Adding chocolate

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jceg316

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Hey, I know this has been asked a few times but every thread seems to have a different answer, and my own experiences don't match anything I've read.

I want to make a mint chocolate imperial milk stout, but am not sure on the best way of adding chocolate.

Last time I made a chocolate stout I added cocoa powder (I think it was Bournville cocoa powder) during the boil and dry hopped with cocoa nibs, I think around 110g for a week. The final beer wasn't great. Was all murky and didn't look nice, and there wasn't much chocolate flavour.

I've read about leaving chocolate in vodka to make chocolate flavour liquid which you can then add to the brew, but also heard this can add alcoholic flavours to the beer.

Is there something I did wrong or is there a better way to get the beer tasting very chocolatey?

Thanks
 
If very chocolatey is what you want then you can use a commercial essence. The guys that make them are much better at extracting the aroma than any homemade vodka based tincture. I added two of the 20ml HBC Prestige Creme de Cacao essence to a 7.2% abv milk stout I brewed to 18L and it came out very well. Chocolate taste was very present at bottling. It mellowed nicely after 3 months in the bottle, but was still unmissable over a year later.
 
Hey, I know this has been asked a few times but every thread seems to have a different answer, and my own experiences don't match anything I've read.

I want to make a mint chocolate imperial milk stout, but am not sure on the best way of adding chocolate.

Last time I made a chocolate stout I added cocoa powder (I think it was Bournville cocoa powder) during the boil and dry hopped with cocoa nibs, I think around 110g for a week. The final beer wasn't great. Was all murky and didn't look nice, and there wasn't much chocolate flavour.

I've read about leaving chocolate in vodka to make chocolate flavour liquid which you can then add to the brew, but also heard this can add alcoholic flavours to the beer.

Is there something I did wrong or is there a better way to get the beer tasting very chocolatey?

Thanks

use 80% pure coca chocolate (lidl) just dissolve it in boiling water and add to your brew , then add mint essence to taste when bottling, or make a stout then add both chocolate and mint essence when bottling:thumb:
 
If very chocolatey is what you want then you can use a commercial essence. The guys that make them are much better at extracting the aroma than any homemade vodka based tincture. I added two of the 20ml HBC Prestige Creme de Cacao essence to a 7.2% abv milk stout I brewed to 18L and it came out very well. Chocolate taste was very present at bottling. It mellowed nicely after 3 months in the bottle, but was still unmissable over a year later.

This looks really useful, thanks. Were there any other flavours this imparted other than chocolate? Also does it change anything like the mouthfeel or ABV?
 
use 80% pure coca chocolate (lidl) just dissolve it in boiling water and add to your brew , then add mint essence to taste when bottling, or make a stout then add both chocolate and mint essence when bottling:thumb:

do you add it in during the boil or after fermentation?
 
Can't imagine what a mint choc beer/stout would be like!!!!.
have done a choc stout with cocoa nibs,bunged into oven for a short while,cooled and added towards end of ferment. Came out a nice drink,however over time the flavour did diminish somewhat.
 
how do or how did commercial brewery add it
was it coco powder, solid chocolate bar, coco beans
or coco essence
 
This looks really useful, thanks. Were there any other flavours this imparted other than chocolate? Also does it change anything like the mouthfeel or ABV?

It was only 40ml of essence in an 18L batch, so it didn't affect the ABV or the mouthfeel at all. I added it at bottling time and it didn't impart anything other than chocolate. After a couple of months it really did play well with the taste of the stout and the extra body added by the lactose.
 
@chub1 how much chocolate did you add and how big was the batch? I think last time I boiled the nibs to sterilise them, does cooking them in the oven add any roasty flavour or take away any of the chocolatey flavour at all?

@dps51 this is my own recipe I'm making, not copying it from a commercial beer. I'm sure this exists out there somewhere, but so far have not seen one.
 
do you add it in during the boil or after fermentation?

The choc dissolved in a little boiling water (not boiled)is added to the beer in secondary, then left to clear and bottled. essences are added pre bottling
 
@chub1 how much chocolate did you add and how big was the batch? I think last time I boiled the nibs to sterilise them, does cooking them in the oven add any roasty flavour or take away any of the chocolatey flavour at all?

@dps51 this is my own recipe I'm making, not copying it from a commercial beer. I'm sure this exists out there somewhere, but so far have not seen one.
Not knocking you,just not had any experience of a minty beer!,experiment away:thumb:
Was told that a light roast(very light) 15 minutes would sterelise em!!! who knows but i did so.
I did 6.5 litre batch and put in 30 grams of nibs in a hop bag and left em in for 6 days before racking it into another FV and then another 4 days in that before bottling.
Now i tend to under hop so almost certainly trod carefully with the nibs,so would probably go 50 grams per 6.5 litres if repeating it.
Hope that helps:)
 
Thank you all for your input, it's been helpful.

I think I'll boil cocoa nibs or the chocolate bars in the boil along with mint leaves, and come bottling time I will add in some of that chocolate essence to add to the chocolatey flavour. Doing some research on mint it seems it's a bad idea to add mint leaves to secondary as they can impart a vegetable flavour to the beer, the best option is to make a strong essence out of vodka.
 
@jceg316 I did not mean you was copying it from a commercial beer
I was just thinking if you found out how they did it may help you out
in which way to do thing to suit you and your brew you are doing
 
Bet it would be lovely with some orange in it too.
Chocolate orange. Jaffa cake heaven.
Nice biscuity base malt too : )
 
Bet it would be lovely with some orange in it too.
Chocolate orange. Jaffa cake heaven.
Nice biscuity base malt too : )

When I was in NYC last I had a chocolate orange stout which was amazing. If you ever happen to find yourself in the Lower East Side, head over to Spitzer's Corner, it's a staple there (also it's a nice bar ~30 taps).

I was also thinking of making a ferrero rocher stout, really nutty and chocolatey.

BTW to everyone else I didn't mean to sound rude when I said I wasn't copying a recipe, damn internet takes away tone of voice :lol:
 
Personally I find Chocolate Malt does as its name suggests, doesn't contribute any problems like killing head retention, adding chemical flavours or strange textures. Just sub it for a good portion of your Roasted barley.

https://byo.com/mead/item/456-chocolate-malt

Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk

Yea, I did a Mikkeller recipe that had about 25% chocolate malt in it, worked a treat.
 
Which recipe is that? I have his book and will look it up.

Milk stout, page 163. Cracking beer, really liked it, its ready early too.
Its actually more like 21%, I've just worked it out properly, but still a heft amount. The chocolate really punches through but doesn't last months like you'd expect a stout to.
 
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