Ingredients help please

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danb

danb

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I made a chocolate and vanilla porter a while back using bournville cocoa and 2 vanilla pods at 10 mins left in the boil. There is not a hint of either in aroma or taste.
So im planning on trying again at the weekend.
When and how would the cocoa be best added?
Going to use vanilla extract this time and added to the bottling bucket not the boil. Any ideas on amount for 23l? I have 75ml.
Thanks
 
I just threw the cocoa in last time, would it be better mixing with some wort first to dissolve it then add?
 
When I did my chocolate orange stout last year I added the cocoa powder to the boil about 10 min from the end pretty much like you did. I got quite a chocolatey flavor from it. Problem is, I can't find my recipe to tell you how much I used!
 
Ill go with 10 mins again then, but dissolve it in some wort first and see if thats better. Its was 100g in 21l last time so ill go with 150g in 23l too. And maybe try the full 75ml of vanilla this time.
 
danb said:
I just threw the cocoa in last time, would it be better mixing with some wort first to dissolve it then add?
Click to expand...
I tried doing a raspberry and chocolate Stout for Christmas, based on a coopers stout. I boiled up 120g of cocoa powder and 120g of tate and lyle chocolate syrup in a pan with some water, and 2 tablespoons of raspberry coulis. Something went wrong and split, giving me a layer of fat, which prevented it from forming a head. When i get a spare moment I'll try boiling those up separately to see which one split. Maybe I just need to skim it off. :hmm:

I couldn't taste the raspberry at all. A lot of the cocoa seemed to stay in the fv, and the stout tasted of cocoa, not chocolate. I'll try again adding lactose which i hear gives it a creamier more chocolaty flavour.

I've also bought a bottle of chocolate essence from Ballihoo. The plan: after it has brewed, measure out 500ml of brewed stout. Add chocolate essence one drop at a time, mixing thoroughly and tasting after each drop. When it tastes right, multiply the number of drops up by the number of 500ml left in the fv and add that to the bottling bucket.

I like the idea of chocolate vanilla and chocolate orange. I'm salivating just thinking about it :)
 
I have tried a few different ways of using cocoa:

Mixing in the mash - No discernible difference
Start of the boil - bitter chocolaty flavour
Last ten minutes - right amount of chocolate flavour
In the FV (boiled in some water first) - caused an infection...but still tasted nice, albeit very sour!

Also used vanilla a few times:

Start of the boil - No discernable difference
In the FV (soaked overnight in malt whisky)- really nice vanilla flavours

Hope that helps :)
 
Thanks mate im going to stick with 10 mins for the cocoa but with more and dissolve first which should help. How much did you use mate?
 
CaptainMallard said:
I'll try again adding lactose which i hear gives it a creamier more chocolaty flavour.
Click to expand...
Are you sure? Lactose is an unfermentable sugar so is used to sweeten beer (e.g. stout) but I'm not sure it is chocolate flavoured. Never used it myself though.
 
rpt said:
CaptainMallard said:
I'll try again adding lactose which i hear gives it a creamier more chocolaty flavour.
Click to expand...
Are you sure? Lactose is an unfermentable sugar so is used to sweeten beer (e.g. stout) but I'm not sure it is chocolate flavoured. Never used it myself though.
Click to expand...
You're right ... lactose on its own doesn't make it taste like chocolate - (I hear) it adds a creamy milkiness, so adding it to cocoa will produce something more like chocolate.
 
Brewday has been delayed to one day in the week now, ended up going out last night and was still intoxicated this morning.
 

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