Tale of 3 Chocolates

[Banjo-guy]

AF50F56C-4258-4972-9D50-319B91EDDD5F.jpeg (11.3 KiB) Viewed 1397 times

I’m always annoyed when trying to brew someone else’s recipe and the grains are not specifically listed. I think the dark malts in particular are frequently not specified. I would like to see the Lovibond at least.

I’m working on my Oatmeal Stout and hope to enter it into in the NHC. One recipe that I’ve seen lists Pale chocolate. I would like to finally learn how to interpret recipes with dark grains and to see if I can even tell the difference between the various chocolates.

Here are three different chocolates. Crisp L220, Baird’s L 450-550, and Briess L350. (English,English,American)

I’d be interested in any advice or experiences with these.

[Banjo-guy]

Sorry about the fuzziness of the photo. I had to reduce it it to a small file.

[RickBeer]

And the answer is: A) William Crisp Pale Chocolate (although I cannot read your labels).

"Pale Chocolate" is to 200 - 250. It's roughly 1/2 what Chocolate is, and always says PALE on the label.

You get less "burnt" and more coffee, cocoa and chocolate. Not in my mind what goes in an Oatmeal Stout, I use Pale in my clone of MooseDrool. My Oatmeal Stout has flaked oats, roasted barley, and chocolate, as well as caramel 120. But that doesn't mean you cannot use pale chocolate.

If you want to tell the difference, pop a few kernels of each in your mouth, you'll quickly figure out which is pale vs. regular.

[mashani]

Funny thing too, is that I find the really dark English chocolate malt to be "mellower" then the less dark American stuff that's in the middle of those two.

[Banjo-guy]

Gordon Strong paid a visit to my LHBS in Long Island. It’s called Homebrew and Handgrenades. Pete, the owner told me that Gordon requested a very specific chocolate that he had a hard time getting.
Gordon brewed a stout that day.
There was an article in either Zymurgy or Brew Your own that has the recipe. I’ll try to find it.