Chocolate espresso stout

[Shug]

Had a double espresso stout wee while back and loved it, so wanting to go one step further and bung some chocolate in too. Found this recipe: (translated from american to british! ) 6 gallon batch.
4kg maris otter
1kg flaked barley
0.5kg roasted barley
0.5kg crystal (120)
0.25kg black malt

29g east kent goldings @ 60 mins
42g fuggles @ 40 mins
14g fuggles @ 20 mins


340g 70% choc 5 mins boil
57g 85% choc 5 mins boil
6 espresso 5 mins boil

Wyeast Irish ale yeast

Just a couple q's on it. First, how does it sound? Secondly, I'm guessing chucking chocolate in the wort near the end of the boil is a bad idea? Should I boil it in pan seperately with a little wort and add?
I'd like it to be smooth/velvety so could I incorporate some oats in there?

 

[Zaust]

The chocolate stout I made used cocoa powder rather than actual chocolate - to quote the book ("Home Brew" by Rouxel and Paston Williams):

"You can use chocolate, but this can get very messy and add oils that can spoil head retention."

That said the batch I made got put down the sink due to my own inexperience and the recipe from the book was seriously lacking in chocolatiness.

They do make Green and Blacks Cocoa powder but how much you'd need is another question.

Hope this helps and please let me know how you get on.

 

[Shug]

How much cocoa powder did you use? (I'm guessing it was a 5 gallon brew?)

 

[Zaust]

Yes and it was only 45g - it needed way more.

 

[Vindiv8]

When I made my Mocha Porter, I added 500g of cocao powder at the end of the boil. This worked fine, but I did get some cocao fat residue in the neck of the bottles. Next brew I am going to boil cocao in pan, leave to cool, skim fat and then add at end of boil. It really didn't spoil the beer (in fact it tasted fantastic) just the head retention was not great.

 

[Shug]

Bottled this up yesterday*. Some cracking thick brown sludge at the bottom of the FV. Looked just like chocolate.
Was a little surprised to see the FG at 1020, but it started at 1058 so that makes it 5% (its possibly the reading was skewed by cocoa in the test jar, tho I drew a second sample that I was sure was clear.)
Had to ditch several litres due to the quantity of sludge. Sneaky taste had good roasted coffee flavour, and the aftertaste definately gave off chocolate.
I used 8 espressos instead of 6, and used about 60 grams cocoa powder as I just wanted a hint. 500g of cocoa powder would make 5 gallons of hot chocolate so thought it might be a bit much for my beer!
Now the impatient wait for it to mature in bottles/kegs begins!


(*whilst supping one of my imperial stouts, naturally! :drink: )

 

[BrewDan]

Wow this sounds lovely, id love to give this a go if I had the equipment. How long do you think it will take to condition? Id really struggle to keep my hands off something like this

 

[Shug]

Wow this sounds lovely, id love to give this a go if I had the equipment. How long do you think it will take to condition? Id really struggle to keep my hands off something like this

Sorry to bump an old post, but I've just been drinking it in the last week and its good!
So to answer the question, 17 months!

 

[BrewDan]

Worth the wait then!!!