I decided on.

Mike's Choc-N-Load Chocolate Porter (Partial/Extract)

Batch Size: 5 Gallons

1/2lb Special B
1/2lb of Stout Malt (Malting Co. of Ireland)
1/2lb of Caramunich II
1/4lb of Carafa II Special
1/8lb Black Patent

7lbs of Briess Sparkling Amber DME

2oz of US Fuggle (60 minutes)
1/2oz of US Fuggle (15 minutes)
1/2oz of US Fuggle (5 minutes)

4oz of Brewer's Best Organic Cacao (Cocoa Nibs)

Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale Smack-Pack

Steep Grains in water from room temp till it reaches 150F and then continue at 150F for 15 minutes. Bring to boil, cut back flame and add 7lbs of DME to water. Bring back to boil, adding 2oz of US Fuggle whole hops for the entire 60 minute boil. With 15 minutes left, add another 1/2oz of U.S. Fuggle whole hops and then again add 1/2oz of US Fuggle whole hops with 5 minutes left to go. Immediately cool wort and when at 70F, pitch yeast. Allow 9 days to ferment in primary carboy, then rack to secondary for 2 more weeks. The day before it is time to bottle, take the Cocoa Nibs and place into mason jar, filling with non-flavor spirits (brew store owner said high quality vodka or other similar spirit to prevent infection or wild yeast in the nibs) just enough to completely cover the nibs. Allow to soak for 24 hours. When it's time to bottle, rack into priming tank, add 4oz of priming sugar (previously boiled and in liquid form) and add only the liquid from the nibs, carefully straining all of the nibs out. Then bottle and allow to condition for 1-2 weeks in bottles.

Now my question is pretty straight forward. It was my idea to use the nibs for the chocolate flavor, versus using chocolate extract or cocoa powder. However, when I explained to the brew store owner that I wanted to add the nibs when I racked to my secondary, he advised against it and said that he infected his last batch because of wild yeast on the nibs. He said to soak the nibs in high quality spirits for 24 hours, then pitch the liquid into the priming tank just before bottling for the full effect of the chocolate flavor. I thought that it may be possible to change the flavor of the batch by using spirits and I am not sure how much it would take to cover the nibs ounces wise. Any other suggestions on when or how to add the nibs? If you see any errors in my recipe or have other suggestions, please let me know as I plan to brew later on tonight. Thanks.

-Sapp

 

[sappnasty]

Did I mention I was brewing this later this evening?

-Sapp

 

[DocScott]

I'm a little confused about what you're planning with the nibs. I think there are two options

1. Add the nibs to secondary and let them sit for the 2 weeks intended, then rack to bottling bucket with your priming sugar and bottle as normal.

2. Add the nibs to ANY liquor (doesn't have to be high quality) and make a "tincture" of cocoa liquor. I would do this for at least a week to extract the flavor. Add this mixture (without the nibs) to the beer sometime before bottling. Add priming solution to bottling bucket, rack in finished beer and bottle as normal.

3. You can add the nibs in at other times too (but i'll leave it at those 2 choices to keep it simple). I have used them a few times right in the primary after fermentation was complete and never had trouble with infection.

As far as the rest of the recipe goes, I'd combine your two late hop additions together and add the entire 1 oz at 20-30 min instead (depending on IBUs you want). You aren't looking for much flavor from the hops and certainly not aroma from them in a beer like this.

As far as your steeping grains, after your 15 min rest at 150, remove the grains before the steeping water gets to a boil - you don't want to boil your grains or they can get very astringent. I always like to use a pale extract and get the color and flavor from the grains for better control, but I'm assuming you already have the ingredients and can't change this.

Anyways, that's my take on this with just a quick glance at it. I'd recommend plugging the values into a brew calculator to check the color/IBU/OG/FG to make sure it is within the style you want. Good luck and have fun with the brew tonight!

 

[sappnasty]

Thsnk you so much. I think I'll add to secondary and rack it over after 2 weeks. I will also take your advice on the hops as well. When steeping, should I let the bag sit or squeeze it every now and again to get more out of it?

-Sapp

 

[Dynachrome]

Local guy just won our Golden Growler competition with a sweet stout that he used cocao powder - said it was messy.

The list of ingredients sounds solid.

Boiling stuff will kill little beasties that cause infection also. Just a thought.


my pumpkin porter - I've found adding the spices after the boil - at the end of the boil - leaves more flavor. I tried mashing it once and they just got lost in the grain bed. With using GME, - probably less concern either way.

 

[sappnasty]

Brewed today and OG was 1.072. If anyone else can be so kind as to plug in the other numbers to give a complete informational readout, please do so. I would be interested to see what it all comes out to.

-Sapp

 

[sappnasty]

Also, used a colander to create steam to sanitize the cocoa nibs. I then added to primary. Good buddy and 20+ year home brewer said that adding them into the secondary would be too much flavor. I took his advice and steamed in colander, then added to primary before I pitched the yeast. Wish me luck!

-Sapp

 

[Dynachrome]

What temps did you actually hit - if I may ask. 1.072 could be a relatively high ABV.

Also, just check the bottling sugar. I'm usually two thirds of that and plenty of head.